Page 126 of The Charmer

Isabeau frowned. "But that doesn't sound bad at all."

I swallowed hard.

Celine closed her eyes. She was a bit like Mom—they both had strong intuitions.

"Yeah, but that's the thing. I didn't really mean it, which I told Georgie last night before dropping her off at home." Now that I'd said it out loud, the conversation came back to me. Replaying it bit by bit, I realized how cold that sounded.

"Oh, Julian," Celine said.

Isabeau just pressed her lips together, which was a sure sign that she thought I'd completely fucked up.

"She's upset." I didn't want to give them more details.

"I can understand that," Isabeau said finally.

"She also said that she needs to reevaluate things because she might be falling for me and doesn't want to get hurt."

"What did you say?" Celine asked.

"Not much," I admitted.

Isabeau put a hand on her chest. "Julian, I thought you cared for this girl."

"I do! A lot."

"When a woman goes out on a limb to tell you how she feels, she usually hopes you're going to reassure her and reciprocate,” Celine said quietly.

"Fuck," I exclaimed. Neither of them even winced at my use of profanity, something they always chastised us about.

“That sums it up."

"I was so shocked by the whole turn of the conversation that I wasn't thinking straight," I said.

"Sounds about right," Celine said. "So, you do reciprocate?"

"I care about her so fucking much. I didn't realize she was... How the hell did I miss it?"

"Word has it that you were planning how to expose Kyle Deveraux. There are only so many things people can focus on at once, I suppose."

"You spoke to Xander?" I asked.

"Briefly, but let's talk about you and Georgie," Isabeau replied.

"Yeah, let's not." I looked from one to the other, already making a plan.

Oh, screw this. I was never good at making plans.

"How quickly can you make custom fragrances?”

Both of them straightened up, rolling their shoulders. "Very fast. Why? What do you need?" Isabeau asked.

"I need something that says, 'I'm sorry. I love you, and I want you to be mine forever.' How fast can you do that?"

Chapter Thirty-One

Georgie

I was starting to love the offseason. I’d missed selling books. Something strange happened during the Carnival season. People seemed to forget the books part of the store. Truth be told, so did I, because almost no one walked in to buy them. Everyone was too focused on the beads and other Carnival items.

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