Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 42942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
“Hollie, wait. Wait!” His voice sounded strangled. “It’s okay, I barely hit the table. It’s just my ribs. Can you help me up?”
I took a few steps away from him and shook my head. “What if I hurt you more?”
He looked at me, and I wanted to sink to my knees and beg him for forgiveness. All of this had been my fault. I hated myself in that moment. Hated that I was the reason he was in pain.
“Hollie, please just help me up and back over to the chair. Then can you clean up the broken lamp?”
“Yes! Of course,” I said as I rushed over and carefully helped him stand. He put most of his weight on me as we both struggled to get him to the chair, where he carefully sat down, then leaned back into the chair and let out a sigh of relief.
I chewed on my lip as I watched him steady his heavy breathing. When he opened his eyes and looked at me, I gave him a weak smile.
“See? Bad luck.”
He narrowed one eye at me, and for a moment I was sure he was about to lunge for my neck. My hand went to my neck, where I rubbed against the sudden tightness in there.
“I’ll just clean up this mess. You rest. Here, let me get you another whiskey.”
Slowly letting out a breath, Lucas dropped his head back and closed his eyes. I quickly poured him a drink and cleaned up the broken lamp.
Once everything was cleaned up, I sat down on the coffee table, only to see Lucas was asleep. I took the opportunity to look around his condo. This was the first time I had ever been in it, and I couldn’t help but smile. It was located in a large federal mansion and was in the McIntire Historic District, which happened to be a pretty sought-after area of Salem. There were period details all throughout the house, at least based on what areas of the house I’d seen so far. Tall ceilings, original moldings, and stunning built-ins. Not to mention, he had beautiful, large windows that let in so much natural light. It was much nicer than my apartment. I liked my kitchen more; it was bigger. I loved to cook, so having a huge kitchen was a must.
The walls were painted a light gray with the trim painted white. It didn’t have a bachelor vibe to it, so I couldn’t help but wonder if someone had helped him decorate it.
I frowned. Maybe Wendy had. Ugh, the thought made me want to throw up.
“I can only imagine what you’re thinking with that frown on your face.”
My eyes jerked back to where he was sitting in the recliner. “I wasn’t thinking anything. Just looking around the room. It’s a very nice place you have here.”
He smiled. “I think we need to get back to the ridiculous notion that you think you put a spell on me.”
“Lucas, isn’t it obvious? Have you ever had such bad like this before?”
He thought for a moment. “No. But I also don’t think you’re a witch and the cause of it. It’s just a string of bad luck.”
I could do this two ways: keep arguing my point or see if he would just go along with the spell. I decided to see if he would simply humor me.
“Fine, don’t believe I’m a witch, but will you at least let me do the spell to reverse the bad luck? Please, Lucas.”
Something in his eyes changed. Maybe it was witch’s intuition, but I knew he was about to agree to let me do it.
Lucas
The moment she looked at me with those big blue eyes of hers, I knew I was going to let her do the stupid spell. For some reason, Hollie felt responsible for my…misfortunes the last few days, and if it meant she would spend more time with me, then I’d let her do it. Hell, at this point, I’d probably let her do anything she wanted, especially if she said my name like she just had.
“Fine, you can do the spell.”
She jumped up, and I nearly lost my breath at the smile on her face. Shit, she was so beautiful.
“Great. You stay here, and I’ll get it all ready. Don’t move!”
I let out a grunt. “I’m not going anywhere.”
My phone was sitting on the table next to me, so I picked it up and sent off a text to Manny to see how the dig was going. With winter approaching, we really needed to get as much work done as we could. Not to mention, the city wanted to build a park there and was on its own timeline.
Me: How are things going?
Manny: Good. Found some more artifacts. Don’t worry, we’re cataloging them and taking great care with each one. How are you feeling?