Page 31 of Trusting Skulls

Her relief whooshes out in one breath before she speaks. “You can open the next one.”

“Good, because it’s in my pocket.”

A cross between a giggle and a whimper leaves her throat. I make a mental note, because it’s a sound I want to hear over and over again. A harmonic symphony of disbelief and joy.

“I heard you’re having a party.”

I don’t hide my lack of enthusiasm. “Unfortunately.”

“I’m sure it will be fun. Um, if you see JD and Elizabeth, will you tell them I miss them?”

Her voice breaks, and I open my eyes. Willow told me about the bond she’s formed with JD’s wife. It still sounds strange to my ears to say JD’s wife.

“Of course. I haven’t met Elizabeth yet. What’s she like?”

Her words become animated, which is also something new.

“She’s so pretty. Like runway model-type beautiful. But she’s not snobby. She’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. JD is so in love with her. She’s a good cook too, but JD makes better eggs …”

As she rambles on about JD and this woman, my heart rejoices. Because everything she’s describing is exactly the type of relationship I want. She wants it, too. I can tell by the way she paints them as a storybook couple.

“I’ll definitely make sure to connect with them this weekend.”

“I want to do something special for them. They’ve been so good to me.” Her words halt, and instantly the temperature changes as if a cloud just stole the sun from her face. “Anyway, I should go. Raffe is waiting for me to go do some weird witchy voodoo stuff with him.”

“Raffe is there?”

“Yeah.”

Hmm. The club is really ramping up their mission with her. It surprises me, but I don’t know why. I guess I thought I was alone in seeing her potential. I mean, of course I know they look past people’s circumstances. They did that for both my sister and me, and now … Lexie.

Now that I think about it, they don’t look past it. Theyknowthere’s more behind it, and that’s where they look. They dig until you have no choice but to reveal the rot buried below. It doesn’t scare them.

“He’s helping me work through some things.”

My eyebrows rise in surprise. This may be the biggest revelation of our conversation. She’s working on healing, and more than that she’s accepting someone’s help without me there to twist her arm.

“That’s really good. Raffe is a great guy. My sister praises him as the best father-in-law in the world. Pretty hefty compliment, if you ask me.”

Lexie laughs lightly and I smile, happy that our conversation is ending on a better note than I thought it might.

“I’ll let you go then. Just don’t put any witchy curses on me.”

“I would never.”

“Unless,” I pause, keeping her waiting, an ornery grin pulling at my face. “It’s a love spell.”

Her goodbye comes out in a sultry fluster of words. “Um, okay, yeah. I’ll talk to you later. Goodbye, Ash.”

The phone goes dead.

I pull out the letter in my pocket and carefully open it.

Dear Ash,

Call your dogs off.

Your club is annoying!

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