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“Yeah, I did.”
“I don’t blame you for being scared or for thinking I’d bail on you the first chance I got.”
“But I…I thought you wanted the ring off as badly as I did. I knew it wasn’t going to work out. Ever. The stuff we felt was just because of the curse. Even if it were real, what kind of future would that be for us? None. It was a mistake, both the ring and the curse. It was never supposed to be me.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” Ash looks at me with this raw sparkle in his eye and an even rawer expression. He’s looking at me with an epic amount of vulnerability here, and he’s leaving himself fully open.
“What?” I gasp. “What are you talking about?”
“He’s talking about having a change of heart,” Granny pipes up. She’s got a huge grin on her face again, so big that her dentures are threatening to pop out like the first time I saw her smile at me. “He’s talking about opening his mind and heart and realizing he’s got a lot to figure out yet. That he doesn’t want to live his life without love. He told me his glass was always half-empty, but now he wants it to be half full. I told him that was token and idiotic, and I better come along to stop him from making a big fool out of himself, botching this, and losing you all over again. Because he doesn’t want to do that. He wants to get to know you. He wants to take you on proper dates, woo you, wine and dine you, and make you realize just how special you are. And then he’d like to tup you again, I’m sure.”
“Grannnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyy!”
I can’t take it. I burst out laughing. I throw my head back and let the peals of laughter roll through me. My god, at the very least, this is wildly entertaining. Too bad I didn’t make popcorn.
“Is she telling the truth?” I ask when I can get something out between my laughter.
“Damn tootin’ I am,” Granny insists.
Ash nods. “Yeah.” He gives his grandmother a foul look that I can tell he doesn’t mean, and then he looks back at me, and his face is all open and soft again, still gorgeous—man-gorgeous. “Yes, she’s telling the truth. I do want to get to know you, and I want to prove I’m not an asshole. I felt something with you that I’ve never felt in my entire life. I honestly didn’t even believe in it. Not the curse but love. Not that I’m saying I’m in love. That’s crazy, and it would be frightening and too fast, but I did feel connected to you. I felt…I had so much fun with you, trying to get the stupid ring off and also trying to beat the curse. Although, to be honest, I didn’t feel one bit cursed at all. I actually felt blessed. You shared your life with me. All your secrets and those bits you were scared to let everyone else see, like your dad. You even told me about your mom. You opened yourself up, and I know you probably don’t do that, but it didn’t seem that hard for you to do it with me, and I could just see you. The kind, amazing, wild, smart, and beautiful Ellis.”
“I think you mean conniving, double-crossing, back-stabbing, betraying—”
“No, I don’t mean that. I don’t mean that at all.”
“And it’s not just because he wants to tup you,” Granny supplies helpfully.
Ash’s left eye twitches violently. “No, it’s not just because of that. I had fun, Ellis. I felt like we…I don’t know. I’ve never felt what I felt before, and it was nice. I realized what an idiot I was being and how wrong I’d looked at everything. My brother and cousins are going to see me as a traitor to our pact, but it’s okay because they’re all cursed too, and I now believe it’s real, so eventually, they will all fall in love too, and then they’ll realize why I had to do it.”
“Whoa,” I breathe. “Just…whoa…”
“I also wanted you to know that I’d like to make things right with your dad. Even if you never want to see me again or spend another minute trying to figure out if maybe the curse was onto something, even if you wouldn’t like to let me take you out or get to know me or even stick me in the friendzone, I wanted him to have one of my paintings. It’s the first painting I ever exhibited. It’s worth somewhere around twenty million, but I’ve never agreed to sell it because it was my first one. You know, the first is always special.”
Granny titters at that. “Ha! I can’t even remember my first. And don’t think it was your grandfather. People weren’t saints back then; the world just thinks they were.”
