In my pocket, the bracelet suddenly heats up like it’s producing real sparks and flames in there. Why does this bloody thing keep getting hot? I need to take it to Granny. If this is part of the curse, then it’s a dangerous part. Roasting me like a marshmallow isn’t going to help me find my soulmate. Not that I’m putting much stock in a curse. I mean, that’s ridiculous, right?
But Ash. His ring.
Luna was wearing the bracelet when I walked into her store, then all sorts of weird electrical things happened in there, and now the thing’s hot. I pride myself in being a fairly intelligent person, and I have to believe that all the weird stuff going on, stuff that shouldn’t ever actually happen, has to mean something.
If this curse is real, then I’m in serious trouble. And so is my granny. Thinking about her reminds me of how badly I need to call her and chew her out for this one. If she knew something about Luna, she could have just come out and told me, not go behind my back and arrange the craziest, most schemie of schemes.
Then again, did I expect anything less from Granny?
No. No, I did not.
“I could watch him!” I blurt. “I mean until you find another nanny. Or…or I could work for you. Be your nanny.”
“What?” Luna grabs a lobster and holds it in her hand like she needs a lifeline. It’s as if the lobster is straight-up oxygen or plasma or some life-giving force. I mean, I suppose the lobster is pretty close since I’m sure it’s delicious. She clutches it like she’s going to use it as a weapon—like a club to bean me on the head or like a sword she’s about to brandish to have a duel. “No!” She abruptly drops the lobster on her plate. “You have a job already, I’m sure.”
“I do, but it’s nothing I can’t put on hold.” I don’t want Luna to know I own a chain of bookstores and a few second-hand and specialty ones as well. I also have an online platform consisting of eBooks and serialized stories.
I never told her it’s what I wanted to do. When we were together, I was working for my granny as the head of her marketing department. I knew I didn’t want to work in the newspaper and magazine industry for the rest of my life, so I took a chance on something I loved. Books.
I can’t technically put it on hold, but I could delegate more and then do my work in the evenings when she doesn’t need a nanny.
“We could…that would…that would be a way for me to get to know him and for him to get to know me before we told him. If you ever want to tell him, I mean. I know I said a bunch of things before, but what you said was right. I was panicking, and I was a douchebag extraordinaire. I didn’t think I wanted kids until I saw him. He’s so perfect, Luna. Just…just perfect.” Her face starts to glow, and her eyes get shiny again. Seeing her like this, as a mother, it just…I don’t know. It unravels something inside me. “Is it too late? Can I change my mind? Can I make up for all the damage I did?”
“I…good lord, Tor, I have to think about it.”
Tor. She called me Tor. At the same time, though, she looks like she still kind of wants to leap across the table and strangle me. Any of the new softness in her is solely for the sake of Milo—her son. My son. Good gravy and milkshakes. I’m a dad.
Luna’s nose scrunches up right after she bends and sniffs her lobster, but I’m reasonably certain it has nothing to do with the delicious seafood and everything to do with me and the huge wrench I threw in her life by showing up today. I lower my eyes to her throat, where her pulse is beating in the creamy hollow of her neck. I don’t look lower, to the top of her blouse where the first few buttons have been left open, teasing at the lace of her camisole and the swell of her breasts.
This is one aspect of the past that I’m going to have to get used to. Being near Luna and not thinking about her, how she tasted, and the exact shade of her—no, hard no! Thinking that is not…absolutely not thinking about that.
Of course, my dick and balls are already taking notice because even though I refuse to let my brain process certain thoughts, he’s still processing double time.
“I should go,” Luna says sharply. She grabs her purse, throws her phone in, and lifts the straps over her shoulder. “I know I can’t leave things like this, but I need time to think. I…can I call you?”