“We’re not doing anything until Paris talks to her mother,” Aric said. “Until then … we’re going to have to watch her to hear whether she says anything else crazy.”
“Did you notice she was trying to figure out what room we were in?” I asked.
“I did notice that,” Aric confirmed. “That has to be coming from Mark. I’m going to have Kelsey and Paris switch rooms after breakfast. We’ll put the charge through on someone else’s credit card.”
“I don’t think Mark would be stupid enough to go after us here,” Paris said.
“Probably not,” Aric said. “But I wouldn’t think Mark was stupid enough to blow up our engagement party either. That didn’t stop him from doing just that.”
“Maybe we should move them to a completely different hotel,” I suggested.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Aric said. “Don’t mention a hotel move to Brittany. Act as if everything is normal. After breakfast we’ll go upstairs, and Paris can call her mother. Then we’ll switch hotels.”
“And after that?”
“We can only do one thing at a time,” Aric said. “Right now we have to focus on Brittany. Whatever Mark is up to, he can’t be happy about what Zoe did last night. He can’t prove we’re behind it, but I guarantee he knows. He’s plotting. We have to stay a step ahead of him.”
23
Twenty-Three
“This is like the fifth bath we’ve taken together since we got here,” I said, studying Aric from the opposite end of the apartment’s small bathroom tub. “I’m starting to think you’re a chick with all the baths you want to take.”
Aric grinned as he grabbed my foot and rubbed it. “Don’t you remember racing home on Fridays so we could take a bath together when we first moved in together?”
We sat at opposite ends of the tub facing each other, my legs over his, and chatted through the steam and bubbles. It was the only way we fit together in the tiny space.
“I remember that the baths constituted foreplay,” I countered. “I’m not sure they were as romantic as you’re making them out to be.”
After breakfast – and two more odd utterances from Brittany – Paris called home and found her mother was garage sale shopping. We had to wait to hear back from her before moving forward. Aric insisted on returning to the apartment so we could take a bath. I was starting to think he was losing it.
“That’s not why we took a bath together every Friday,” Aric argued. “That was our quiet time together. You know, just us. Don’t ruin my memories.”
He was too cute not to smile. “I do remember that,” I conceded. “It’s when I realized we were too old for Friday parties and I was happier just hanging out with you.”
“See, you can be romantic when you want to be,” Aric said, shifting to my other foot. “Being back in this place makes me thankful for the life we’ve built away from here. I will always have fond memories of this place because it gave me you, but I’m ready to leave Covenant College behind for good.”
“Yeah, I’m not thrilled with being considered a cougar. It freaks me out.”
Aric snorted. “You’re in your prime, baby. Don’t worry about that. You just look old to the kids here because they can’t see beyond the myopic scope of this little world they live in. It’s normal for their age. We were the same way.”
“Tell me how you really feel,” I deadpanned.
“I want to go home,” Aric said. “I want to plan our wedding and look forward to the future. I want Mark taken care of, and I want it done soon.”
“Do you ever … ?” I broke off, unsure how to ask the question without shifting Aric’s mood from playful to irritable.
Aric lifted his patient eyes. “Do I ever what?”
“Do you ever wish you could go back in time and avoid meeting me that day at the University Center?”
Aric frowned. “No. Do you?”
“Of course not,” I said. “I got you out of the deal. You got stuck with me. There’s a difference.”
“Don’t ever say that!” Aric snapped, causing me to jolt at the tone of his voice. He held up his hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. You have to stop saying things like that, though. It bothers me.”
“It was just a question.”
“It was a stupid question,” Aric said. “Come here.” He reached for me, tugging my body on top of his and then sinking into the tub to cover us both with bubbles and water. “I wouldn’t trade our life for anything. This is what I’ve always wanted.”
“You want to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder to see who is coming after me next?” I couldn’t help but be dubious.
“Zoe, I wish you would stop being such a defeatist all the time,” Aric said. “I want to come home from work and find that you fell asleep on the couch and lost track of time. I want to watch you drive into the ditch because you’re arguing with a radio host about what an idiot he is.
“I want to listen to you laugh when you’re having a good time – even if it involves you being mean to someone,” he continued. “I want to fall asleep next to you every night, even when you snore.”
“I don’t store.”
“I’m not done,” Aric said, tapping his wet finger against the tip of my nose. “I want to be with you when there’s trouble. I want to be with you when things are going well. No matter what happens, though, I want to be with you. I wouldn’t change one moment of our time together.”
I opened my mouth to say something snarky, hoping to lighten the mood. Instead I snapped my mouth shut and did the unthinkable: burst into tears.
“Oh, geez,” Aric said, his face falling. “Don’t cry. I didn’t say that to make you cry.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice shaking. “I have no idea why I’m crying. That was the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me before.”
“Oh, well, of course that means you should cry,” Aric said, tightening his arms around my back. “Stop that. I don’t like it when you cry.”
“Okay.” I tried to rein in my emotions, and immediately started crying again.
