Chapter 8
HOLLY
Liam: What do you call a fish wearing a bowtie?
Me: I’m sorry, what?
Liam: What do you call a fish wearing a bowtie?
Me: Oh, gosh. This is one of your jokes. Isn’t it?
I stared at my phone, smiling. Two minutes. Liam had been gone for less than two minutes, and he was already texting me. I liked it more than I probably should. Letting myself like Liam was dangerous.
Liam: Humor me,
Me: Alright. What?
Liam: Sofishticated.
The joke was so stupid, but I laughed, the sound surprising me.
It bubbled out of me in a way I couldn’t control, warm and genuine.
I pressed my phone to my chest, letting the moment linger.
It was a silly, ridiculous joke, but it was so him.
Thoughtful, sweet, always trying to make me smile. Just like I remembered.
I closed my eyes and savored the weightless, giddy feeling that came over me whenever Liam texted.
Out of all my sisters, I liked to think I was the practical one. River’s mood changed with the wind. Autumn wanted to fix the world. And Dahlia was… well, Dahlia; always inserting herself into people’s lives without warning.
Whereas I was the glue of the family, the level-headed one when chaos came out to play.
With my magic accessible only one day of the year, I lived a mostly normal life—unlike my siblings—and often had to do damage control when their mischief didn’t go as planned.
Then, when mom died, I stepped into the “watchful eye” roll and made sure life kept going.
River stayed in school, though it took a lot of convincing.
Dahlia kept her job in finance despite wanting to drop everything to start a dating app.
And Autumn… well, the goal had and probably would always be to keep her out of jail.
That girl had a wild streak that got her in trouble more days than not.
The point was that I was one hundred percent not the type to lose myself to a boy after one maybe date.
That was Dahlia’s m-o. And yet here I was, my back pressed against the cold door, my stomach alive with butterflies, my heart racing like I’d just run a marathon and my cat…
well Daisy had every right to be side eyeing me.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
Her head tilted a fraction of an inch and she let out a single meow in response.
I know. I agree.
Liam was going to be trouble. He was handsome, kind, and determined. From what I could tell, he checked all of my could-we-be-a-match boxes. He was the kind of guy I would want if I were looking for a relationship, not a hookup.
I chewed on my thumbnail, my lips lifting slightly, until I remembered everything that was on the line for Liam.
I sighed and pushed off the door. He might be the one for me, but I wasn't the right girl for him. I couldn’t be.
My magic would make me flirt with people every year to earn their secrets and that’s not something you do when you’re in a relationship, let alone married.
Nope. Until I found my soulmate and gave my gift up, I was forced to be single.
I bent down to pet Daisy as I ambled to my room, but she ran away and hid behind the sofa. Typical cat. Judge me but don’t have the gall to face the consequences.
Around lunchtime, my phone dinged and I was painfully surprised at how disappointed I felt when I realized it was just Dahlia lighting up the family group text and not Liam.
Dahlia: Alright bitches you know what day it is. Who’s bringing what tonight?
Autumn: I’ve got dessert: strawberry cheesecake, cupcakes, and the lemon macaroons.
River: That’s a random assortment. What’s wrong?
Autumn: Nothing, I just felt like baking.
River: The only time you bake that much is when something is wrong.
Dahlia: She’s right. Everything OK with you and Max?
River: We’re fine. I just felt like trying out some new recipes.
Dahlia: Uh-huh, sure. Holly, you're awfully quiet. Are we still getting together at your house tonight?
Me: Yeah. Sorry. Just a little distracted. Tonight is great. How does pizza sound?
Autumn: We had pizza last time. How do you guys feel about lasagna? I can stop at Gio’s and pick one up.
Me: It doesn’t matter to me. I was just going for easy.
River: I like lasagna.
Dahlia: Cool, see you guys tonight, then. I love you bitches!
The rest of the day dragged. I vacuumed, mopped, and did the load of laundry that was sitting in my hamper. I scrubbed my bathrooms, cleaned the litter box, and by the time I looked at the clock, only two hours had passed. I groaned and fell onto my bed, then stared up at the ceiling.
Liam had invaded my thoughts so many times over the last two weeks, but after seeing him today it was becoming increasingly hard not to think about him and the singular dimple that came out of hiding when he smiled.
It was crazy how much I liked him. I knew he was a problem I needed to get rid of, but I’d never felt this way for someone before.
Not even with Joe, the guy I lost my virginity to, and I would have sworn on the Bible that I loved him with all my heart.
Or at least as much as a seventeen-year-old heart can love before you break up, go to college, and then find out he was cheating on you your whole relationship.
Joe was a jerk, but Liam is a sweetheart. If he was anything like the man I knew in college there was zero chance of Liam doing me dirty like that. I chewed on my lip, still trying to make heads and tails of this thing with him…me…us.
Dahlia already said she didn’t meddle the night we met. She swore it, but I know her. Sometimes, if she gets even the tiniest inkling of a tingle, she’ll give people who don’t need a push a sprinkle of magic.
Half the time, though, Dahlia’s inklings were very wrong.
Like the time, we saw this couple, or at least these people she thought should have been a couple, at the mall.
