Page 1 of Charming the Cowboy
Chapter One
“There is no honor among seagulls!” Eliana Sanderson held the remains of her mangled pumpkin and glared menacingly at the top of the lamppost, where Edgar sat fatly, smugly, and rudely, looking down at her and her decimated decorations.
She glared at Edgar. Edgar didn’t care.
He was a menace around town any time there were decorations, and fall was his warm-up for the Christmas season, where he rained terror down upon everyone and ate their tinsel.
It was a miracle he wasn’t dead.
Legends never died. And neither did horrid seagulls.
It was the last day of September, but she’d felt honor-bound to get the decorations up at The Water Witch as soon as possible. She was, after all, a witchy little shop full of witchy little things. And while she felt tarot, crystals, and candles were good all year round, she was also very aware that October was her busiest month.
She had the only metaphysical shop in Wild Rose Point, Oregon, a charming, coastal town in the northern part of the state that boasted incredible views, food, and very awful, annoying birds. That wasn’t in the pamphlet, of course.
The shop location had been in her family for over forty years. Her grandmother had done palm reading and fortune telling, her mother had tried to get away from that a little bit and had transitioned it into a home goods and gifts shop that also sold tarot, and if you asked really nicely and paid her fifty dollars…she’d give a reading.
Eliana had taken over five years ago, and had rehabbed it into a more modern space, with tarot and oracle cards galore, crystals, books, and candles that were only poured locally on the new or full moon.
She had all of her items organized by color. White crystals, decks and books all in one section of shelf, purple on the next, then pink, and so on. It was beautiful, and cozy, and a constant delight in her life.
Eliana, her mom and grandma lived together in a rambling Victorian down the street and her mom and grandma were very focused on their art right now (her grandma was doing pottery, her mom was in a painting era) her brother, Marcus, was in and out of town as he plotted various schemes and business ideas and in general was a cad – like his great-great-grandfather Angus before him.
She found him to be a cad affectionately, of course.
Even though Angus was the reason they were all cursed. But what could you do? Old-timey fuckboys were going to fuckboy, and her brother was bound and determined to do the same.
Why not? Honestly. Since the Sandersons were doomed to never find love, they might as well find a good time. Though Eliana couldn’t say she’d foundthateither.
Curses were for the birds. Seagulls, even.
She chuckled to herself as she picked up her mangled pumpkin and walked back into the shop to finish up her closing duties. She set the pumpkin on the counter, then picked her water pot up and refreshed her snake plant, which had acardboard cutout of Edward from Twilight with Bella clinging to his back, hiding in the leaves.
It made her smile every time she saw it. And was maybe evidence she was more of a romantic than she liked to believe.
She did like Twilight.
She liked the idea of two people being meant to be in a way that defied…everything. Since she was cursed to never, ever find the love of her life and all, it was nice to think there might be stronger magic than that at work in the world.
She peered into the fortune-telling room and looked at the tarot deck sitting on the table, a piece of selenite placed on top to keep them clear.
She mainly kept the room in honor of her grandmother, who’d used that room every day for years. It had floral wallpaper and a table with one chair on either side. There was even a crystal ball, which Eliana never used. She wasn’t psychic. Nor did she claim to be.
Intuitive? Maybe.
Imbued with a deep knowing? Possibly.
Though never about her own life.
Her intuition pulled her into the room now. She took the selenite off the top of the deck and shuffled the cards before taking one off the top and flipping it over.
The Emperor.
She set the deck back on the table and grimaced.
There was one person in particular that card made her think of and she really didn’t need to be thinking of him.
Mainly because her crush on Cooper Langdon had felt played out by her junior year of high school, and the fact he still made her feel like she had butterflies in her stomach every time she saw him was just…
