Page 6 of Cursed to Love (Cursed to Love #1)

CHAPTER SIX

Wednesday, September 25

P aige stopped at her ten millionth red light and blew out a frustrated breath. Of course, on today of all days, she would hit every red light between Emmie’s daycare and the strip mall. She was mad at herself for not taking the time to iron her blouse the night before. It had taken precious minutes she hadn’t had to spare this morning.

Glancing at the clock on the dash, she made a calculation. It would be close, but as long as the client didn’t arrive early, there would be enough time for her to get back to the strip mall to check for anything out of place before he arrived.

The client was someone from Akerman Contracting. Her boss had taken the call and said he didn’t know who would be coming to tour the property because the person in charge of commercial operations had recently vacated the position.

Paige hadn’t mentioned her history with the Akermans, since it had been years ago and didn’t seem relevant. When she’d first left Blake, he was all she could think about, and she’d wondered if she’d made the right choice. She then determined to do her best not to think about him and life went on and her thoughts of him became fewer and fewer.

It wasn’t until she moved back into her old neighborhood that she ran into reminders of Blake. As the CEO, she doubted he would be the one to take the appointment, and maybe that was a good thing. A lot had changed, including her, in the eight years since she’d walked away from him in tears.

Her phone rang. Keeping her eyes on the road, she pressed the button on her steering wheel for the Bluetooth. “Paige Goshko speaking.”

“Paige.” Craig said her name like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

While she lived with him, she’d been so busy second-guessing she said and did to avoid pissing him off—trying to be the perfect wife and mother—that she’d never noticed. Now, it ate at her every time he said her name.

A car swerved in front of her. She slowed down not to hit it, delaying her response to Craig.

“Not speaking is childish, Paige.”

“I’m driving. What do you want?”

“That’s not the way to speak to me.”

“I’m sor—” The apology was automatic—an old habit—until she caught herself. “I’m busy, Craig. What do you want?”

He didn’t answer right away, and Paige smiled. Craig tried to be an alpha male, but he wasn’t really. Only around people he thought lesser than himself did he put on airs. It wasn’t until she moved out that Paige finally began to stand up to him. She didn’t get it right all the time, but she’d begun.

“I drove by your apartment building and saw people moving into your unit.” He paused and Paige waited him out. “Where are you living?” he finally asked.

Although she’d spent the last two weeks trying to prepare for this conversation, her mind went blank.

“Paige? I asked where you’re living.” His words were a demand.

If someone was listening to their conversation, they might think he was worried about her. They likely wouldn’t realize that Craig hadn’t even asked where she’d moved his daughter to. He didn’t care about Paige or Emmie. Too bad it took her so long to realize that.

It wasn’t until long after they were married that she saw Craig for what he truly was—the type of person who might not want you, but didn’t want anyone else to have you either. He was selfish and insecure and saw Paige as only a toy, but once he considered her no longer new and shiny, he hadn’t wanted her.

About a year into their marriage, she suspected he’d only told her he loved her and wanted her back as a form of manipulation. Craig’s real goal had been to get her to break up with Blake. The evolution to a proposal and marriage likely hadn’t been in his original plan, although he may have enjoyed having someone to control, but by then he had become as stuck as she was.

At first she’d been upset to think of herself as just a plaything or object to him. In the long run, the realization had helped her walk away.

With his need for control, not knowing where she had moved to was probably driving him nuts. She smiled at the thought and bit the inside of her cheek. Keeping it short, she told him, “We moved.”

“Don’t play coy with me, Paige. Where?”

Putting her foot on the brake, Paige slowed down, then stopped at her ten millionth and one red light. With the strip mall only a few blocks ahead, she needed to get Craig off the phone without telling him the truth.

“Why don’t you hire a lawyer to find out?” Before she’d moved out, she never would have taunted him in such a fashion, especially by throwing his own words back at him, but day by day she was getting the old Paige back. No one would ever manipulate her again.

Knowing Craig, she wouldn’t get the last word in, but the second last was good enough. “And when your lawyer calls,” she told him, “I’ll let him know you stopped paying child support.”