“Oh, good grief,” Aric said, rubbing my back. “I’m never saying anything romantic again if this is the payback I get.”
“MY mom thinks we have to take the spell off Brittany,” Paris said later that afternoon, ushering us into her new hotel room. “She can’t be sure, but she thinks Brittany’s brain is overloading.”
“I think Brittany’s brain started overloading years ago,” I said. “That’s what happens when you try shoving things in something too tiny to hold them.”
“You’re so sweet sometimes,” Aric said, pinching my cheek and giving it a good shake.
I wrinkled my nose and rolled up to the balls of my feet to give him a kiss. Once I stopped crying – and pretended I hadn’t done it to begin with – we spent the rest of the morning making up. Because we hadn’t technically fought, I considered it a bonus of sorts.
“Oh, gross,” Kelsey said, walking out of the bathroom and shaking her head. “Are you two constantly in heat?”
“Leave her alone,” Aric chided, wrapping his arms around me. “She’s in her cuddly mode, and I like it. Don’t ruin this for me.”
“What’s going to happen when you two get married?” Kelsey pressed. “Are you going to lock yourselves away for months on end?”
“Just weekends,” Aric said, not missing a beat. “Speaking of that, though, my parents want to give us the honeymoon of our dreams. Where do you want to go?”
That was an interesting question. “Someplace warm with a beach.”
“Hawaii?”
“I could deal with Hawaii,” I said. “Can we get a cabana with a private hot tub and make sure we’re away from everyone else? Or, wait. Let’s go to Scotland so I can ride the Loch Ness Monster.”
Aric frowned. “Excuse me?”
“Either Hawaii or Scotland,” I replied, backtracking quickly. “You make the choice.”
“Consider it done
,” Aric said, leading me to the table at the edge of the room and pulling me on his lap as he sat in one of the chairs. We had more imminent concerns right now. “What do we need to break the spell on Brittany?”
“I have to go to a magic store for some ingredients,” Paris replied. “It shouldn’t take me long to put together a spell. Then I just need to kind of … well … toss it on her.”
“Toss it on her?” That didn’t sound good. “You’re going to walk up to her and throw a bag of dust on her, and hope that wipes away the spell we cast five years ago?”
“Do you have a better idea?” Paris challenged.
“I think we should let her go crazy and be done with it.”
“You do not,” Aric said. “You feel guilty because casting the memory spell was your idea. Because of that, Brittany is engaged to a murderous madman and working at a low-level job she can’t possibly enjoy. She also might be going crazy because we’ve been pushing her. You don’t want to deal with your feelings of guilt, so you’ve decided to be mean instead.”
“That was profound,” Kelsey said. “You should get a psychology degree just for diagnosing Zoe’s personality disorders.”
“I do not feel guilty!” What? I don’t. Okay, I do a little. How did that even happen? I can’t stand Brittany. I never could. Now I’m suddenly responsible for the damage done to her life and I’m supposed to fix it? That doesn’t seem fair.
“It’s not a dirty word, Zoe,” Aric chided. “I feel a little guilty, too. We put a spell on her and walked away without ever once wondering whether we were doing her a disservice.”
“We put the spell on her to save her from this stuff,” I said. “We were trying to do right by her.”
“Were we?” Paris arched a challenging eyebrow. “I’m starting to think we did it because it was the easiest thing for us to do. It was the best thing for us. I’m not sure it was right for her.”
“We were trying to save her from knowing what happened to Will and mourning him,” I argued.
“No, we were trying to save her from knowing what happened to Will because we didn’t want her screaming ‘murderer’ at us every chance she got for the rest of our lives,” Paris corrected. “We should have left her to deal with her stuff on her own. She might have surprised us over the long haul.”
“That brings up another potential problem,” Aric said. “When you reverse the spell, will she forget the past five years? I mean, is she going to wake up and go looking for Will, or will she remember her new memories on top of the old ones?”
“She should remember everything,” Paris answered. “We’re taking all remnants of the spell off, so everything should come into focus. She might be slightly confused at first, but she should understand what’s going on as soon as I reverse the spell.”
“That means she’s probably going to try to kill me,” I said. “I’ve got twenty bucks that says she blames all this on me.”
“There’s plenty of blame to go around,” Aric said. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you if she gets out of hand.”
“Just don’t blow her up,” Paris ordered. “We need information from her. Once she realizes what Mark has been doing, she might surprise us and join our side. She can’t do that if you blow her up.”
“I’m not going to blow her up,” I said. “Why do you guys think I’m going to blow everyone up whenever I get antsy?”
“Because you’re terrifying when you want to be,” Paris replied. “You need to save that for Mark.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” I said. “Mark is going to get his. I can promise you that.”
“Brittany is at a spa for the bulk of the afternoon,” Paris said. “I think we should approach her in the parking lot. I looked it up on line. It has an isolated parking lot, so if she freaks out … .”
“We can duck and cover without anyone noticing,” I finished. “Let’s do it. I can’t wait to have a chat with the real Brittany.”
“It’s going to be just like old times,” Kelsey said.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I said.
