AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Okay," he said quietly, sounding confused.
"What happens," I began, "if we find a bunch of women who are all witches and all of sudden you've all got options other than me?"
I said that, me, yeah, that was my voice, my mouth those words had come out of. I'd put it right out there, no bullshit. And I absolutely could not put it back, take it back, and I very much wanted to.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Tyson growled at me. "Why would you ever think we'd want options other than you? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard come out of your mouth. I'm in love with you. Uncle Quint is in love with you. The twins would rather die than be without you. Goddamn Damien would give up his relationship with Julian if that's what you wanted and Julian would do the same even though it'd kill him to do it. Dash loves you more than life itself, hell, youjust had sex with him.For fuck's sake, Ariel. What's the matter with you? What's it going to take for you to believe in us, to believe in our relationship? Our love isn't enough for you? I bought you a goddamn building!"
He ended on a shout that had me wincing in my seat, flinching away from him as if he'd struck me.
"Why are you yelling at me?" I snapped back at him. "I tell you how I really feel, give you the truth you're always asking for, and you yell at me in return? What kind of garbage is that?"
Maybe that last bit was unfair, but I didn't give a crap. I'd stopped caring the moment he raised his voice. I'd put myself out there, not for me and certainly not because I'd wanted to. I didn't appreciate having it thrown in my face and being yelled at because of it.
"Why..." He sputtered. "Why am I yelling at you? Are you kidding me right now?"
"You asked and I gave you the truth."
"Well, the truth sucked," he spat.
No kidding, the truth sucked for me too.
"Maybe it's not exactly jealousy taking over me," I mused. "It's probably more like my own self-consciousness coming out. My insecurities taking over. I'm not perfect, far from it, and I'm the first one to admit it. But, most people, if they were to take a look at a photograph of me inside a manila folder just like the one in your hands, they would take one look at me and I can assure you, the word that would come out of their mouths wouldn't be pretty."
I lifted my right hand from the steering wheel, releasing my death grip on the thing to do it, and gestured toward my face.
"I can talk a big game," I continued. "I can even believe it myself, and do. But there's no erasing this shit on my face." I lowered my hand and gestured toward my chest. "There's no erasing the shit on my collarbones. But, the thing is, it's not those scars that are the worst on me, it's the ones I carry on the inside that own that. And I'm okay with that shit too."
"Ariel," he whispered in a pained voice.
I shook my head. "My scars don't bother me and I doubt they ever will. They're a part of me and they aren't a part I'm ashamed of. But, that's me and that's howIlook at them. That is not, nor will it ever be, the way the rest of the world looks at them or me because I wear them on my skin. It's not me, though, who has to look at me and thinkpretty."
It was my words this time that made me flinch and had absolutely nothing to do with him.
"Shut up," Tyson hissed at me. "Just shut the fuck up. There is nothing, absolutelynothingwrong with your face or the rest of your body. Youarepretty, so fucking pretty, and there's not a person in our entire coven who would say differently, and they would mean that shit from the very bottom of their souls. God, I can't even believe I'm having this conversation with you right now."
I had started this conversation, but I certainly didn't want to finish it.
I pulled up across the street from Fortune's for the Unfortunate and parked alongside the curb. There were two big, black boxy vans parked in front of the store that were out of place and had me not turning the SUV off just yet. Something about those vans was rubbing me the wrong way and putting me on edge.
"There is no other woman for us," Tyson said angrily. "There—"
I cut him off to stupidly say, "There was Annabell once."
He sucked in a sharp breath. I knew that was like a punch to the gut and I'd probably regret saying it later, but my focus had been diverted and I was now no longer paying as much attention as I should to what was going on inside of the vehicle. My eyes were aimed across the street.
"That's not fair," he whispered in a voice full of hurt, and I agreed entirely with him. "You are not Annabell, you're nothing like her. This is different from that and you have to know it. Annabell was never going to be in the place you are right now, and not just because only a handful of us were into her."
Loved her, he meant. Into her is what he'd said.
"Ty," I whispered urgently as I watched a dark figure move behind the glass, inside the store.
He ignored me. "I want to strangle you right now. You are so infuriating that it's hard to handle sometimes. I cannot wait to tell Uncle Quint about this latest shit you've come up with in an effort to distance yourself from us."
"I'm not distancing myself," I argued, as I unfastened my seat belt. I left the SUV running, just in case we needed to make a quick getaway. "I'm just telling you my version of the truth and I'm honestly sorry you're having a hard time dealing with it. Now, love you, babe, and I'm not trying to be mean when I say this, but I'm going to need you to shut up now and pay attention to what's going down across the street."
He sputtered indignantly as I slipped my cell phone out of my hoodie pocket and engaged it. I scrolled down to Quinton's contact and hit go. I put it on speaker and waited while it rang.
"Baby," he answered on the third ring. "Everything okay?"
