"Right. Yes, thanks. And, sorry. I'm fine. Just thinking about life."
Her magic swirled around him, calmer than before. It seemed to be content with where she and it were in their search. Her power knew where he was at all times, ever since she and Caleb - well, did more than kiss.
A chill in the air had her rubbing her arms.
"You're cold? Do you know where your coat is?"
"Well, yes and no." She tilted her head towards the truck.
"The boxes are labeled, and I can tell you from doing a bit of cheating exactly where it is. The issue is, the location of said boxes are behind the mattress and this table up front. I guess I didn't think when I packed."
Marci licked her lips. If he'd kiss her as he'd just done, she wouldn't need a coat. She wouldn't need clothes if a damn blizzard were around.
She opened her mouth, then closed it. How long would they not talk about the elephant in the room - or well, his huge asset beneath those jeans?
Marci glanced over to Hazel clucking happily up the walkway to the house.
"I'm worried about what to do with her, too. In the city, I used a dog crate, but that's not a permanent solution. I've only had her a week; I barely know how to feed her."
Marci yanked on the mattress, but it didn't move. Stepping up into the truck, she hauled her ass over the upside-down table, piled high, and forced herself through a thin space between the boxes.
"Do you want help?"
She ignored him. She was amazing at helping others and shitty at accepting it. As she rounded the end of the mattress, she pushed a few boxes, an inch here and an inch there making space for her to get it. Getting the bed out would make a world of difference - it didn't budge.
She grunted and rested her face against the plastic wrap encasing the bed. Frustrations of being alone again started to push in against her. Was it a thing to be reverse-claustrophobic, where there was more than enough space here, but the world still felt alone.
"Marci? Do you want help."
Leaning against the mattress, she breathed in and out. Slowly. All she had to do was say yes. If she admitted needing help though, she'd lose her control. She needed control of something, and that was not going to be Caleb, anymore than it was going to be her previous life. And then there was something about the spell niggling at the back of her mind.
All she had to do was tell him she needed help. He hadn't asked her to marry him. He hadn't said she would be giving up her freedom or signing away her soul.
Her magic threaded out from her, seeking him around the boxes at the end of the truck. If she said yes, it felt more like she would be saying what she feared her magic was telling her. That she was here for him, and not because he needed her, but because she needed him.
Marci hadn't cried in the weeks following the announcement that the wedding was off, or that she was leaving, or when the family said they didn't want Hazel after they realized what their grandmother had left them wasn't a treasure chest of jewels.
She hadn't broken down when she'd placed the last box in the truck. She hadn't cried when her mother stood in her bare living room cursing her - and sadly she wasn't entirely sure they weren't real curses. To be safe, Marci had taken several baths trying to wash off any curse her mother might have actually or accidentally placed on her.
She sure as damn well wasn't going to cry over whatever this was. She wasn't - but, the small warm trail down her cheek disagreed.
Everything was quiet now, and reality hit that she'd just made out with a man that was hot as hell and so far above her league on looks. The strange encounter with a witch who seemed to believe Marci was here because of her and not from Marci's own choices. It all was too much and she started to cry at the idea that maybe even now, she wasn't actually in control of anything in her life.
"Marci?" The deep tenor of Caleb's voice filtered into the truck. "Marci? Are you okay?"
She pulled her face away with a sticky ripping like a fruit roll-up stuck to its wrapper.
She wiped the heels of her hands against her face. "Yeah. I'm here. I Uh. Yes. Help. I need it."
She was a hot mess.
Fanning her face, she willed away the red, blotchy ugly she knew her face would be.
She stumbled forward as the mattress slipped away and out of the truck.
"Careful."
Caleb caught her before she fell from the truck. Righting herself, the completeness of being in his arms made her want to fold into him and let it all be. He let go abruptly, the rush of empty, cold around her.
"Stay right here. I'll help unload everything, but I need to let Frank out."
She sat down on the tailgate. Moments passed. Her magic jumped here and there, searching for something that wasn't there - anything to find another reason to be here, outside of this man.
A deep bark echoed around the neighborhood. Marci looked up as a massive, brown blur charged Hazel, followed by Caleb's voice. "No, Frank."
Squawking and barking turned the quiet dull of the town into an uproar.
Her heart jumped to her throat as she took a step forward, only stopping because Caleb's blur beat her to the brawl.
The squawking slowed, and the barking stopped. She laughed as Caleb fell to the ground, Frank sat on his lap, and Hazel perched on his head.
Hands on hips, she gawked.
"There are no words right now."
Hazel hopped off of his head and hopped onto Frank who laid down panting.
Caleb stood up and met
