Page 28 of Witch Upon a Star
“Don’t youevermention this to her,” I warned Keys. I’d skin him alive if he did. “I will not have you embarrass her?—”
“God, no!” he said hastily. “I hadn’t meant to say anything toyou. It just startled me. I expected her to have horoscopes or moon charts or something on her computer. Not an entire search history filled with PornHub and Kink.com.”
And there went my dick again.
“Keys!” Ranger snapped.
“Shit, shit. Sorry. Okay. I’m out. Really. Subject dropped. I promise,” he hastily said over the earpiece. “But seriously, Starbucks, what’s going on between you two?”
“Nothing,” I insisted, though the lie felt heavy on my tongue. I just didn’t know what to say and now certainly was not the time to have this conversation even if I wanted to. Which I didn’t.
“Another to fall,” Ranger mumbled next to me. “Pretty soon we’ll be a club of whipped, married men. Not a bachelor in sight.”
I shot Ranger a look, though I had no hope of seeing his expression. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
I surprised myself with that statement. Because hadn’tIjust been thinking the same thing? How could four fucking hours have changed me so profoundly? Or maybe it had nothing to do with time, and it was entirely about the girl.
“Just different,” he said with a shrug. I felt the movement brush against my arm.
I was silent for a few minutes before I found myself confessing, “Calliope’s mine. I don’t know how or why, but she is. She’s just not convinced on thewhen. Apparently, she had a vision that we aren’t supposed to be together yet.”
So much for not talking about this now. But I needed to get this off my chest. It was eating me from the inside out.
Neither of my brothers responded right away. And I didn’t even know what it was theycouldsay. I certainly didn’t know what to say to it. What was I supposed to do? Wait around for weeks, months,yearsuntil Calliope decided it was time for us to be together? What didsomedayeven mean? I’d been too distracted by her, too preoccupied, to ask the logical question.
“I’m not going to ask what that means,” Ranger finally replied softly. “All I’m going to say is, if she’s yours, claim her. Life’s too short to wait. We know that better than anyone.”
He had a point. Pirate and I had been two of three prospects. The third, Conner, had given his life to save Harper from being gang raped. If he hadn’t acted when he had, regardless of being shot, Bear and Lucky would have never gotten free of their restraints to save her—and her unborn baby. He was buried in full colors and given the road name ‘Lionheart’.
His name practically burned on my back, along with the black ribbon Angel had added just over two years ago.
I’d lost a lot of people in my life. Too many. Who’s to say I wouldn’t be next, or that Calliope wouldn’t? I could not, would not, sit back and wait to claim what was mine justbecause she believed the cosmos was telling her it wasn’t time yet.
I don’t know what came over me in her shop today. I wasn’t even sure I cared. All I knew was that ‘someday’ was coming sooner than she thought.
“Head’s up,” Keys said over our coms. “The lab tech is finally packing up.”
Ranger slapped my bicep. “Showtime,” he said, and I didn’t need to see his face to know he was sporting a wide, boyish grin.
I pulledmy motorcycle over the curb. Street parking was offered on both sides of Main Street, but this time of year, it was rare to find another motorcycle to park next to and I always felt weird taking up an entire spot for just my hog. It was doubtful one of the MGPD would give me a ticket for parking on the sidewalk. Most of them knew which of our bikes belonged to which of us and would just text us to move our bike rather than ticketing us.
That was definitely a perk of a small town.
Ranger and I got back early this morning. Joe was pissed about being left in my room alone all night and had scratched the hell out of my bedpost in retaliation. Moody bitch. Then she wouldn’t stop bothering me enough so I could sleep, so I just gave up. Exhausted, I showered, dressed, put her in her backpack, and hopped on my bike.
Shethought we were coming over so she couldsee her boyfriend. She had no idea there was an entirely ulterior agenda to our outing.
I paused outside Calliope’s shop. A new sign hung overhead. It must have been delivered, or at least installed, this morning because it hadn’t been there last night.
Witch Upon a Star.
A shooting star over a boiling cauldron sat behind the words. Fucking hell. Witch upon astar? My dick got all sorts of ideas about putting this naughty witch on a star:me. Did she know what she was doing when she named her store? Ofcourseshe did. This was Calliope, after all. No way in hell had she not thought long and hard about what to name her shop.
There was no denying it anymore—not that I had tried to all that hard anyway. The litter box, the coffee cart, thename… She was building this store forus. It was as much mine as it was hers. She’d literally stamped my name onto it too.
I opened the door, and came to an immediate halt.
Hot Bloodedby Foreigner blasted through wall speakers I hadn’t seen yesterday. In the center of packed and unpacked boxes stood the most erotic sight I’ve ever seen in my life. Barefoot in a black, flowy dress with a silver crisscross design that looked like a spiderweb was Calliope. She jumped up and down, eyes closed, completely lost to the music as she sang along. And my girl? She couldn’t sing worth a damn.
