Page 91 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding

“Spell what?”

“The sunscreen. Could the product have a spell on it that would make it so that, I don’t know, anyone with the wrong intentions can’t use it?”

“I have no idea,” Dante said, frowning. “But it’s an idea, isn’t it?”

“You could try to find a witch. Bring the plan to her. See if she could help you out. Maybe for a share of the profits or something to make it worth her time. Or … when I get my inheritance – if we can pull this off – I can invest.”

Dante’s eyes brightened. It was the first time in a long time he’d looked so hopeful. “I can look into it. There’s got to be a witch somewhere who could make that kind of spell.”

“Until then, I expect one of these,” Pandora said, waving the stick at her brother. “I mean, Victor already thinks I get horrible sunburn.” She indicated her umbrella. “And terrible circulation. And a garlic allergy. But it would be nice to have this just in case of anything … unexpected.”

“Only a few more weeks to go, right?” Dante asked.

“Yeah, the past few have kind of gone by in a flash,” Pandora said.

Things had been back to normal, she supposed, with Victor. She went to work. He showed up to study, work, and drink his macchiatos. Sure, they talked more these days, since they had a lot of planning to do for the future.

Not just the wedding, but things like lifeafterthe wedding. They’d both been doing a lot of flat-shopping online, trying to find a place close to uni for him, but also Luna Bean and the bookshop Pandora hoped to open. So they would sit and pore over the options on her breaks, then talk about how many bookshelves they’d need, what colours they’d paint the walls, all that stuff.

Admittedly, it meant there was a lot of daydreaming going on for Pandora. Imagining their lives together.Making coffee and tea in the morning. Sitting in the living room at night, each reading their books.

Did those dreams also veer off into fantasies, ones where they might brush each other as they flipped pages, where one, then both of them might lean in, kiss, touch, head to one of their bedrooms, and make their fake marriage a real one? Yes, yes, they did.

But back in the real world, Victor kept his distance physically from Pandora now that they weren’t around their families together.

So Pandora had been trying not to let herself harp on that one thing he’d said to Bellatrix in the pantry while being glamoured.

It clearly hadn’t meant what she’d thought.

Of course helikedher. If he hated her, there was no way he would be going through this bollocks plan with her. Especially when it was going to involve living with her for a full year.

“Yeah?” Dante asked. “I’d have thought that it would drag, with how much the aunts and Mum are all over you.”

“Don’t forget the cousins,” Pandora said.

The train of family members coming to stay had not stopped with the appearance of her great-great-grandmother Ambrosia.

There had been a day or two of peace before the ­cousins started rolling in.

Though, for once, Pandora was pleased with the company of the younger female cousins who gushed over her ring, who asked her all sorts of questions about Victor. No judgment or weirdness about her choice to marry a human.

They worked as a nice buffer between the older ­women’s often antiquated or crazy wedding-planning ideas.

There’d been a particularly worrying suggestion of some sort of full-moon blood ritual.

But the cousins put a quick end to that. Which also meant Pandora didn’t have to be the bad guy all of the time.

“We’re about bursting at the seams,” Dante said. “Wonder when it will stop.”

“The night before the wedding, I suspect,” Pandora said. “The rooms might be full, but we have the whole basement and attic to fill with more coffins, if needed.”

“Yeah. Been worried Mum was going to try to make me share. My whole room looks like a science laboratory.”

“Dante!” a voice called in the distance.

“That’s the other lifeguard,” Dante said. “I have to be getting back.”

“Right. Of course,” Pandora said, handing him back his sunscreen. “I’m sorry I followed you. I was just concerned.”