Page 66 of Witch You Weren't Here

‘You are not cleaning my underwear.’ She grabbed the offending pants with one hand, holding the blanket in place with the other, and stuffed them inside her bag. ‘I’d rather die.’

‘Touch dramatic.’ He laughed and his mouth kicked up at the corner. ‘You didn’t mind me handling your knickers last night.’

‘That was very, very different.’ She bit her lip, trying not to grin quite so ridiculously at the flirtatious comment. She couldn’t help that she liked having signs he was still interested in her. That possibly it wasn’t just a one-night stand in his mind. Even though she didn’t know whether she needed it to be for her.

Egos were delicate and dangerous things.

‘I’d appreciate you doing the spell on the rest of my clothes though please … I’ll go commando.’

His gaze travelled down her body again, before he swallowed and took the clothes over to the sink, sprinkling water and magical words over each item, before returning them to her, dry. He added the white shirt he’d worn under his jumper on Friday, too.

‘Sorry I can’t make it smaller for you or fix your jumper. It’s not something I’ve ever bothered to learn.’

She took them and smiled. ‘That’s OK, it’s actually reassuring to know you are not the perfect witch specimen.’

‘Goddess, Kay, I’m so far from it,’ he said, so grimly, her smile faltered.

‘I was only teasing.’

‘I know but … sometimes it feels like I’m always reading from the wrong grimoire, you know?’

She snorted. ‘Yeah, funnily enough, I am familiar with that feeling.’

He raised a rueful eyebrow at her. ‘But you don’t go about putting lightening spells on luggage, or influencing salesmen, thinking you’re doing the best without fully considering the consequences and it ends up causing more problems.’

No, she just set fire to things. But she didn’t try to argue it with him. He was making a different point … and beating himself up again. They made quite a pair, with him always thinking he wielded his magic in the wrong way, and her, sure that her magic was cursed.

She reached out for his arm, involuntarily. ‘Sounds like a Chaotic Good characteristic.’

‘Chaotic Good?’ he scoffed. ‘I’m not exactly Robin Hood.’

‘And I’m not exactly a Dungeons and Dragons expert.’

He smiled. ‘Well, before you learn any better, I’ll take it. We’d balance each other out quite well then.’ Her heartbeat stuttered and a loaded silence settled between them, until Harry looked away. ‘I’ll just wash up while you get dressed, unless you’d like me to step out?’

She shook her head but waited until he was brushing his teeth over by the sink before donning the clothes at superhero-in-a-phone-box speed, sitting on the edge of the bottom bunk. When he turned back around, she was standing, tying the unbuttoned bottom half of his shirt in a knot at her waist to avoid it coming down to her knees. He bit his lip and she knew exactly how he was feeling. She didn’t need to remove her glasses to know there was a bond of sexual tension snapping between them … but also a whole lot of baggage.

It would be too easy to give into what her body craved without thinking about the consequences. Everything had changed so quickly. She wasn’t even supposed to want to get involved with an influencer. She knew that it made for messy relationships.

It wasn’t as if she even knew if he wanted more than something physical.

And none of this weekend was supposed to be about her love life at all. Her brother was getting married. At some point today, she was supposed to put a bridesmaid dress on, get her hair and make-up done, and walk down an aisle before her soon-to-be sister-in-law. All eyes briefly on her as she tried not to cause an inadvertent magical mishap. Depending on what she chose to believe, either the last one she’d had was when she’d accidentally broken the sofa bed in Prague … or when she called a storm down upon them in the North Sea. In the calmer light of day, that did seem a lot less likely.

No time to think about that, though. She still had to get to the wedding before she started worrying about whether she was going to wreck it or not.

‘Ready?’ Harry asked, grabbing his duffel, and then holding out her coat for her.

Kay let him help her put it on, doing her best to ignore the way he smoothed his hands down from her shoulders to her arms, the heat of him behind her back, making her knees weak. ‘As I’ll ever be.’

England was a mess. That much Kay could tell as they drove out of the port in the weak grey light of the morning. There were fallen trees, debris, broken windows, and tiles missing from houses. The wind hadn’t dropped fully yet and the rain continued to fall in a steady stream, neither heavy nor light, just the kind that made everything endlessly drenched.

It suited her state of mind. She’d left England last week with a clear purpose and a black and white conviction about the past. Now, it seemed she barely knew herself, let alone which way was up.

She’d offered to drive, but Harry had insisted he didn’t mind. That he wasn’t a great passenger. She wasn’t sure why, but it didn’t exactly ring true to her. She got the impression he needed to keep moving, like he had in Dusseldorf when he’d wanted to walk to the train station. His grip on the steering wheel was tight, his shoulders bunched, and despite what they’d said about talking about things, he was having to concentrate on the diversions that were cropping up and she was trying not worry about how it was impacting their ETA. Or what exactly she was going to say if they ever did talk about what was happening between them.

She turned on the radio, filling the silence with music, and then checked the messages on her phone.

The wedding WhatsApp group was full of photos from last night’s wedding rehearsal dinner. It had taken place at the posh restaurant on the edge of the village, and from the photos and the joking comments, it looked like the bad weather had cut the power intermittently, leaving them using candles and flashlights on occasion. Kay was sure that wouldn’t normally be permitted, but since her dad had helped the owners focus themselves to get the restaurant off the ground, she supposed they’d done their best to keep the party going for them. The result looked atmospheric and memorable. Her eyes stung for a moment at having missed it.

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