“You’re a bitch.”

The dial tone was loud in the car. It took a moment for it to register, then she smiled to herself. She may be living in a strip mall and be in a financial mess, but she’d just stood up to her abusive ex-husband. That had to mean she was doing something right.

Paige drove around to the back of the strip mall and her smile disappeared. A truck with the Akerman logo was parked behind the salon’s back door, and Blake sat in the front seat.

Her contact was the CEO himself.

And he was early.

As she pulled into the parking space beside Blake’s truck, he got out and walked around to the front of her vehicle to wait for her. The very first time she laid eyes on him when he’d offered her his hand to help her off the table at the party, she’d been almost struck speechless by his good looks. He was still the most handsome man she’d ever met. The years had added maturity to his face, the light blond scruff he sported giving him a devil-may-care look, and it was obvious he still worked out by the breadth of his shoulders beneath his suit jacket and the way it lay over his flat stomach. His hair was shorter than he used to keep it, but still thick, with just enough wave in it to give him a carefree look. She couldn’t see his eye color from here, but she knew they were light blue, like a cloudless sky.

In lieu of the concrete suddenly opening up and swallowing her whole, she wished for three things when she got out of her vehicle to greet him. One—she wouldn’t be struck speechless like in the past. Two—she didn’t look like she’d pulled her clothes out of a box, and three—he wouldn’t want to see all the units.

She threw her purse over her shoulder as she walked up to him. “Good morning.”

“Good morning, Paige.” His smile was genuine. Something she’d always loved about him. Since he hadn’t hesitated at seeing her, he must have known he’d be meeting her.

She offered her hand. “Good to see you, Blake.” Oh, my god . She should have made a fourth wish—that she wouldn’t swoon when she smelled him. Just like when they were in college, he had an alluring fresh and citrusy scent.

He shook her hand, and if he held on a few seconds too long, she wasn’t complaining. From the moment she’d first met him all those years ago, he’d felt like comfort and home. Not that there hadn’t been lust—there had been plenty of that—but she’d never felt awkward around him. Until now. Her tongue had tied itself in knots. So much for wish number one.

“It’s good to see you too. It’s been a long time,” he said.

Hoping her tongue wouldn’t fail her, she forced out her words. “I’m really sorry to hear about your mom. I ran into her and Kelly when I moved into an apartment near her last year. We had coffee a few times. She was a lovely person.”

His smile dimmed. “Thank you.”

Paige felt uncomfortable for a moment, like she was a lost twenty-year-old all over again.

“Ready to show me the property?” Blake asked, gesturing to the units behind them. “I understand the owner didn’t keep it up over the years.”

Grasping onto Blake’s suggestion, she got right down to business.

Starting with the first unit at the far end, they walked through each one, with her reciting the information she had about each space. Several times, their hands touched in passing and she felt a tingling that only Blake had ever given her.

While leaving the last unit, he placed his hand at the small of her back. His old-fashioned upbringing, she told herself, trying not to read too much into the gesture.

They finished viewing five of the units and were back at their vehicles in front of the door to the spa and salon. She hesitated, and he raised his brow at her.

“Aren’t you going to show me the last unit?”

Plastering a smile on her face, she walked to the door. “Of course.”

Inside, she walked over to the front counter, dropped her purse on it, and leaned against the side. She’d learned that, depending on the client, it was sometimes best to let them explore on their own. Blake was just that type of client—knew what he wanted to see and didn’t need her tagging along. If he had questions, he would ask them.

As he wandered around like he’d done in the other units, she fought the impulse to go check the rooms for anything she and Emmie might have left out. The boxes she could explain away as the owner using the place as storage, and she’d locked the room Emmie used. If Blake asked to see it, she’d already decided she would try different keys and say she didn’t have the right one but would get it later.

She admired him as he walked around and wondered why he was still single. At least, she thought he was. He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. Not that a ring was always a good indication of commitment, especially if he’d recently become engaged. The last time she’d spoken with his mom several months back, she mentioned that Blake never dated anyone seriously. That had seemed strange to her as Blake had told her he wanted a large family. Maybe he’d changed his mind.

