Page 49 of Charming the Cowboy
Marcus shook his head. “This place is weird. You all are weird. And you’re being weird.”
Their mother made a tsking noise. “Don’t call your sister weird. And get your feet off the couch.”
“You don’t care if I have my feet on the couch.”
Eliana and Cooper went out the front door, while Marcus and her mom continued to banter.
“The prince has returned,” he muttered.
“Yeah. That was… Weird.”
“Good thing he?—”
“Doesn’t notice anyone but himself?”
Cooper laughed. “Hey. He does. Sometimes. Rarely. After a period of time.”
She put her hand over her mouth. “I love him.”
“So do I,” Cooper said. “He’s just… he’s his own whole thing. You either love that thing, or you try to prosecute it.”
She snickered. And then, the children started coming. In waves.
They sat out there while it got darker and darker, all the tiny ghouls and goblins prancing about with reflective tape and flashlights. “You’re right. This is fun. And a little bit crazy.”
“Yeah. But I love it.”
“Do you think you could ever live out of town?”
She turned her head sharply. “What?”
“Just a question.”
Except, it didn’t feel like it was just a question. It felt like something deeper, and she didn’t know what to do with it. Didn’t know what to say in return. She felt… afraid. Because he couldn’t be… He couldn’t be asking about something to do with the future for the two of them. He knew they couldn’t have one. And he knew exactly why.
“It’s magic,” she said, “remember? Just a little bit of magic.”
She turned her head, and he gripped her chin. “It is magic.”
He stared at her for a long moment. And then the front door flew open, and Marcus appeared. And Eliana stood up. “I need a break.”
Then she fled inside, making her way up to her attic room. He couldn’t say that he loved her. He couldn’t. She couldn’t do this.
She just couldn’t.
Chapter Ten
“For God’s sake,” Marcus said, settling in the chair next to Cooper, whose heart was pounding hard, his hands still shaking. And not because Marcus had just come outside. “I leave town intermittently for a decade, and you start screwing my sister.”
Cooper shook his head. “What?”
“Are you going to try to tell me that you’re not?”
“No,” he said slowly. “But don’t be crude like that when you talk about her.”
“Oh. It’s like that. You’re in love with my sister.”
Yeah. He was. That was the reality of it. And he had a feeling that Eliana had known exactly what he was going to say, and that was why she had run away. He hadn’t realized he was going to do this. He had only just been comforting himself a couple of weeks ago with the fact that Eliana’s deep belief in her own curse made it so he didn’t have to deal with his own issues. But over the last few weeks, his resolve had weakened. Because he couldn’t imagine life without her. He couldn’t imagine a time when it wouldn’t be magic.
