Page 30 of Curses & Cold Brew (Maple Hollow #2)
RAMONA
I ris sat on the low wall that ran along the perimeter of the cemetery as everyone started to amble back into town. Willow had promised everyone a celebratory coffee and pastry at Witch’s Brew. Nothing like slaying your enemies to bring a town together . . . and work up a wicked appetite.
The last of the townspeople soon filtered away, leaving just Iris and me.
She had sticks and leaves nesting in her tousled hair and dirt on her clothes, but otherwise, she was unharmed.
The shame that I had put her in danger hadn’t left me just yet, but knowing that everyone had made it out alive—aside from Esme—was helping lift the weight on my chest. And judging by the expression on the witch’s face, I had a feeling she’d thoroughly enjoyed being bait.
Still, no matter how much she deserved it, I couldn’t believe Esme was really gone.
I suspected it was loneliness that had driven her to such madness and for that, I couldn’t entirely hate her, no matter how much she deserved her end.
Death was no stranger to me, but even so, there were memories Esme and I shared that would be hard to let go of.
There was one thing that was for certain though: her return made me even more grateful for the people in my life.
With that thought, I perched on the cool stone next to Iris and took her hand in mine as if I did it all the time. Iris smiled before looking in the direction where Esme turned to dust.
“Well,” I said wistfully, “I didn’t have Randy using his own head as a weapon on this year’s bingo card, but here we are.” I brought the back of her hand to my lips and laid a quick kiss on her dirt-stained skin.
She chuckled. “I feel like he had been waiting a long time to do that. And staking a vampire with a broom is definitely a new one for the coven. That’ll teach Agnes not to tease us at the next town meeting.”
It had been quite the sight. Not that I thought the vampires would ever truly stop antagonizing the witch coven. Town traditions were important, after all.
“I’m sorry I brought all of this on you,” I managed to say.
“Don’t be.” Iris squeezed my hand. “It was fun to have a little excitement.”
I let out a contemplative hum. There was so much more I needed to say, but vulnerability was still an entirely new concept for me, and something inside of me—the cowardly part—screamed at me to give her a way out.
I’d declared my affection for her to the entire town, and now, in the quiet aftermath, I was beginning to wonder if I’d taken everything too far.
After all, the time Iris and I had spent together had been forced upon us.
Maybe without the rush of adrenaline, things would seem different in the light of day.
And while I didn’t think I could survive without Iris in my arms every night, I wanted her to make the choice for herself—no strings, curses, or rogue vampires attached.
“Things can go back to the way they were now,” I murmured. “You’re free. No more Sherlock and Watson needed.” I felt Iris’s eyes on me even though I didn’t look up from where our hands joined.
“Is that . . . what you want?”
“No,” I admitted instantly.
A small smile tipped her lips. “Me either.”
Something warm bloomed in my belly at that. “Can I say something that might be a little . . . much?”
“Is it that you want to start up our own detective agency? Because I do have a real job, actually.”
“No, not that.”
“Okay, then what?”
I took a deep breath, steeling myself. “You terrify me. Or rather, the way you make me feel terrifies me. I know demons don’t do happily-ever-afters. I’d resigned myself to the fact that women want to be in my bed and nothing more. I was okay with it. Being unloveable?—”
“You aren’t unlovable,” Iris cut in. “Far, far from it.” She hopped up from her perch and moved to stand between my legs, draping her arms around my shoulders.
“You won’t judge me for admitting the way you make me feel terrifies me too?
” she whispered, her eyes searching mine with all the vulnerability I couldn’t show.
She let out a soft laugh. “Look at us, both terrified we feel more for the other, that the feelings won’t be returned, that we’ll end up hurting each other . . .”
“At least we’re not alone in that,” I murmured, sweeping a hand down to the small of her back and gathering her closer. “I just know that if you and I take one more step forward, it will change everything within me forever.”
“I think you’re worth risking my heart for,” Iris whispered, and my throat constricted with emotion. “I think—I know ,” she corrected, “that you’re worth it.”
“I love you.” My lips clamped together the second the words left them. I left that proclamation just hanging there between us.
I couldn’t believe I’d done it.
I’d said it aloud.
Holy shit.
I felt like I was going to throw up.
But her hands cupped my cheeks, and she pulled me into a kiss, murmuring against my mouth, “I love you too.”
Disbelief coursed through me. I didn’t think I’d ever be worthy of someone like her, but I couldn’t deny the look in her eyes—the truth in them. She loved me. She loved me just as I loved her.
“I think I’d like to be changed forever by you too,” I whispered, and her eyes misted with tears that matched my own. I dipped a finger into the collar of her sweater. “So, I guess there’s only one last thing to deal with.”
“How to incorporate this little vampire-staking sketch into the Halloween Festival?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind.” She snickered. “What else do we have to contend with?”
“Our deal. You still owe me a proper date.”
“We carved pumpkins. We spent the night together. We just trapped and killed a vampire with the entire town.” She swept a hand toward the graveyard. “That didn’t qualify as a date?”
“Nope.” I let out a throaty chuckle. “I want you to be very sure that this is what you want before we go on our first official date.”
“I do,” she said instantly, and that glowing, golden warmth coursed through my veins again.
“You better be sure,” I insisted.
Her lips curved. “Why?”
“Because when I call in our deal, love, I’m never letting you go.”