Page 48 of All My Witches
“I’m not sure you’ll be able to stopit.”
“Oh, I’ll stop it.” Landon puffed out his chest. “If she tries taking you from me, I swear, I’m going to sit down in the middle of this stupid island and wait for the locusts to come. I won’t play the game withoutyou.”
I did my best to be diplomatic. “It’s not as if we’ll be separatedforever.”
“You sound as if you want it tohappen.”
“I don’t, but if I work myself into a tizzy before it happens, when it does happen – and I believe that’s what she’s working toward – I’ll start doing something embarrassing like crying. I don’t wantthat.”
“I don’t want that either.” Landon pulled me into his arms and gave me a long hug. “There has to be a way to make sure we don’t getseparated.”
“The lesson is in the story,” I reminded him. “She loves soaps because most of the time the couples she loves end up together. Sure, occasionally it doesn’t happen because of actors and contracts, but a happy ending is the rule rather than the exception onsoaps.”
“And you think she’s going to give us a happyending?”
I smirked at the unintended double entendre. “I think the overblown sex fests in the mud pits are on purpose. I think the island stuff is on purpose. She knew I’dremember.”
“I’m not going to give her the chance to separate us.” Landon was firm as he tightened his grip on my hand, squeezing so hard he almost cut off my circulation. “It’s not going tohappen.”
I opened my mouth, an attempt to soothe on the tip of my tongue. As if on cue, a scream ripped through the air and drew everyone’s attention to the waterfall in the distance. It wasn’t overly high, but given the flat surfaces around us it looked huge on thehorizon.
I gasped when I realized there was a figure falling from a high cliff into the churning waters below. “Holy… .”
“Did you see that?” Thistle stepped up beside me. “Someone fell over that waterfall. I mean … they freaking fell! That can’t be right. That never happened on a soap, didit?”
“I think it’s happened a few times.” I turned back to Landon to suggest we see if we could find the person who fell, but the spot where he stood moments before was empty. I turned in every direction, even though I knew it was a waste of time, and then faced Clove and Thistle. They were equally resigned, because Sam and Marcus were missing,too.
“I knew this would happen,” I groused. “I knew she’d dothis.”
“She warned us,” Thistle noted. “You were right about that. The island was awarning.”
“And what about the ducks?” I quirked an eyebrow as I turned back to Mrs. Gunderson and plucked one of the plastic floaters from the water. I flipped it over and read the message out loud. “You’ll find him when your heart is ready to give up thesearch.”
“That’s a little on the nose, huh?” Thistle made a disgusted face. “I’m seriously going to strangle that oldlady.”
“I’m seriously going to helpyou.”
* * *
If you were coming backfrom the dead, is the first thing you’d want to do is attend a wedding? I mean … I get it. If you’re married to one of the people involved in the second wedding, you probably want to stop them from being a bigamist. If they moved on that quickly, though, I would totally want themarrested.
– Twila’s take on maritalbliss
Twelve
“Queenie!”
One of the guys in a mud pit – one who had another woman wrapped around him only seconds before – hopped to his feet and screamed as he looked toward the waterfall. I was so lost in thought I didn’t think to look away before my retinas risked being seared by the power of his nakedness. Thankfully the dude wore a Speedo, so I didn’t see anything that might scar me forlife.
“Who is Queenie?” Cloveasked.
“My wife.” The man was beside himself. “Didn’t you just see her? She went over thewaterfall.”
“But … how do you know it was your wife?” I was honestly interested in his answer. “That waterfall is way off in the distance. All we saw was what looked like a woman going over the falls. How can you possibly know it was yourwife?”
“Hutch, aren’t you coming back?” The woman the man left behind in the mud pit fixed him with a pointed and pouty look. “I’m getting cold without you to keep mewarm.”
“Hutch?” Thistle made a face. “Why would someone name their sonHutch?”
