Page 66 of All My Witches
“Oh, I didn’t know I was supposed to help.” Thistle was instantly contrite. “Is that what I’m supposed to bedoing?”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.” I gathered the dress skirt and stomped toward the door. “Are you guysready?”
“Not until you tell us what’s wrong,” Clove replied. “Don’t deny there’s something wrong. I can tell thereis.”
“It’s not so much that there’s something wrong,” I hedged. “It’s that … Landon freaked out when he heard we were going to get married. He acted as if it was the scariest thing he’d ever come up against … and he’s seen poltergeists and witches now. It was a bitinsulting.”
“He freaked out before he saw the dress?” Thistle tilted her head to the side. “Well, he’s going to run when he sees younow.”
“Ha,ha.”
“Leave her alone,” Clove ordered. “She’s upset because Landon wasupset.”
“Of course he’s upset. He’s marrying a cottonball.”
“She doesn’t get it,” I snapped. “It doesn’t matter. This isn’t real. That’s exactly what I told him. It won’t get to the vows anyway. Something will happen to derail it before we get to thatpart.”
Thistle sobered. “Do you want it to get to thatpart?”
I shrugged. “No. I mean … I don’t want this to be my real wedding. I don’t want anything of the sort to happen here. I also don’t want Landon to be terrified at the mere notion of a wedding, especially when it’sfake.”
“Oh.” Realization dawned on Thistle’s face. “I get why you’re upset, but he’s been through a lot today. I wouldn’t hold this againsthim.”
“I’m not.” I honestly wasn’t. “I’m just … irritated. I don’t see why he had to make such a big deal aboutit.”
“Probably because he wants you guys to do this stuff on your own timetable,” Thistle explained. “It’s not that he doesn’t want to do this – I think he really does – but it’s almost too much for him to deal with at this point in the night. It seems like we’ve been at thisforever.”
“Do you really think he wants to do it?” I felt pathetic asking the question, but I couldn’t stopmyself.
“I do,” Thistle confirmed. “Trust me. He’s not running. This probably agitates him for the same reason it agitatesus.”
“And that’sbecause… ?”
“Because we’re fried. We’ve been running around dealing with stuff we shouldn’t have to deal with and we’re emotionally spent. We’re beyond dealing with something this big, but we have to get through it if we expect to make ithome.”
“And you think that’s all itis?”
Thistle’s gaze was pointed when she nodded. “I know that’s all it is. Have a little faith. Landon isn’t the type of guy to run from this. He is the type of guy to get frustrated because it’s getting forced on him and he had noinput.”
Her words soothed me. “Yeah. He’s at the end of hisrope.”
“Let’s just hope he uses that rope on Aunt Tillie when we get back.” Thistle flashed an impish smile. “Are youready?”
I nodded. “Iguess.”
“Not quite,” Clove countered, shuffling closer so she could plant a tiara on top of my head. She grinned when she stood back to get a better look. “Now you’reready.”
“Oh, I really hate Aunt Tillie right now. She’d better start running before we wake up, because if we catchher… .”
“We’ll squash her like a bug,” Thistle finished. “Come on. We have to get through this if we expect to get a chance to squash her. We’ve got to be near the end. There’s very little else she can throw atus.”
Unfortunately, I was fairly certain she jinxed us with those words. I wisely kept that tomyself.
* * *
Who else wants amnesia?I think it would be totally cool to wake up with no idea who you are, who your family is – especially that part because we have Aunt Tillie – but also have a husband who looks like that. That’s like my life goal now. Wait … does that make me shallow? Meh. I don’t care. I’m fine beingshallow.
– Clove on her favorite soap’s newhunk
