Page 33 of Luck Be a Genie

“Peace,” I said quietly. “I was looking for someone that I felt peaceful around.”

And then the middle of the table spontaneously combusted.

Everyone shoved back from the table, and it was controlled chaos as the guys tried to put the fire out. First, with magic, and then because magic didn’t really work well around me, one of them dumped the ice water Nick had just got over it.

When the chaos died down and one of the brothers had opened the sliding glass door to let out what little smoke there was before the smoke alarm sounded, they all turned to look at me.

“Dang,” Kian said. “That is one fierce curse.”

But my attention wasn’t on them. It was fixated on the mess in the middle of the table. “It melted all of our chocolate,” I said mournfully.

R.I.P. peanut butter M & M’s.

Chapter 12

Nick

Leaving my brothers to clean up the mess in my room, I walked Lucky next door to her room. Ever since the table fire she’d been quiet again.

“You okay?”

Her smile wasn’t her normal happy smile. This one was strained, and a little sad. “I’m sorry about your table.”

I pulled her closer to me and wrapped my arms around her, giving her a hug. “I know you’re sad about it, but it’ll be okay. My brothers are going to fix it. They’ll probably just replace it with an identical one.” I was quiet for a moment. “But it’s not the table, is it?”

She shook her head, and though I gave her the opening to talk about it, she didn’t take it.

“I’ll see you in the morning. We’re hiking and seeing waterfalls tomorrow?”

My smile was subdued. “Yep, hiking and waterfalls. I can’t wait to spend the day with you.”

She kissed my cheek and went into her room, leaving me, once again, staring at her door like an idiot.

The stupid rusty knife was stabbing my chest again.

Then I almost tripped over my own feet and faceplanted when the door swung open again. Lucky stood in the doorway looking determined, and for some reason, that made me very nervous.

She took my hand. I looked down at her hand in mine, and it made me stupid happy for a moment.

“I’m sorry, Nick,” she said. “I’m trying to get better at sharing what’s going on inside me. It’s not easy for me. But you don’t deserve to be in the dark either, and you don’t deserve to be on a see-saw of emotions wondering what’s going on with me. I’m just frustrated about the chaos magic. It was nice the last few days, not having to deal with it.”

It felt like I could breathe again as she put her hands on my chest, popped onto her tiptoes, and kissed me. Kind of thoroughly, if I’m being honest, but I wasn’t complaining.

She pulled back and smiled up at me. “Thanks for a great date,” she said shyly. “I really loved getting to meet your brothers. They were all wonderful.”

I smiled and brushed some hair behind her ear. “They loved you. I’m sure you’ll see more of them, because they have absolutely no boundaries,” I warned, making her laugh.

“Goodnight, Nick.”

“Night, sunshine.”

Once again in my room, I saw that most of my brothers had gone home except Declan. He’d stayed and finished cleaning up. My suite was laid out just like Lucky’s. We both had a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen, but hers was a corner suite, which meant it was much larger.

The table once again looked brand new, but the mess hadn’t been that bad to begin with, so I’d expected that. It wasn’t like it had exploded or anything. But, even if it had, we would have dealt with it. Most of the mess had appeared to come from the M & M’s. Those suckers had basically melted into the wood.

I settled into the couch with a sigh. “Thanks, Declan. I appreciate the help.”

Declan shrugged as he dried the glasses he’d already washed, then put them away in the cupboard. “I just basically shoved everything in your fridge. Kian took care of the table.”