Page 72 of Spellbound & Speechless
My eyes drift to Mac in the corner of the bar, and I find him smiling at me.
Yes. I am definitely making the right choice.
MAC
It’s late at night when Aspen is sketching at the little white desk in the corner of her room. She doesn’t bother looking up when I amble closer.
“What are you working on?” I ask, looking over her shoulder.
I can’t make much sense of the drawings. There’s a dress, I think, and it sort of looks like a mushroom. Maybe that’s not her intention, but it tickles me—it even reminds me of the mushroom tattoo on my arm.
“Working on my designs.” She looks at me withsparkling eyes. “Look. This one comes with a matching mushroom hat.”
“So, itissupposed to be a mushroom?”
She nods eagerly. “Cottagecore is in right now—especially in Starbrook.”
“Cottage… core?”
“Mhm. I’m surprised you don’t know about it. You’re sort of cottagecore—or maybe closer to rottagecore.”
“Rottagecore?”
Aspen is stranger by the moment.
“Yes.” That’s all she offers as an explanation. She flips through the pages. “See. This is a simpler swimsuit, but we need morecuteskirt swimsuits.”
She drew the swimsuit on a larger body, which I know is important to her. It’s admirable that she wants to make sure her sisters are seen in fashion. As much as she may have run from her family, or at least she makes it sound like she did, it seems like they were always in her mind.
I hope they realize how much she cares for them and how lucky they are to have someone like Aspen. I know how fortunate I am.
“You’re so talented,” I say. “I guess I owe you some of my photography now, huh?”
“I would say that you do.” She shuts her book and turns to me, poking a finger into the center of my chest. “Pay up.”
“It won’t look as good as your work… you’re fucking talented, and I’m?—”
“I don’t care.” She rolls her chair closer to me. “I want to see. Don’t be a tease.”
My photos are all on my phone now. Back at my mother’s place, I have a few prints and even an old dark room. That’s another thing I can show her someday…
If I ever take her home to meet my mother. I haven’teven found the courage to tell my mom about accepting our mating bond, and that’s fine by me. We have plenty of time to figure that out.
I pass her my phone. “You can, uh… swipe around.”
She lifts a brow and smirks. “You’re not afraid of me seeing something I shouldn’t?”
“There’s nothing you shouldn’t see.” I sit on the edge of the bed, watching her as she takes her time looking at each picture. “I don’t plan on keeping any secrets from you.”
“Good answer.”
All she’ll find on my phone is photos of mountains, flowers, and even a few shots of my mother on the trails. My travels across the states, looking for the corrupt witch, have given me plenty of opportunities to snap pictures.
The journey also brought me to Aspen. I didn’t believe in fate before, but I sure as hell do now. It’s like everything that happened was to get me closer to her. If someone told me that before, I would have said it wasn’t worth it to lose my father and gain a mate..
Now… I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t think about it.
She looks up from the phone after several moments of silent swiping. “Did you study this in school? I thought you were trying to be a doctor.”