In her defense, they kept laughing and looking at each other with bedroom eyes.
They had an essence where you could tell there was something between them but life was holding them back.
After fifteen minutes of stalking, she decided to give them a little magical push.
The boy leaned over and kissed the girl.
For one beautiful heartbeat, it seemed like everything was going to go smoothly, but then the girl slapped him across his face, and their mother turned to the corner and freaked the F out.
Turned out they were step-siblings. He might have had a massive crush on his sister, but from what we saw, the family did not approve. Which led me back to my dilemma. This crazy, mind-spinning, stomach turning, heart racing anxiety was what I imagined a love spell felt like.
And there was only one gentry in the tri-county area with the gift of love.
I grabbed my phone off the bedside table and called my sister. I needed to hear Dahlia say she didn’t mess with my life. I needed to look her in the eyes and have her tell me what I felt was real. And this wasn't a conversation I wanted to have in front of my sisters.
The phone rang and rang, but she didn’t answer. I sat up, chewing on my thumbnail, and then called her again. She still didn’t answer. It was Sunday. I knew she wasn’t working, so what the hell was she doing? Why wasn’t she picking up?
About a minute later, my phone vibrated and Dahlia’s face popped up on my screen. I swiped my thumb to answer the call, but now I was too fired up to sit still. My hands shook with anxious energy and there was a heaviness in my chest that only eased when I stood up.
“Are you dying?” Dalia asked, irritation dripping off her words. She was in a grocery store with rows of cereal boxes behind her, which explained why she didn’t answer.
Dahlia hated talking on the phone in public. She always said her conversations were personal, and even though bystanders could only hear one side—her side—she didn’t like all the nosey Nellies in town.
“Are you sure you didn’t meddle?” I asked, pacing my bedroom. The floor creaked under my bare feet, a sound that usually comforted me but now only added to my restlessness.
“Holly,” Dahlia said with a sigh, but I could hear the amusement in her voice.
My life was funny. Great. Next time she had a crisis, you could bet your ass I was going to use this same light-hearted life isn’t this serious tone.
“For the last time, no. Your love life is your business. I wouldn’t interfere even if I wanted to—which I don’t, by the way.”
“Then how do you explain this?” I pressed, waving my hand to the empty air as though she could see the crazy, ooey-gooey feelings practically smothering me. “He remembered me, Dahlia. Even after midnight when I was supposed to be a hole in his mind. He remembered. That’s not normal.”
“Maybe this guy is your soulmate,” she replied, her tone light but laced with something deeper. Her words hit me like a thunderclap, and I froze mid-step. My heart stuttered, then picked up in an uneven rhythm when she added, “Ever think of that? Maybe that’s why he remembered you.”
“My soulmate?” I repeated, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Why not?” Dahlia asked. “It makes sense. You’re borderline obsessed. If you’re calling me this much it’s because you’re thinking about him and that scares you. No one has ever scared you, Holly. Only one person could ever scare you.”
I didn’t respond right away. The idea settled over me like a heavy blanket, both comforting and suffocating.
I didn’t think my soulmate was real. I knew about the loophole, but I thought it was just one of those gentry tricks our kinfolk like to play.
Lure innocent souls with a promise of release when really there was no chance in hell of getting out of whatever they agreed to.
My sisters and I agreed to nothing. We were born with our blessings that are also our curse.
But Liam remembered me. More so, he seemed to really want me.
To like me.
“Or,” Dahlia added, her teasing tone returning, “he’s just a really good guy who happens to remember pretty girls. Either way, you should enjoy yourself.” She looked past me to someone in the store then said, “We can talk more at dinner, but I gotta go. Love you.” And then she hung up.
I stuffed my phone into my back pocket and headed downstairs into the kitchen.
My mind churned with possibilities as I rummaged through the fridge for something to eat for lunch.
Enjoy myself? Did she even hear herself?
I was not the kind of person who just threw caution to the wind.
I planned. I evaluated. I kept things under control.
And yet, my heart raced just thinking about Liam—his dimpled smile, the warmth in his eyes, the way he’d looked at me like I was the only person in the world. It was too much. Too fast. Too... perfect.
“Damn it, Dahlia,” I muttered, pulling out a bottle of water and slamming the fridge shut.
My sister’s words replayed in my head. Your soulmate. The very idea sent my mind spinning. Was that what this was? Could it be? But how? Why now? And why him? My heart felt like it was racing to outrun my thoughts, a flurry of questions with no answers.
I pressed my palms flat against the cool countertop, taking deep breaths to steady myself. “This is insane,” I whispered to no one but Daisy, who sat perched on the back of the couch, watching me with her usual feline judgment.
Her wide green eyes seemed to say, Finally catching up to your feelings, huh?
“Nope.” I straightened, shaking my head like I could physically dislodge the thoughts threatening to overtake me. “Not tonight. I can’t do this tonight.”
I needed to focus on the here and now—like the fact that my sisters would be here in just a few hours, expecting pizza or lasagna and a spotless house. They didn’t need to see me unraveling over a guy I barely knew, no matter how perfect his smile was.