Page 109 of Not Your Ex's Hexes
Finally, she turned to Rose, whose mouth had already gone dry.
Christina smiled wanly. “And youwillfind your thing, Rose Marie. And when your heart tells you it’s the right fit, hold on to it with everything you have.”
If she wasn’t so shocked at this new, emotionally open mother, she would’ve laughed at the abrupt, awkward silence filling the room.
“You had me atI don’t have to wear the shoes.” Vi flung off her heels, the move dropping her three inches closer to the floor and creating a tear-streaked round of laughter.
Five minutes later, they were off to Guastavino’s, enough behind schedule to meet up with her father, Linc, Bax, and Adrian, and still arrive fashionably late.
Rose hung back and let the couples walk into the event center first. It gave her a prime view of her parents—who’d never been the PDA type even at these kinds of affairs—holding hands as they walked into the hall. Linc and Vi were Linc and Vi, deeply in love and practically wrapped around one another with cartoon hearts twinkling in their eyes. Harper did her best to avoid Adrian’s excessive flirting.
And Olive…
Walking next to Bax, her triplet seemed oblivious to the way the Guardian Angel watched her every move. She shifted left, he shifted. She slowed, he slowed. As if knowing he was being studied, the angel glanced over his shoulder.
Rose flashed him a caught-you smirk and he quickly looked away, immediately engaging Adrian in conversation.
She chuckled.
Once upon a time, she’d told her sisters—and Damian—that romantic entanglements weren’t in her future, and she’d meant it. But she couldn’t deny something felt missing…
She had the friends. The dress. In five minutes, she’d have yummy pigs in blankets.
It was Damian.
She missed the grumpy, half-demon veterinarian who never ceased to make her blood—and her body—boil.
She’d almost invited him multiple times, but did FBs attend events like this? She didn’t think so, and so she’d kept quiet, not wanting to put additional strain on their already strained relationship. She resigned herself to being the seventh wheel on what she hoped would be a quick, entertaining night.
The second their party stepped into the gorgeously decorated Guastavino’s, Edie quickly whisked Vi and Linc away, and Harper beelined it for the bathroom in the hopes of losing Adrian. It wasn’t long before it was only Olive and Rose.
The youngest triplet pushed her glasses up her nose. “What do you say to finding drinks, and then a corner we can hide in until it’s socially acceptable to go home?”
Rose glanced at the overfilled room. “You had me at hide-and-drink. But do you think there’s any such place we won’t be found? Pretty sure everyone in the city is here tonight. Too bad you didn’tbring a book with you. You could’ve commandeered a seat and then glared at anyone who dared interrupt your page time.”
“People who interrupt someone obviously engrossed in their book has true evil in their heart. I’m just saying. But,” Olive added, “it just so happens that I have a reading app on my phone. Words will travel, so let’s travel…”
“Do you want to ask Bax to join us?” Rose teased wickedly.
Her sister scoffed and linked their arms. “About as much as I want a raging case of witch pox. Anyway, leave the hiding to me. I’m practically a professional.”
They each collected a drink, and true to her word, Olive found a quiet spot in the solarium. A stone bench, surrounded on three sides by lush greenery, provided the ultimate place to disappear, and the second they sat, Olive pulled up her phone… and her reading app.
“Tell me what’s going on with the silent treatment,” Rose requested, risking the interrupted reader glare.
“Pure evil. And I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Olive lied.
“Bax looks even more sullen than usual. Did he change his mind about the roommate thing?”
“I wish,” Olive muttered.
Rose’s curiosity was piqued. She shifted closer to her sister, elbowing her in the side. “Clarify that remark. Pronto.”
Olive’s shoulders, and her phone, drooped. “He won’t let it go. Why can’t he take no for an answer? Why?”
“Probably because he sees what we do, and in true Guardian Angel fashion, he wants to do something about it.”
“Great. He’s acting out of a hero complex and I’m the damsel,” Olive muttered grumpily. “That’s even worse.”
