Page 52 of A Touch Enchanted

The residents of Zodiac Cove could see it. The smoke funneled around Dale Samson and he waved his hands around wildly, as if trying to swat away an annoying cluster of gnats. Maybe it had something to do with who believed in magic and who didn’t. But even if the tourists couldn’t see the smoke, they could feel it. Despair, fear, and loneliness had their own weight. They left traces on everything they touched.

I gripped Dale’s shoulder, pulling him out of the cloud. “Are you okay?”

“Son of a bitch.” He took a swing at me that I only just dodged.

“What the hell, man?” He pulled his fist back again, but this time, I anticipated the move and caught it in my palm like a flyball. “What’s gotten into you?”

This wasn’t like Dale at all. I’d known him since I was a kid. He used to bring peppermints to Little League games and pass them out to all the players. He spent Sundays sitting on a bench outside of Constellations so he could help the older ladies load the baskets on their bikes with groceries. This guy was not a fighter.

I got a good look at his face and reared back from the poison in his gaze. When I blinked, it was gone. But I could’ve sworn for a moment there, black smoke swirled in his eyes.

He shook his head, pressing the heel of his hand against his forehead. “Shit, son. I couldn’t see anything for a moment there. Damn fog is out of control. I didn’t mean to take a swing at you, thought someone was hassling me.”

“It’s fine.” I patted his arm to let him know there were no hard feelings.

“Just so you know, I’m not buying the mayor’s cock-and-bull story about you all trying to take over.” He sneered at one of Newcomb’s friends as they passed by us and gave me a dirty look. “If you wanted that, you would’ve done it a long time ago.”

“Thanks, Dale. That means a lot.”

At least we had one person on our side. But I hadn’t imagined the smoke in his eyes. It had gotten inside him somehow, mentally and physically. If the curse was going after locals that way, how long would it be before we had an army of Nirahs on our hands? And how much were people’s suspicions really their own? Was all the recent upset just the mayor’s sway, or was something else going on here?

I didn’t have answers to any of those questions. I wasn’t even fully sure what had happened with Dale. Maybe he really didn’t recognize me through the smoke. But it still unsettled me. It was worth keeping an eye on anyway.

I fired off a text to Wes to let him know what had happened with Dale, then I headed into the ice cream shop to get my apology for Violet.

Once I got to her apartment, I knocked on the door and was greeted by the sound of shuffling papers and light footsteps running to the back of the apartment. Damn, her walls were thin. No wonder everyone in the credit union had been able to hear us. I knocked again.

“Go away, Beanie.”

“I’m here to apologize.” Again. “And I brought ice cream.” Again.

Fuck. I sounded like an idiot. I planted my forehead against the door. If she didn’t let me in, I’d spend all day camped out on her stoop. On the way to the town hall meeting, she’d been honest with me about her fears. And at the first test, I bailed like a coward.

Maybe it was time for me to try a little honesty of my own.

“Remember how you told me last night I make you nervous? Well, you scare the hell out of me, Cricket.” From the creaking of the floorboards on the other side of the wall, I knew she was listening. I sat with my back to her door. “You’re too good for me. That’s just a fact. When I walked up to you last night and heard what you were saying to your parents, it felt like you couldn’t trust me to take care of you and your family. And if I can’t take care of you, what am I bringing to this relationship? What makes it worth it to you?”

She opened the door so quickly, I fell back and hit the floor. Good thing I was hardheaded, or that would’ve left a lump. She grabbed the ice cream out of my hand and stood over me as she ate it. Waiting for me to go on.

I didn’t bother to stand, just lay there on the floor. At her mercy. “I’m a shit boyfriend, and an even worse friend. I should’ve stayed long enough to hear you out.”

“Yes, you should’ve.” She took another bite of ice cream, calm as could be. “I’m not going to ask my parents to put their business on the line for a shutdown the town would never agree to. If you make me choose, I pick them, only because they’d never ask the same of me.”

“That’s fair, but I won’t ask you to pick between us either. You’re right about the town not being on board for a shutdown. It’s not even about that. It’s about trust.”

She crouched down, her soft brown hair forming a curtain around us. “You think I don’t trust you? When I’ve put my fears, my inhibitions, and my life in your hands?”

“I think …” How could she undo me like this with just a handful of words? I swallowed the log in my throat. “Every time you speak, I feel like a bigger asshole.”

She smiled, and I had the urge to rip my heart out of my chest and place it in her hands. It no longer belonged to me. It was, and always had been, hers to do with as she wished. I could only hope she wouldn’t dump it in the garbage disposal and walk away.

She put a dollop of ice cream on her spoon and fed it to me. “You messed up, Beanie.”

“I’m terribly flawed.” I licked the spoon and she fed me more. “I’d like to tell you I won’t do it again, but we both know I’m prone to fucking up. But I’m also a good learner. I won’t walk away again. That I can promise.”

“Okay.” She leaned down and kissed me.

I loved a lot of things about Violet, but I think the thing I loved the most was how easily she could forgive. And not just because I was a fuckup who’d need her forgiveness more often than not, but because it spoke of her heart. It took an incredible kind of strength to remain soft when the world tried to make you hard.

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