Page 49 of Witch You Weren't Here

‘Complimentary for everyone after their dinner,’ he explained, sliding it over to her with a gentle magical push. ‘Help yourself but—’

She’d already picked one up and taken a huge bite. The melt of the fudge chunks inside was heaven.

‘Er, slow down a sec, there. I was about to tell you. They’re space cookies.’

Kay was in the middle of swallowing and almost choked. The marijuana-laced food made it down her throat and settled heavily in her stomach. Another time bomb to add to her collection. ‘That’ll teach me for trying to self-soothe, won’t it.’ She placed the rest of it down on a napkin. ‘It was only a bite, right? I should be fine.’

‘Erm … yeah?’ He winced in a way that wasn’t exactly reassuring.

She shook her head. ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s pretty standard for this trip, believe me.’ Getting arrested at customs and excise was probably going to happen right on schedule. She started laughing, imagining them looking for her drugs stash and finding the battered corn husk doll. And once she started, she could hardly stop. There was no way it was anything to do with the cookie she’d only just eaten. The laughter was because, well, what else could she do at this point?

Across the room, Harry looked up from his painting, straight over to her, like her laughter had called to him. She took a deep breath and met his gaze.

Leon was right. It was time to get answers.

Chapter Twelve

6.30 p.m.: saturday 30 october

Nr. Rembrandtplein, Amsterdam

330 miles and 20(+1) hours and 30 minutes until the wedding

‘I’m just going to clean myself up in Leon and Alex’s apartment,’ Harry told her, coming back to the table a while later. Leon had needed to go back to work, so Kay had returned to watching Harry from a distance and she was feeling restless from the effect of that, alongside her sudden, urgent desire to Talk.

Harry wiped at the silvery flecks of paint on his hands and shirt with a crumpled rag and Kay noticed one on the corner of his chin. She stood up, just barely resisting the impulse to use her thumb to wipe it away. The sudden motion gave her a head rush and she caught the edge of the table to steady herself. Little magical tingles had been blooming on and off within her stomach and slowly spreading out, which she’d assumed were to do with Leon’s magic, but the heaviness to her limbs and general softness around the edges of everything was more like what she remembered of the few times she’d smoked a joint back at university.

‘Will you be OK here?’ Harry asked her, his eyebrows pulling together.

‘I wouldn’t mind freshening up a bit myself before we start the next leg of the Odyssey,’ she said, trying to style out the way she had almost launched herself across the table at him.

‘Of course. Apparently, the snow is due to start coming down heavier through the evening, so I think we should leave sooner rather than later.’ He reached for his bag and coat, but she got there first.

‘I’ll bring them. So you don’t get paint on them.’ She folded both their coats over her arm, tempted to give his a rattle, and then hooked their bags over her shoulder.

He blinked. ‘Sure you’re OK with all that?’

‘Sure, I’m sure.’ She patted the bags and then waddled out of the booth and followed him through a door at the back, and past the kitchens, where Leon waved to them. From there was another door, up a staircase to a beautiful apartment with high ceilings and wooden floors.

‘The bathroom is through here.’ Harry pointed to a door on the far side of the room. ‘Do you want to use it first?’

‘No. You go first. You’re the one all’ – she flicked her spare hand up and down at him – ‘painty.’

He raised an eyebrow and went into the bathroom, clicking the light on and pulling the door shut, while Kay settled on the sofa, putting their coats and bags down. The seats were a gorgeous purple, with an embroidered deep red throw draped across the back. She ran her fingers over it as she heard the taps turning on.

Looking around the room, she saw little touches of Leon and Alex’s life together and wondered if Harry and Leon had lived together too. In this other life he’d been living that was completely different to what she’d assumed. Paving his own way as an illustrator, maintaining his friendship with her brother, having grown-up relationships. What else didn’t she know—

No. No more questions just bouncing around in her head.

She pushed herself up off the sofa and, before she’d even really thought it through, opened the door to the bathroom.

Harry straightened up from where he was at the sink, water running down his face and dripping off his hands. His gaze darted to the sides of her as though looking to see where the fire was. ‘Kay, what are you doing in here?’

‘Apparently, I like bursting in on you when you’re in the bathroom.’ She blinked at the droplets tracking down his neck, dampening the collar of his shirt.

‘Does that mean I’m in trouble again?’ he asked warily, as he shook his hands off and grabbed a towel, tilting his head as she pushed the door closed behind her.

‘Harry. I need you to …’ Talk to me, tell me how you felt about me, tell me what went wrong – all of these were great options. Instead, what came out of her mouth was: ‘Kiss me.’

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