Page 78 of Highland Hearts Holiday Bookshop

The pain in his eyes was almost unbearable and I stepped forward to reach out to him, to make him understand that I’d never do that, but he moved out of my reach. Again.

“I promise you, it wasn’t like that at all. This was all a surprise to me as well.” I pointed between the two of us.

“I think it’s best if we stop seeing each other,” Alexander’s voice rasped in the silence of the bookshop. “I refuse to be a plaything in yourtoybox.”

“Excuse me?” Shock had my mouth dropping open. I brought my hand to my chest. “Plaything? You seemed just fine with friends with benefits, didn’t you? Weren’t you the one who also didn’t want something serious?”

“And I’m also the one who admitted my feelings first, wasn’t I? How long would you have carried on with the friends with benefits ruse when we were clearly falling into an actual relationship with each other?” Alexander demanded.

“I…I don’t know. I’m sure I would have brought it up at some point?” Of course I would have. We wouldn’t have continued calling each other just friends but basically living together.

“Like you did with your ex-boyfriends? The ones who you moved quietly into your life and never made a change until they did?”

Ouch. Wounded, I glared at him. “It wasn’t like that.Thisis not like that.”

“Isn’t it though? You keep letting everyone else make the choices for you, but when are you going to make your own?”

I gasped. “Wait, so you’re accusing me of not making choices yet at the same time using magick to influence our…whatever this is?” I waved between us.

“Even now you can’t say it, can you?” Alexander looked at me in disbelief. “Unbelievable. This is a relationship, Rosie. Or it was.”

“Don’t act all high and mighty because you just changed the nature of things like, ten minutes ago,” I seethed.

“I’m upset.” Alexander’s hand was on the doorknob. “Trust is important to me. And this…well, it just feels wrong. All of the magick and matchmaking. You had an entire life, a business, that you were running underground that you never breathed a word of to me. And on top of that, you used this supposed magick to influence me.”

“Alexander, I swear to you that’s not how it went down. I never?—”

“You can say what you want, Rosie, but don’t you see? Once trust is broken, it’s hard to get it back. I don’t want to be a part of your big life. Yourbignew adventure. I don’t want big adventures, Rosie. I want a simple and satisfying life. A small life. But a good one. One that doesn’t make me worry if I can trust my partner. I…I have to go.”

With that, Alexander left the shop, an icy blast of wind slapping my face before he firmly closed the door. I’d taken the bells down from the door earlier this week to fix them, and now I berated myself for not having them up. If they had been, I would have heard him enter the building and none of this would have happened.

You still wouldn’t have told him about the magick. Yet.

Berating myself, I locked the door and flipped the sign to closed, not caring if the women were coming back to decorate. I needed a moment, just one moment, to myself to lick my wounds in private. Flipping the lights off, I crawled into bed and buried my face in a pillow, the tears coming fastand hot.

“And I’m also the one who admitted my feelings first, wasn’t I? How long would you have carried on with the friends with benefits ruse when we were clearly falling into an actual relationship with each other?”

Was he right? Would I have let things go on as they were?Yes.But also no. Because Alexander was a truly good guy. He’d stopped my “pattern” in its tracks and took our relationship to the next level as soon as he realized what was happening. The man was validating me, and I’d been just quietly floating along on this river that was taking me directly toward love.

And on top of it, I’d hidden something very important from him. He was wrong about me using magick on him, but he was right about me not being honest. I didn’t even know that it had been an intentional choice, so much as instinctive. The world wasn’t always kind to those who practiced magick, and so I’d hidden it.

From someone I cared deeply about.

Hell, someoneIwas even falling in love with.

The tears fell harder, and I started when a hand fell on my back. Turning, I saw Esther with a worried look on her face.

“I screwed up,” I said. “Also, how did you get in here?”

“Moira gave me a key years ago.”

I waited for Esther to say something snarky, to tell me to put my big girl pants on and move on, but instead she did something surprising.

She hugged me.

“Don’t worry, Rosie. We’ll fix this. I promise we’ll fix this.”

“I don’t know that it can be fixed.”

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