Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 25792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
He chased after me, catching up as we broke through the trees and came upon the pool of water the fall dumped into. “You were right. This is beautiful.”
I turned to him and reached for the button on his jeans. “The only thing better would be if we were frolicking naked in it together.”
“Please don’t,” a deep voice mumbled from our left.
My head jerked toward the sound, and I heaved a deep sigh when I spotted Koen Kelly sitting at the edge of the water about fifty feet away from us. He had a fishing pole in one hand and a beer in the other.
“Oops, sorry.” My cheeks heated as I realized he would’ve gotten a heck of a show if he hadn’t spoken up. I was so lost in Cooper that I never would have noticed he was there.
Cooper wrapped his arm around me and pulled me against his side, his fingers stroking over my feathers. “I’m sorry we didn’t see you. We’ll let you get back to your fishing.”
Koen jerked his chin up and then turned to stare into the water while he took a sip of his beer.
Cooper looked over his shoulder a couple of times as he walked away, a furrow in his brow. Once we were far enough away that Koen couldn’t hear us, I said, “Don’t worry about Koen. He would've acted the same if we hadn’t interrupted his fishing by almost flashing him. It’s not anything we did, he’s always a bit of a grouch. I think that’s why he and one of my employees, Braylon, get along so well. They have the grumpy demeanor thing in common.”
“That’s not what was bothering me,” Cooper murmured.
I tilted my head to the side. “Then what’s wrong?”
“Was I seeing right? Or were my eyes playing tricks on me?” Cooper asked, raking his fingers through his hair. “Did that guy have horns in his head and flames swirling in his eyes?”
“Yes, that’s what happened when he was turned into a demon,” I confirmed, stumbling to a stop when I realized the implication of what Cooper had just said. “Wait a second. You could see the flames in his eyes from that far away? Even with the sun setting?”
“Holy fuck,” Cooper breathed, his eyes widening as he nodded. “Yes, I saw him clear as a bell.”
“Whoa, how did that happen?” I blinked rapidly as I tried to wrap my head around this development. “Did the doctors say anything about the possibility of your vision just returning one day?”
“No, that’s why I was willing to try the potion Maggie gave me.” He turned in a circle, staring at the trees surrounding us. “I didn’t think it had a chance of working, but holy hell, I think it actually did.”
My brows drew together. “What potion?”
He explained how Maggie had talked him into going to Something Wicked because she might have something to help with his eyesight. If he’d told me this sooner, I would’ve assumed it was just an excuse my friend had used to get us to bump into each other. But it apparently turned out that she was right…Maggie’s potion had given Cooper his vision back.
“This is so wild,” he murmured as he started to walk again. “I mean…I know that potions can pack one hell of a wallop, considering everything caused by that Frankenpunch stuff you told me about. And Maggie told me she was the Wicked Witch of the West, so it figures that she has magical powers beyond what I can imagine. But I really didn’t think that potion she whipped up for me would do anything. I only drank it because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings if she asked me about it later.”
“She’ll be so happy when you let her know it worked.”
Following him, my head was spinning. I felt as though I was the worst person ever. Cooper had come to mean so much to me already, and I should have been thrilled that his sight had returned. While I was truly happy for him, I was also scared to death over what this would mean for us.
It was one thing for him to accept me being a Valkyrie and living in Screaming Woods when he didn’t have anything important waiting for him back at home. But now that he had his eyesight back, he could pilot for his charter company again.
I knew how important his business was to him, but I was afraid it would pull him away from me. Which I could understand on some level because I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to leave Monster Delivery behind after all of the hard work it had taken to get it off the ground—no pun intended. Except maybe for Cooper…only leaving with him wasn’t an option for me because I’d never fit into his world.