Blake gave her a strange look. “Paige? Don’t you have the details for this unit?”

“Sorry, uh, yes.” She let out a nervous laugh and fumbled with her tablet, almost dropping it, before she pulled up the information.

He asked a couple of questions, then his body went stiff and his eyes closed.

“Blake? Blake, are you okay?” Putting her tablet on the counter, Paige walked over to him and laid her hand on his arm. “Blake?”

Paige had no idea what was going on. She doubted he was just lost in thought, since he hadn’t answered her. On TV, she had seen a few people having seizures, but they didn’t look the way Blake did now. The TV portrayals may not have been realistic because each time the person lowered themselves or fell to the floor.

Blake stayed standing. She didn’t think he was in pain. Nor was he jerking or twitching. Since his eyes were closed and he wasn’t talking, she couldn’t tell if he was having a medical emergency.

“Blake?” He didn’t do anything to indicate he’d heard her. She stayed by his side for another few minutes and when he still wouldn’t respond to her calling his name, she began to worry and went to retrieve her phone.

She had it in her hand when she heard Blake curse.

“Thanks, Paige. I’ve got to go. I’ll let you know what I decide.”

Blake strode out of the building without a backward glance. She had no idea what had just happened or why he would suddenly leave. Maybe he was embarrassed over her seeing him in that state.

Whatever state that was, he had just left her standing there. Similar to how she’d walked away from him eight years earlier.

* * *

The curse had taken over Blake so quickly that even though he’d heard Paige call his name, there’d been no time to react.

When Blake felt the external control of his body free him, he blinked the salon into focus.

“Shit,” he muttered, looking up to see Paige with her phone in her hand. Still swamped with the feelings of the woman from the curse, he knew he wouldn’t be able to pretend like nothing had happened.

He thanked Paige, said he’d be in touch. Grasping for the door’s handle, he pushed his way outside and was blinded by the bright sunlight. He stumbled forward, falling onto the hood of Paige’s car. He straightened, saw a child’s car seat in the back, and moved over to his truck.

Once inside, he took a deep breath to calm himself enough to drive, and glanced at his watch. Although he wasn’t sure exactly what time the curse started, he estimated it lasted for eight or ten minutes. He would need an excuse for his behavior, but that was too much to think about right then. Going into a trance and running out on Paige was not how he thought their reunion would go. Later, he would have to dissect what he’d been feeling, but he didn’t have the bandwidth for it right then.

Glancing in his mirrors, he backed out of the parking space and pulled into traffic. Using Bluetooth, he put in a call to Jake.

“Hey, good timing, the inspector just left.”

Inspector? It took him a moment to remember Jake’s meeting. “Tell me later? I need you to meet me at my house.”

“You okay?”

“Physically, yes. Ten minutes?”

“I’ll be there.”

He hung up and concentrated on his driving, making the short trip in good time, and pulled into his driveway.

Jake pulled in right after him and neither said anything as they walked into his house.

After dropping his keys and wallet on the table by the front door he made a beeline for the fridge. If it wasn’t still morning, he would have reached for a beer to calm his nerves. Instead, he took out a bottle of water and drained it. His throat wasn’t dry anymore, but his nerves were still shot.

Looking over his shoulder at Jake standing in the doorway frowning, he asked, “Water or something else?”

“I’ll take a water.”

Blake passed him a bottle, and after tossing his empty bottle in his recycle bin, he took a root beer for himself. Popping the tab, he took a drink, but didn’t inhale the liquid like he had the water. Out of habit, they both moved into his dining room and sat at the table.

Jake put his can on the table and pulled the tab. “Tell me.”

“I went to see some commercial property—it’s Paige’s listing. We’d been there maybe an hour, going from unit to unit. We were in the last unit—what used to be a spa—when my body froze. I got sucked in just like the last time, except I was standing.”

“You think that being in the spa was important.”