“IS THAT it?” I asked, swiveling so I could watch Paris ready her bag of magical mischief in the back seat of Aric’s Explorer.
“This is it,” Paris confirmed.
“How fast will it work?” Aric asked.
“It should be pretty close to instantaneous,” Paris answered. “Now, when she’s first dosed there could be a few seconds of confusion. She might even fall over.”
“I vote for that outcome,” I said, raising my hand.
“Knock it off, Trouble,” Aric chided, although a small smile played at the corner of his mouth. “I’ll catch her if she falls.”
“That sounds like her dream come true,” I grumbled. “She swoons and you come running.”
“I’ll swoon your butt off if you don’t stop that,” Aric warned. “We have to do this, Zoe. Don’t make me lock you in this Explorer. You’ll miss all the fun when Brittany remembers and has a meltdown. Then you’ll spend months listening to Paris and Kelsey tell you how you should’ve been there. You’ll hate yourself if that happens. We both know it.”
I frowned. He knows me too well. “Fine,” I said, reaching for the door handle. “Let’s do this and get it over with. If she hits on you even once, though … .”
“You’ll what? Walk off alone with Rafael and ask him what you should do?” Aric challenged.
“This place is definitely getting to the two of you,” Paris said.
“Fine,” I said, resigned. “I won’t do anything horrible.”
“Good girl,” Aric said, reaching into his pocket and handing me a wrapped lollipop. “It has gum in the center. That should make you happy.”
“Score!” I took the sucker and unwrapped it. “You always know the best way to my heart.”
“I do,” Aric agreed, grabbing my chin and giving me a kiss before I could shove the lollipop into my mouth. “If Brittany decides to throw a punch, make sure that thing isn’t in your mouth. She could choke you.”
“This is easily the weirdest conversation we’ve ever had,” Kelsey mused. “I’m including the time we sat in front of the window at that one house and licked it to mess with the Academy guy making out with Tally on the front porch.”
I snorted. “That was funny.”
“I don’t like that story because I wasn’t around for it,” Aric said, pushing open his door. “The new rule is that you can’t tell stories unless I’m the leading man.”
“That’s really going to cut down on my slut stories,” I deadpanned.
“You’re in trouble when we get home tonight,” Aric muttered.
We stood next to the Explorer for what felt like forever, our eyes trained on the spa, and then the door opened. Brittany was fixated on her purse when she stepped off the curb. I inclined my head in Paris’ direction, urging her to get it over with.
Paris strode forward, the baggie open, and dumped the contents on Brittany without one word of preamble.
Brittany’s eyes widened when she saw the mess and then briefly clouded. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She looked as if a stroke was on her to-do list today.
“Well, she’s definitely broken now,” I said.
Brittany locked her eyes with mine and her expression darkened. “Oh. My. God!”
24
Twenty-Four
“Zoe made me do it,” Paris announced, pointing in my direction and taking a step back so she wasn’t in range should Brittany lash out.
“What … who … how … why … ?” Brittany rubbed the side of her face as she attempted to collect herself.
“Those are four wonderful questions,” I said. “I’m going to leave Paris to answer them for you while I … go to that ice cream shop over there.”
Aric snagged the back of my shirt before I could walk away and shook his head. “Don’t even think about it.”
Brittany focused on Paris first, her gaze slowly shifting to Kelsey, Aric and then me in turn. She steppe
d in front of me, her eyes narrowed, and opened her mouth. I fully expected something ugly to escape. Instead she smacked me across the face with enough force to dislodge my lollipop and send it flying to the ground.
“You bitch!” Brittany reached for my hair but Aric intercepted her, easily grabbing her wrist and pushing her away from me.
“Keep your hands to yourself,” Aric ordered, wagging a finger in Brittany’s face. “She didn’t do this. Well … she didn’t do it on her own.”
“I didn’t even get to the gum yet!” I was furious. “You don’t hit someone when they have a sucker in their mouth! What’s wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?” Brittany screeched. “You just dumped something on me. I’m never going to get this smell out of this shirt, and it’s one of my favorites.”
“Paris dumped it on you,” I shot back. “I was standing over here minding my own business and you slapped me. Who slaps someone once they’re out of elementary school?”
“I’ve watched you slap a good twenty people,” Kelsey pointed out.
“Shut up, Kelsey.” I rubbed the side of my cheek and stretched my jaw to make sure there was no permanent damage, refusing to lower my gaze as Brittany stared me down.
“What is going on?” Brittany asked. “Why do I suddenly remember things differently?”
“That’s a really long story,” Paris said, opting for a calm and soothing tone. “And before we start it … um … we want to say how sorry we are.”
“I don’t,” I muttered, earning a stern look from Aric.
“Why are my memories back?” Brittany asked. “Why were they gone in the first place?”
“We took them away,” Paris answered. “After everything that happened … after Will’s death … we thought we were doing you a favor by removing all the bad parts of your time at Covenant College from your memory.”
Dark Covenant (Living Covenant Trilogy Book 2) Page 18
