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I detach Jeffers’ leash and grunt like a caveman, hoping it qualifies as an apology. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Elodie is still glaring at me with lowered lashes, crossed arms, and thin lips.
“I think we should go for a swim.” It comes out with very obvious forced cheer.
“I’m not swimming out there. The water is a strange shade of green. Not a good green, but like swamp green. It probably has the itch in it.”
“What’s the itch? I don’t think STDs can be transmitted by pool water.”
Seeing that I’m serious, Elodie rolls her eyes. “I don’t know about that…if the water doesn’t have enough chlorine and whatnot, but that’s not what the itch is. It’s a bacteria or parasite or something that lives in things like dugouts and stagnant water.”
“I see.”
“I guess we could dip our feet in if the purpose of going out there is to talk about why you didn’t tell me about the curse.”
That’s Elodie. Direct as ever. Or at least with me, she is. She can always tell me where to go in an instant.
“Wouldn’t our feet get the itch then?”
“Fine. We could sit by it, and you could explain and apologize for not trusting me as your lifelong best friend with something that was clearly life-altering for you.”
“It’s not. I’m not going to let it define me. I made a pact, remember?”
“That worked out well for your cousins and brother so far,” she scoffs.
I throw my hands up as Jeffers sits down on his hind end, spreads his legs, and starts licking his crotch. Loudly. Elodie huffs.
“Fine. Okay, we’ll go and talk.”
“No, not if you’re going to be all pissy about it. If you don’t want to apologize, I’ll get a cab, go find a coffee shop or something, and you can sit here and think by yourself.”
“I’d be with Jeffers.”
“How very mature, Tay.” Elodie jumps up, grabs her black leather messenger bags, and slings them over her shoulder. She looks fierce with her eyes blazing, blaring, and maybe even shooting some daggers too. She’s flushed very prettily with rage. She looks alive. Gorgeous.
I know I can’t let her leave like this. My hand shoots out and rests on her arm. Delicious little bubbles of awareness go popping through my bloodstream, and I withdraw fast. I didn’t even touch Elodie’s super soft skin, which is extra soft because of the shea butter she always uses. I just touched her sweater, and I still had a strange physical reaction. I must be allergic to cashmere, cotton, or whatever it is.
“Let’s go talk,” I say softly.
She looks like she wants to kick me in the balls, but because she’s too nice to ever try it, she relents. We leave Jeffers in the air-conditioned room, mostly because I’m not sure about dogs being allowed in the pool area, plus he can be a bit of an ass sometimes—in size and attitude—and I’m not sure how the management would feel about him taking a dip in their pool.
We’re the only ones out there since it’s still bloody early. Elodie sits, drawing up her dress and revealing shapely tanned legs, which I don’t look at even though it shouldn’t matter if I do because I’ve seen her legs before. So many times. And nothing happened. I didn’t combust, and I didn’t…uh, okay, moving on.
I rapidly go back in my mind and count the strange things that have happened over the past day. My dick misbehaved in the truck when I was thinking about Elodie, I had a weird dream about her last night, and by weird, I mean super weird because I don’t want to admit it was about me wanting to do things to her biscuit that involve my salami, I felt strange tingly sparks this morning when I touched her arm, and I stepped on a brooch that magically made its way below the bed. Somehow. If she didn’t put it there, and I didn’t put it there, then it must be haunted for real.
Is there a difference between cursed and haunted?
“So?” Elodie glares at me. “Are you going to be less of an ass and apologize?”
I roll up my pantlegs and stick my legs into the pool. Fuck it. Maybe the itch would distract me from things I shouldn’t be thinking about, like how tantalizing Elodie’s breasts look in her thin maxi dress with her sweater gaping open.
Fuck, what the fuck?
“I’m sorry,” I say while staring down at the murky green pool water. It’s not a nice tropical green. No, it’s like scum green, and the scum is parting around my toes, swirling and whirling all over. Gag. “I really am, Ell. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. It was just between my cousins, my brother, my sister, and me. All of it. I didn’t tell you because…”
