Page 77 of Hexed Up

Her eyes narrow immediately.

“Since when?”

“Since always. It’s you two, who are always too busy to spend time with me. “

Tiggie – who has had several glasses of Prosecco and several more cocktails – wraps me in a hug. Her detective skills are certainly impaired, and she’s feeling much more mushy than normal.

“Oh, you’re so sweet. I think it comes with being the middle child.”

“I thought middle children were meant to be difficult and unruly.”

“Well, you’re that too,” she says, “but we still love you.” She kisses my cheek. “Now go upstairs and have very hot sexwith your very hot boyfriend but try not to set off any more fireworks.”

“That wasn’t me,” I lie.

“Sure, Molly, sure it wasn’t,” she says, giving me a wink and skipping out of the room.

I gulp.

Unfortunately, hot sex is off the table. Sometimes I think being the middle child has left me cursed, because this situation is very, very cruel.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Horatio behaves like a perfect gentleman that night, and I behave like a woman who actually does have control of her willpower and isn’t developing feelings for her fake boyfriend.

Unfortunately, our plans to escape early the next morning are disrupted by my mother, who refuses to let us go. Luckily, we’re not forced to endure another hike because it’s raining yet again, and instead we spend the morning playing family board games round the giant dining table.

We don’t arrive back in London until the afternoon, and then we find ourselves staring at each other in the communal hallway, both standing outside our respective doors.

I clear my throat.

“Thank you, Horatio,” I say, “for everything this weekend.” His lips twitch, and I guess we’re both thinking about the ping-pong table. I push those thoughts out of my mind. “You were the perfect fake boyfriend, and I think I gained about a million brownie points from my crazy family. I just hope it wasn’t too crazy and your sanity hasn’t been tested too much.”

“Your family is lovely, Molly. No more crazy than any other family I’ve met.”

Which I find hard to believe, considering he had no idea about the existence of witches, vampires, magic, demons, fairy toenails, and everything else only a few days ago.

“And Molly, it’s clear to me how much your family loves you. How much they all think you’re wonderful. You already had about a million brownie points.”

I snort at that, because that, frankly, is crazy. Maybe his sanity was warped by the weekend.

“Anyway, you are officially released from your fake boyfriend duties for the time being,” I go on. “Once I have hold of those fairy toenails, I’ve brewed the potion, and you’ve drunk the antidote, we can officially break up and the contract will be null and void.”

“How about my birthday?” he says.

“Your birthday?” I repeat.

“Yes, on Wednesday. You’re coming, aren’t you? With your sisters?”

“Oh yeah.” I squirm on the spot. “I’m really sorry about that. I’ll find a way to get out of it.”

“It’s fine,” he says, and seems to shuffle on his feet too, mirroring my action. “I’d like you to come. And your sisters too,” he adds hurriedly, probably hoping that Tiggie will be there. Boys always fall in love with Tiggie.

“But if my sisters come, we’ll have to continue the whole pretence of the fake–”

“That’s fine,” he interrupts.

I tilt my head to one side and look at him. It’s the love potion. Obviously the love potion.