Page 29 of Witch Upon a Star
I couldn’t give a fuck. I could have stood there watching all day as she spun and hopped around, using Oolong like a makeshift microphone. The music was loud enough that shedidn’t hear me enter, nor did she let on that she knew I was there.Thatmade my eyes narrow, because she hadn’t locked the fucking door. Again.
I was going to tan her hide for that one.
I walked through the maze of boxes as the guitar solo came on. Joe let out a frustrated yowl from my backpack, but I didn’t let her out yet. I wasn’t sure what she’d do if she saw her boyfriend’s new job.
Calliope spun, twirling with less grace than I thought she’d have. I grabbed her wrist. Taking Oolong from her hand, I lowered my backpack to the floor. Joe had mostly worked herself free of the zipper in her impatience. I helped her the rest of the way out before reuniting Oolong and Joe on the floor. After an excited prance, the two scurried off together.
I was grateful I’d gotten Joe fixed, or I’d be fearful that we would have some weird dragon-cat hybrid kittens in a few months.
Turning my attention back to Calliope, who was still standing frozen in front of me, I patted down her pockets until I found her phone. A quick press of the Pause button later, and the music stopped blaring. I tossed her phone onto the top of a box.
“You and I are going to have a talk about not locking doors,” I told her dangerously. “But first, we’re going to talk about tonight.”
“To-tonight?” she stammered.
I nodded. “I’m taking you on a date, Winnie. And before you can argue or claim it’s not time yet,Iam telling you that thereisa today for us. Todayisour start. Fuck your visions,fuck my past, and fuck the cosmos. We are happening, and I am not taking ‘no’ for an answer.”
Calliope’s wide,light-brown eyes stared up at me. Her pupils were dilated, making her look almost drunk. Her hair was loose and wild from her dancing. I didn’t know if her cheeks were flushed from the exhilaration of her singalong or from my proclamation. Regardless, she was fucking beautiful.
I still didn’t know how old she was. I estimated an eight to ten year age difference between us. In so many ways, she acted young, inexperienced, while in other ways, she seemed more mature than people twice her age. I knew she’d taken over her parents’ bookstore for a few years before turning it over to Dosia, who owned it now. She had her own honey business and now was opening this store. Not many early-twenty-somethings were so motivated or knowledgeable to achieve what she had.
Maybe it was shallow of me, but I’d never been turned on by a woman’s brains before. In my defense, I rarely had a conversation long enough with a woman to determine her brainpower. Also, there were a lot of women who played up the bimbo act because they thought that was what men wanted. Personally, bimbo or rocket scientist, I hadn’t really cared, so long as we both got what we wanted at the end of the night.
But seeing Calliope’s ambition, her smarts? Fucking turn on. Who knew, because I certainly hadn’t. And yeah, thatwas a prick-thing to admit. But I was tired, horny, and still riding a bit of a high from Ranger’s and my success last night.
And maybe I was growing too. Maybe meeting Calliope and falling for her was meant to be, because having her in my life made me the man I was supposed to become. I just hoped that was a man worthy of her.
“I—” She shook her head slightly, but didn’t break eye contact with me. “I don’t know what to do. I want to. You have no idea how much. I’ve dreamed of this… Well,” she added offhandedly, “not last night. Last night was the first night in years where you didn’t come to me, and I don’t know why. Maybe it was because of yesterday, but I’ve never had a you-less night since I was a teenager.”
I only understood some of that. Actually, I understood very little of that. “You’ve dreamed about me?” For years, it would seem.
Her nod was accompanied by a blush, and fuck me, because I loved seeing her cheeks rosy. And the way she bit her lip when she was embarrassed? Did it make me a dick that I wanted to see that expression often?
“How long have you known about us?” I asked. “I’ve been in town for three years.”
This time she did look away from me. “Since I was sixteen.”
Well, fuck. She was maybe twenty-four or twenty-five? But that also didn’t make sense, because that was long before I came to Mount Grove. I was still in the Marines eight-ish years ago. There was no way that she could have known about me.
But thiswasCalliope, my little beekeeping witch.
I pushed aside the million and one questions I had for herregarding our future and concentrated on our present. “But there’s something telling you not to be with menow.” She nodded, but didn’t say anything. I raised my hands to the base of her head, holding her under her ears. I held her steady and waited patiently for her to lift her eyes to me again. When she did, I encouraged, “Tell me.”
“It’s hard to explain.” Her eyes danced away from mine for a second before they returned. I wondered if eye contact in general was hard for her, or if it was me. The uncertainty on her face made me think she was feeling shame, though I didn’t understand why. “I’ve known about theconceptof you for years. I picked up on little things along the way, but it was more of the knowledge of what would be thanyou.” She shook her head, self-deprecatingly. “I don’t even know if that makes sense. I feel nuts even saying it. It was always different with you, stronger. I never questioned your inevitable presence in my life. But when I was twenty-two, I got a full vision. It was us on our first date. I know what restaurant we go to, even know what each of us will order, and I know that I’ll need to bring a spare pen because the one the waitress gives you to sign the check won’t work. And,” she hesitated, “I know that it’s not supposed to happen for another two years.”
Twoyears? What the fuck? There was no fucking way I could wait that long. “Do you know why? Like why then instead of now?”
She shook her head. “I don’t. I just know the date that was on the check. That’s how I knew. That’s why I didn’t say or do anything when you first came to town.”
I was wondering about that. I’d been here for three years. If she knew we were meant to be, why hadn’t she come tofind me sooner? But if she believed we weren’t supposed to be yet, then that would make sense.
But she’d still been a part of my life. Keys had said she watched my videos, and I’d seen her around town. Even if I hadn’t been paying attention to her, I still knew who she was. This also helped to make sense of why she kept berating herself for bidding on my bachelor auction entry. She reallyhadn’tmeant for us to meet or to start anything now.
In my mind, though, it didn’t fucking matter. What wassupposedto be could kiss my motherfucking ass. I was here and I wasn’t going anywhere.
“I have no idea what happened yesterday. Be it a spell or just you, it makes no difference to me, Winnie. You’remine. And nothing, not even the universe itself, will keep me from you now. I am prepared to fight even you to claim what is mine. Read my intentions if you doubt me, because I’m not going anywhere. Todayisour day, so is tomorrow and the day after that. And if all this witchy stuff is real, all the better, because it means even death won’t keep me from you.” Her lips parted in a startled, gasping giggle. I leaned down and kissed her nose. “Better believe I’ll come back and haunt your sexy ass, because I have a feeling one lifetime with you won’t be enough.”
I felt her hands on my hips, linking her fingers through my beltloops. I liked how she held me as if she didn’t want to let go. I’d noticed that yesterday too. Her mouth might be saying ‘no’, but her body was screaming ‘yes!’. And while I was not the sort to go where I was not wanted, I couldn’t stop myself when it came to this woman. Which made me a fucking bastard. I’d killed men who’d claimed the same thing:“She wanted it!”, “She was just playing hard to get!”, “I couldn’t control myself, look how she was dressed!”…