It wasn’t a question. Jake knew him well enough to know if he mentioned seemingly unimportant details, they were relevant.

“Exactly. When I was in my spare room, it brought back memories of my mom and how she’d pushed me to find love. Not to mention what she’d done to the room. Maybe she did it because of Paige since she has a child. I figured something there triggered the curse. But this time I was in an old spa with a salon in the front end. How could that have triggered the curse?”

“Paige is the only woman you’ve ever loved.”

Blake ran his finger along the condensation on his can. “You think that would be enough to trigger the curse?”

“What makes you think it needs a trigger?”

“I don’t know… I just… I don’t know.” Blake met his friend’s gaze. “You don’t think it does?”

“According to your mom’s letter, your thirtieth birthday was the trigger. If that was the case, then the episodes could happen at random times.”

“Fuck.” Blake dragged his hands down his face. That wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

“You want to tell me about it? If they’re not random like I suspect, we might be able to discern some clues about how to stop them.”

“It’s worth a try.” Blake closed his eyes and pictured what he’d seen. He spoke out loud to Jake while he walked back through the episode.

When the images settled, Blake was in a large field with massive trees scattered throughout. It seemed to be a similar time of year to his own time as the leaves of the enormous oak trees had already turned a brilliant red. He wrinkled his nose as the smell of cow dung carried to him on a breeze. Still wearing the light coat he’d worn to tour the strip mall, he was warm enough but could feel a slight chill against his cheeks.

Less than twenty feet away a couple stood at the base of a broad red oak. A fence made of interlocking logs only three high sat behind the tree and extended as far as Blake could see.

Blake knew he was in Massachusetts in the year 1778. He walked closer to the couple, hoping to hear what they were saying. Like the painter in New York, they didn’t notice him, even when he was only five feet away.

The sun was setting, casting shadows over the couple.

The woman was crying, and the man used his thumbs to wipe away her tears. “Moira, please do not cry. I will come back.”

Moira looked up at the man, her eyes roaming over his face as if trying to memorize his features. “You promise?”

“Of course. I could never leave the one I love,” he said solemnly. “And until I return…” He put his hand in his pants pocket and pulled out something. “You can keep this locket as a reminder I will come back.”

The man picked up Moira’s hand and placed the locket in it.

“Oh, Liam.” The chain dangled down as Moria held the locket between her fingers and used her fingernail to open it. Her eyes widened. “A lock of your hair.”

She threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you. I love you too,” she whispered.

When the air shifted, Blake felt warm. He was in a formal sitting room with a fire blazing in the hearth.

Moira sat stiffly in a chair, her head bowed and one hand clutching something on a chain around her neck.

Another woman, almost a spitting image of Moira, only older, sat on a couch across from her.

“This is your duty, Moira,” a man said as he stood by the fireplace. “As my daughter, you will do as I say. I have gone to great lengths to secure your future. Adam is a good man from a wealthy family. He will provide for you.”

Moira looked up, dried tear tracks visible on her cheeks. “What about Liam? He’s the one I love.”

Her father scoffed. “Love will not feed and clothe you and your future children.”

When the air shifted again, Blake stood outside a church. He watched as Moira, wearing a simple gown and a forced smile, exited the church on the arm of a man Blake assumed was the man her father had arranged for her to marry.

Before Moira and her husband reached the end of the short path, the scene changed again.

Blake found himself back in the field where he’d first seen Moria and Liam, the scent of cows in the air. The same interlocking log fence still stood, now weathered from years in the elements.

Not seeing anyone, Blake walked parallel to the fence until he spotted a man leaning against one of the massive red oaks. The man straightened, looking at something in the distance.

Looking in the same direction, Blake saw a woman walking toward them. As she got closer he recognized Moira. He guessed a couple of decades had passed based on her aged appearance. He turned back to the man and realized that it was Liam. His hair was longer, and a jagged scar that hadn’t been there before ran along his right cheek.

“Moira, thank you for meeting me,” Liam told her.

“Like last time, I should not be here.”

“Then why did you come?”

