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Her.

She inhales and leans back. “All right.”

“All right, what?”

She scowls. “I’ll tell you—when I’m good and ready. Not a moment before.”

“’Course not. I wouldn’t expect you to.”

Cristina’s eyes flare, like something I said grazed a nerve. But that scowl quickly reappears. “We have to shake, or no deal.”

Is it wrong of me to be so curious as to why Cristina wants to throw the competition? Or just wrong that the thought makes my chest press on my heart?

I extend my open hand. “I’m willing if you are.”

When she slides her palm over mine, my body pulses. Her hand is smaller than I expected, warm and work-worn. For a second, neither of us lets go, and I feel her pulse hammering against my fingers. Fast, panicked, alive.

Then she pulls away, and I instantly mourn the loss of her touch.

“Done,” she says. “It’s a deal.”

I clink my glass against her water. “Here’s to losing.”

She grins. “May the best loser win.”

And just like that, I know I already have.

Chapter 13

Cristina

“Let me just say, congratulations! Y’all are officially part of Mystic Meadows’s very first magical matchmaking competition.”

Mina beams and claps. The rest of us follow.

The ten contestants, including me, stand in the lobby holding flutes of champagne. The Summit’s entry has been transformed into a romantic nightmare—string lights, champagne, and ten uncomfortable people pretending this is normal, that a quilt knows my soulmate better than I do.

As if.

I want to die. Not metaphorically. Like, please-put-me-out-of-my-misery die.

Yay, me.

And if you thought this would be all cuddles and heart eyes, think again.

Jace stands beside Holly, but he keeps looking at me. Great. Just what I need—the attention of the man who told me I could be his first wife. As if that’s a compliment.

Not that I’m bitter.

Beau Collins looks terrified of his soulmate / nonbiological grandmother, Clarice. Maya and Logan give each other hesitant smiles, while Callie and Jeff stand the closest to one another.

“I know right now y’all may be asking yourselves, how can this stranger be my soulmate?” Mina laughs, and so do Holly and Callie. “The Soulmate Quilt revealed who each of y’all are aligned with. The magic has highlighted what’s there, but it can’t create what isn’t.”

Great. So there is something between Rhett and me.

Duh, Cristina.

“So please trust”—Mina makes a heart with her hands and presses it to her chest—“this process will work. By the end of six weeks, you’ll know the person beside you better than anyone you’ve ever met, and together you’ll have a real shot at earning one hundred thousand dollars.”