I’m not worried about it at all.
Not a bit.
And the goosebumps forming on my skin as I slip into a black maxi dress and a comfy baby blue cardigan are just a product of the furiously roaring air conditioner sticking out of the wall.
CHAPTER 6
Taylen
I need to cool down. Walking Jeffers, who takes forever to smell every single tree, post, pot, sidewalk, tire, and every other inanimate object, should do it. We walk at the pace of a slowly crawling snail, and since snails are slow by nature, a slowly moving snail is practically not moving at all. This dog has a bladder the size of a small cistern, so at least I’m going to be out here for a while. And when I said I needed to cool off, I didn’t mean externally. It’s hot as the devil’s armpit out here. Not that I’d ever want to know what that would look or feel like.
“Granny,” I hiss, and Jeffers turns to look at me mid-stream, his leg raised above a thick tree trunk planted into the sidewalk just past the motel.
It’s just like her to do something like this, something to farge up my life in the most epic farging way. She literally stole the brooch from me, which she did to Kirian and Toren as well, and gave it to the woman she thinks should be my soulmate. Well, technically, I guess she didn’t do that to Kirian and Toren. But I mean, she did take Toren’s cursed bracelet before mailing it away to his ex for cleaning. Then she cracked Kirian’s safe, put his necklace in his underwear drawer, and paid a random stranger to hack his security, break into his house, and steal it. That random stranger is now my sister-in-law.
Well, they are not married yet, but there is no doubt they will be. They are that much in love.
Anyway, it was Granny’s meddling that caused them both to fall in love. Same for Toren and Luna. They’re happy now, though, and I guess it’s all due to Granny bringing them together. I can blame Granny for Ash and Ellis, too, seeing as Ellis hated Ash because Granny bought out Ellis’ dad’s newspaper place and put them out of business. Ellis had a score to settle. She wanted to write a story about Ash, and she went undercover as a maid to work for him, not to clean dirt but to dig up dirt. She ended up getting Ash’s heirloom ring stuck on her finger, but they also fell in love after she realized Ash wasn’t as big of a jerk as she once thought, and now they’re happy too. Granny didn’t meddle, but she did exist, and it brought them together.
I guess after two success stories where she directly brought the curse to fruition, she’s hoping for a third. Me.
“Never going to happen.”
Jeffers is still peeing—how much can one dog actually pee?!—and he turns around again and lifts his doggy brows to give me a very confused doggy look. It’s as if he’s saying it’s already happening, the big golden river trickling out from beneath him.
I take my time getting back to the motel room. I’m supposed to be doing this for a week with Elodie, where I should be supportive and helpful. I wanted to talk to her about her parents, how attached they are, and about finally living her own life. I also wanted to tell her that I would help her find an apartment. She already has a job as a teacher working with kids who have developmental disabilities. She’s a great person, so patient and kind. She told them she was going on a honeymoon for a week after a private wedding, so they gave her the time off.
The long and the short of it is she doesn’t need her parents breathing down her neck, and they don’t need to be doing all that unhealthy chuffing over her. She’s thirty-freaking three. I know she’ll always be their baby, but good lord. They expected her to move out if she married Henry Poopants Jr. Yes, I did just give him another nickname, but I’m sure my number of nicknames for him can’t possibly compete with the number of names he already has.
Elodie is sitting on the end of the bed when I get back to the room, and she still looks pissed. I can’t spend a week with her when she’s in a grudge-holding mood. Not that she goes into it often. Or ever. Elodie is as nice as her name implies she is. She’s sweet, caring, empathetic, and adorably even-tempered. I’ve seen people insult her right to her face before, but she just shrugs it off and gives them a genuine smile.
However, she’s not shrugging this off.
Or giving me any sort of smile.