Moira met his gaze while her hand clasped the locket at her throat. “Because I needed to tell you that you must stop asking your sister to bring me your notes.”

“You still wear my locket.”

“Yes. I will always keep it. Just as I will always love you, but I cannot be with you. I have children I must consider. I hope you find someone else to love, Liam. Goodbye.” Moira turned to walk away.

“Do you love him?” Liam asked.

She looked over her shoulder at him. “No. I had already given my heart to another. But it was my duty,” she said, repeating her father’s words.

Moira looked forward and didn’t turn back again as she walked away.

Blake felt a bone-deep sorrow emanating from both of them, as if the loss of their love was his own.

He opened his eyes and blinked, trying to rid himself of the image of Moira in misery.

He glanced around his dining room as he grounded himself in the comfort of his familiar surroundings before looking at Jake. “Thoughts?”

“All the love and loss you described… was that how you felt when you had the first episode too?”

“Yes. Both times I could feel their love and then what they felt when neither of them could recover.” Blake picked up his can of root beer and took a sip; it had grown warm in the time it took to relive the vision.

“I think you’re seeing ghosts of failed love,” Jake said.

“Failed love? In both… Curses? Episodes? Whatever they’re called. The love, on one side in Peter’s case, and on both sides for Moira and Liam, was so strong I could feel it.”

“And the love never waned, but none of them got to spend a lifetime with the one they loved. In a way, both experienced failed love. Or perhaps they both became unrequited love.”

Blake slumped in his chair, as he processed what Jake had said. Was the curse showing him failed or unrequited love because he hadn’t found his own love? Or that no matter how much one loved, failed love was inevitable? Is that what he had to look forward to? Would he eventually feel empty as he grew old? Would he choose to settle for a life less than he wanted, whether he chose love or not, even though he didn’t want love?

The thought of suffering that type of sadness for the rest of his days was incomprehensible. “Do you think the curse is trying to show me my future?”

Jake shrugged. “I’m not sure. Your mom’s letter just said that you had to find love and have it reciprocated before your thirtieth birthday.”

Blake nodded, knowing Jake was working through his thoughts out loud.

“But her letter didn’t say when it would end,” Jake said.

“Or even that it would end once it started.” That was now Blake’s biggest fear.

“How far apart were the episodes?”

Blake didn’t have to look at a calendar, the days would forever be etched in his memory. “There were eleven days between my birthday and the first one and another eleven between that one and today. Not counting the days of.”

“If they stay like that for now, it might not be too bad.”

Blake snorted. “Says you who doesn’t have to experience people drown in their misery.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“Cade and I went through Mom’s stuff a couple of weeks ago and found some old letters. I haven’t talked to Cade about them, so I don’t know if he’s gone through them yet. He said he was going to give your mom some journals to look through.”

“Maybe they’ll have some answers.” Jake pulled out his phone to check the time.

Blake smiled at the normalcy of his friend’s gesture after feeling so much heartbreak. It was a long-running joke between them that Jake had always asked him for the time until he got his first phone. “You got to go?” Blake asked him.

“No. Tell me about the property. Think it’s viable?”

Welcoming the change of topic, Blake launched into his thoughts about the strip mall. By the time they finished discussing the strip mall and its possibilities, Blake’s mood had improved.

After Jake left, Blake pulled out his laptop and worked from home. Since he’d only had two episodes and they’d been eleven days apart, he wasn’t concerned about having another one so soon, but he was tired from the emotional wear and tear of the morning. He worried if he went into the office and someone said the wrong thing, he’d chew their head off. The week before had been bad enough.

He opened an email from Paige with the particulars of the property. She hadn’t mentioned him going into a trance, nor his abrupt departure. Still not knowing how he could explain it to her, he just replied to her email by thanking her and saying he’d be in touch.

Seeing Paige again brought back so many emotions he’d buried for a long time. At one time he’d cared so much for Paige he had begun to think about a future with her.

He snorted softly and revised his last thought. Well… probably as much as any twenty-one-year-old could think about a future

Now, if the curse didn’t stop, he wouldn’t have a future at all.