Page 33 of Season of the Witch (Toil and Trouble #3)

The sound of her quick breaths fell into the sudden hush. Her heart rabbited in her chest, so fast she felt dizzy. “Just…leave it alone. Please.”

Avoiding his stare, she bent to the lights haphazardly lost in the snow. With fingers that betrayed her unsteadiness, she reached to wrap them back around the branch, fighting the hot wave of humiliation.

She stilled when his strong hands slid over hers. Without saying a word, he took over until the lights were back where they belonged. Like the outburst had never happened.

“Okay,” he murmured into her hair. Tension crackled, a lightning storm of fury and fear under her skin she struggled to contain.

He inched around to face her. She didn’t look him in the eye, staring past him as she waited for his questions. No point in running. She’d already made herself look stupid, the explosion overly dramatic. She should’ve just deflected.

The wind stirred the bells in a soft jingle as Rudy sneezed three times. She heard Henry breathing, solid and sure, and she tried to match him. In and out. In. And out. In—

“Tell me a good memory.”

His words knocked her off balance. “What?”

“A good memory,” he repeated. “Of us. Please?”

She worked her jaw, tempted to refuse. But he watched her, green eyes warm and kind, just like when he’d been seventeen and found her curled up miserable after one of her mom’s lectures.

He’d pulled her into a hug, whispering she was perfect as the brat she was.

She’d breathed in smoke and spice and known he would always be her safe space.

Pain made her throat raw as she continued to breathe. In. Out.

He could only hurt her again if she let him, she reminded herself. She was safe behind the boundaries she’d set. Everything had been fine between them before they’d started a relationship. Friends, or friends with benefits, couldn’t do her harm.

Besides, refusing made the memories a bigger deal than they had to be.

So she shrugged. “Fine.” She tucked his jacket tighter, casting her mind back. Something fun. Sexy. Not fraught with messy emotion.

It hit her and she smiled, unbidden, rubbing the back of her neck. “I tricked you into our first kiss.”

His laugh was short, surprised. “What?”

The cramp in her belly eased, warmth blooming instead. “Yeah. I was seventeen, you were eighteen. We’d been hanging out for a while, just friends—if you can even call it that. You annoyed me as much back then as you do now.”

He snorted.

“Anyway, we’d been hanging out in Jackson Square, arguing, insulting each other, the usual. It was past curfew and I knew my mom was going to be pissed but I didn’t want to leave.”

“Because you were so into me.”

She scoffed, even though he was right. “You were being insufferable because these girls were mooning over you, like always, and I was sick of it. I blurted out how I was ready to kiss the guy I liked.” She remembered the moment so clearly, how his head had snapped around, a fierce scowl quickly melting into his usual sardonic expression.

“You said I was making him up, argued how you’d never heard about him before. I mean, you were right, but you were always talking about other girls and I wanted to be the one winning for a change.”

“Let me guess. You told me all about the fictional guy.” Amused, Henry shook his head. “I bet I took that well. I’ve never liked to share.”

“You got more annoyed the more I told you,” she confirmed. And her stomach had fizzed with excitement, the obvious jealousy, the meaning behind it. “Then I went in for the kill.”

Henry lifted his eyebrows.

“I asked you to tell me if I was a good kisser.” Tia huffed an affectionate breath at the ridiculousness of her teenaged self’s plan.

“You refused pretty passionately, but I kept after you.” It made her cringe now, but at the time, she’d only seen the dark glitter in his eyes, how they’d dropped to her lips.

“Finally, I said if you wouldn’t, I’d go find Gabriel—your best friend—and ask him.

” The forgotten memory tickled her. Leah would probably find it hysterical since both Tia and Gabriel would sooner kiss a toad before each other.

“And?” Henry prompted.

“ And . You kissed me.”

It had been the start of it all, clumsy passion and teenage desire, all 200 percent and raging like wildfire.

They’d kissed for minutes, hours, his young, strong body pressed to hers against the railings.

Even when they’d stopped, breathless, wide-eyed, they hadn’t pretended it had been a joke.

After that night, they’d been inseparable.

Kissing, touching, laughing, challenging each other, arguing, making up over and over.

A wild ride with no brakes. No wonder it had all crashed.

She shrugged now, swallowing against the bittersweetness of it all. “I always wondered if you knew I’d tricked you. Only an idiot would’ve fallen for such an obvious bluff.”

Henry’s hand came to her chin, tilting it. His lips caught hers, a lush kiss that spun out into long seconds. Her hands tangled into his sweater when he drew back, something odd she couldn’t name in his eyes.

“Only an idiot,” he informed her with a grin that scrambled her pulse, “would’ve passed that opportunity up.”

The rush of something old, something new, made her stomach drop away as she stared at him.

And weakly reminded herself only an idiot made the same mistakes twice.