Page 74 of Worth the Fall
This was exactly what I had been worried about. I’d already fallen for the woman, and my daughter was putting imaginary love spells on us.
“Ooh,” Matthew crooned. “I hope your spell works.”
“Me too!” Clara hopped around, and my heart felt like it dropped to the pit of my stomach.
“You’re my favorite witch. Even if you have smeared lipstick.” Matthew grinned at my daughter before tapping her nose with his finger.
“Oh no.” She jumped up on the vanity and looked in the mirror as she frowned. “I think I got it on Jasper. I’m sorry, Uncle Patrick.”
“It’s okay. I’m sure he likes it,” Patrick said as he patted his dog’s big head.
“Out. Let me fix her lipstick, and we’ll be right down.” I pointed at the door and waited for them all to get out of the crowded space and give me room. “Take the dog.”
“So mean to my new best friend,” Patrick whined before slapping his thigh, and Jasper promptly ran to his side like he’d been doing it his whole dog life.
Clara hopped off the vanity, walked up to me as I sat on top of the bathtub edge, and put both her hands on my cheeks. “Be nicer to Jasper. He’s a good boy, Daddy. I love him.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” I said, and she grinned.
“I’m sorry I did a spell on you and Miss Brooklyn. Are you mad?”
“Of course not,” I said, wondering how to navigate this without breaking her heart. “But not all spells work all the time. You know that, right?”
She shrugged. “It’s a love spell, Daddy. Those always work.”
I had no response, so I sucked in a deep breath and narrowed my gaze to look at her messed-up lipstick. It was times like this when I wished Clara had a female figure in her life. Even if just to help with the makeup.
“Okay, now, stand still so I can do your lipstick again.”
She tried to be still, but she fidgeted. And closed and opened her mouth while I was trying to put it across her lips. Something that should have been super easy to accomplish was anything but.
“All done,” I said once I finally finished. “You need help getting the rest of your costume on?”
“Nope. I can do it. But if I can’t, I’ll shout for help.”
“Okay. I’ll be downstairs.”
I walked out of the bathroom and headed downstairs to where my brothers sat on the couch in front of the television. It was playing some basketball game, but the volume was muted.
“I’m going to dread the day she doesn’t want us to come with her,” Patrick said with a frown. “Can you imagine it? When she wants to go with all her friends instead of us?” He ran his fingers through his hair. It was getting long.
“Stop it. I can’t stomach hearing that,” Matthew said as he took a pull of his beer. “Talk about something else. Anything else.”
“Let’s talk about that video of Thomas kicking that guy’s ass,” Patrick said with a grin because aside from a handful of text messages, we hadn’t addressed this topic in person yet.
“It’s his fault.” I thumbed toward Matthew. “He’s the one who called me in the first place.”
Patrick nodded. “I saw him on the video too.”
“Look, it was either have Thomas come down to the saloon and shut the guy up or I was going to do it. And since he was Brooklyn’s ex, I figured T would want to be the one,” Matthew explained to Patrick since I’d already known all of this.
“That’s fair. So, how’d Brooklyn take it? I’m assuming she’s seen the video since I had it sent to me about twenty-five times,” Patrick asked.
“She was here when it happened,” I said, looking right at him since Matthew already knew this part.
“Here, here? Like, at the house?” Patrick asked for clarification.
“Yeah. We had dinner together that night.”