“It probably came off after she did it. She likely thought that betraying you would break the curse. Before, she hadn’t done it. She was just thinking about it. She could have changed her mind.”
“It…it felt like she might. Things felt…different. She wasn’t accusing me of being an asshole anymore, and it was almost like…I felt it. I felt that, as corny and ridiculous as it is to say it, we had a connection. We felt right together.”
“Mmm. So you bumped uglies with her.”
“Granny! That is none of your business!”
“Ha! My guess is she felt you were getting too close. That maybe things were a little bit too right. She knew all about your plan to fake a marriage so you would never have to risk falling in love, and she knew all about you not believing in curses or love. She wrote it in her article, so don’t ask me how I know. I can’t believe you, your brother, and your cousins made a pact to thwart the curse. Let me tell you, sonny, it ain’t gonna work.” Great. Granny only talks slang when she’s really pissed. Or thoroughly disgusted. I suppose she could probably be that too. “The curse is meant to help you. It’s meant to get through your thick head and thick skin, and it’s meant to make you happy! I watched my sons give up their families and shred their lives apart. I watched how it hurt your mother and aunt and how it hurt you kids. I had to go through every single painful step knowing it was my fault for making those boys who they were.”
“Granny, it wasn’t your fault. Sometimes people do shitty things, and sometimes they just do wrong, no matter how right you raise them.”
Granny’s voice becomes softer, and so does her sigh. “Thank you, Asherly.” She’s the only one who still calls me that, and usually, it rankles me, but not today. Today, it feels like an endearment. “Thank you for saying so. I’m glad you don’t blame me for what happened.”
“Blame you?” I can’t believe she just said that. “No, I don’t blame you!”
“Good. Good. I’m glad. But I’m not glad that you thought you could fake a marriage in order to save yourself from the very thing that could set you free, though.”
I go to sit down hard on the edge of the bed and end up sliding down like the damn thing is a metal slide greased up with butter at the playground. I hit the floor hard enough to bite my tongue clean in half.
“What was that?” Granny asks.
“What was what?” I groan.
“What was that bang?”
“Nothing.”
“You sure it wasn’t karma?”
I roll my eyes and stick out my tongue to make sure I just bit it and that no lasting damage has been done. It’s still there in one piece, so I guess I’ll live, even if my mouth tastes like I just sucked on the back end of a copper pipe.
“What about Meryl in all of this?” Granny continues.
“Christ. Meryl. She’s going to be mortified.”
“Lucky for you, that’s a trick question. Ellis didn’t name the woman, but from the way she was described, I knew who she was. Most people won’t since you never made your engagement public. You were seen together a few times, but you’re both private people, which is a good thing. People might figure it out, though, so she might want to lay low for a couple of weeks, but it will blow over. I’m more hurt than you are in all this. I can’t believe you were going to lie to me like that. Your own granny, who loves and cherishes you beyond anything else in the world.”
“What about your other grandkids?”
“I meant all of you and your mother and aunt too. Even my sons, for all the mistakes they made and the harm they’ve done. I love all of you. You’re my family. You never had to lie to me and try and fake your way out of the curse because it was going to get you sooner or later. The question is, what are you going to do to get your soulmate back?”
I nearly drop the phone. “Excuse me? I don’t think she wants to come back.”
“You know what I think? I think you should pop your noggin out of the dark hole that serves as your rumpus and get your ducks in a dang line.”
“Granny, no one has a dark hole for a rump. The dark hole would be part of the rump.”
Granny cackles. “You must be feeling better if you’re making jokes. So here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to find the girl and tell her it’s okay she sold you out even though it’s not, but that you understand why she did it, and you forgive her. It will prove to her that you’re not a heartless asshole. You can blame it on me if you like, but it wasn’t you who did anything wrong. She probably already knows that, so I’m guessing it wasn’t about revenge for her anymore. She did it because she was scared. It’s a lot to put on a stranger—soulmate stuff, a curse, a ring. Way too much for her to handle in just a few days. Then you added something else to it, or maybe she did, though I personally think you both did. You added your feelings into the mix. Your heart, boy, the one thing you promised to always leave out. You come off like you’re busy trying to build walls to protect yourself, but really, you just want to let someone in. You’re aching to do it, but it’s hard. And she ran because she’s scared. She thinks you don’t believe in love and don’t want it. The ring was a symbol of everything you didn’t want, and you wanted it off her hand. That was your common goal. Hardly a good start. No wonder she was frantic.”