I’ve kept my voice low, but I glance over at the kids to make sure they haven’t heard this. Luckily, they’re still completely enthralled in their soccer game.
Luc tucks his finger under my chin and turns me back to face him. His dark eyes are serious, soulful, yet one corner of his mouth teases up a little.
“I know you’re not joking. It doesn’t mean you aren’t funny.” His smile fades. “Tell me more.”
“There isn’t more. I just can’t be with you.” This isn’t true. There’s a lot more, but I don’t want to go through it right now.
And I don’t want to live through it again. Ever.
I swallow against the lump that rises in my throat. Nope. Not going there. Not today.
“No.” Luc shakes his head. “That’s not enough.”
I screw up my face. “What’s not enough?”
“That’s not enough of an explanation.”
I’m pretty sure my eyebrows shoot to my hairline. “Not enough?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “You want to be with me?”
My mouth opens and the truth plops out. “Y-yes.”
He nods. “You know I want to be with you?”
I bite my lip, feeling a thrill of nerves in my stomach. But I do know. He’s made that very clear. “Yes.”
Luc clasps my hand. “What you’re afraid of? It could happen to anybody.”
I squeeze his hand. “But that’s what I’m trying to explain. For other people, itcouldhappen. For me, itwillhappen.”
“Millie.” He says my name gently, but, make no mistake about it, condescendingly.Les Dimplesshow up, and for the first time since I met him, the sight of them doesn’t turn me to goo. In fact, I’m pretty close to punching him in the face.
I pull my hand from his and make a fist, but I don’t pound him with it. “You don’t understand. Luc, my parents had Emmettfive years after my dad’s vasectomy.”
“Really?!”Luc’s eyes are wide, but instead of looking horrified, he looks…fascinated.
I shake my head. “In 1968, my great Aunt Maureen flew to the Philippines to see my Uncle Brian who was serving in Vietnam. He had a three-day leave, but there was a typhoon and Maureen’s flight from Hong Kong was cancelled, and she only made it to Manila to see him right before he had to report back for duty.” I clutch Luc’s collar and give it a little shake to make sure he’s listening. “They spent thirty minutes together.Thirty minutes.Nine months later, my mom’s cousins Bradley and Bernard were born.”
Luc blinks, his dimples digging deeper. “That must have been some thirty minutes.”
I thump his chest with the side of my fist. “You don’t get what I’m telling you. This thing,” I say, waving my hand up and down to indicate my general reproductive system, “defies all logic and limits of medical science. That’s why I call it a curse.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “So, solitude and celibacy are your only options?”
I go still because I really hate that those are my only options. “Right now they are.”
Luc’s lips bunch and he nods, slowly, like he’s assessing me. “Until when?”
“Until Emmett’s grown,” I say with a shrug.
He nods again. “That’s the first thing you’ve said that sounds crazy.”
“Pfft.”I give his shoulder a little shove.“You mean to say you don’t think the Theory of the Curse is crazy?”
Luc traps my assaulting hand and holds it against his chest. Through his dress shirt, I can feel the steady thump of his heart. “It’swild.”The way he says it,wildsounds leagues better thancrazy.“It’s incredible, but I believe you. At least, I believe what you’re telling me about this phenomenon in your family. I don’t necessarily agree it’s a curse.”
His belief surprises me so much, I’m speechless at first. “Why not?”
