By Magic Alone by Tracy Madison Page B

sights on something. I promised her months ago that I’d date one woman—only one—of her choosing. She’s chosen you, and I don’t break promises. It’s madness,” he half muttered to himself. “But as long as she believes you and I are fated, then we’re going to have to play along.”
    I stared at my pizza. He couldn’t mean what I thought. “And that means what?”
    “It means that, starting now, we’ll date. It’ll be a charade, so don’t go all woozy and weird on me. We’ll do this to appease my grandmother until I can convince her that she’s mistaken.”
    “Um. No. I’m not doing that.” Leslie would kill me for sure. Beyond that, hanging out with someone who seemed to loathe me? Not high on my agenda. “Have you even talked to your grandmother since this morning? After you left, she didn’t seem as set on this you-and-I-are-soul-mates thing. She . . .” I slammed my mouth shut. I’d nearly told him about my free membership to Verda’s services. Somehow, I didn’t think he’d take the news well. “Maybe you’re upset about nothing,” I finished.
    “She called me the second you left. I’ve spent the majority of the day explaining to her the reasons why you and I are not the match she believes we are.” A rough and ragged sigh pushed out of his lungs. “If you hadn’t gone to Magical Matchups, we wouldn’t be in this position. But you did, so now we have to deal with the result of that action.”
    He might as well have been talking in Latin. “Just tell her I said no. That’s easy enough to do, isn’t it? It’s not your fault if I say no.”
    “You can’t say no. Hell, I realize how crazy this is. But trust me when I tell you that this charade is the easiest way out of this mess.”
    Yep. Latin. “I have no idea what you’re going on about. If this is so important, then lie to her. Tell her we’re going out, make up some stories, and then after a few weeks we can break up.”
    “With
my
family?” The line of his shoulders tightened and the cords in his neck rippled. “They’ll know. Every last one of them.”
    “Them?” I squeaked. This was getting worse by the second. “What do you mean
them?”
    “My grandmother. My sisters. My cousin. Trust me, you don’t want them combining their . . . ah . . .
wills
to turn us into a couple. And they will, Julia, if they think I’m not living up to my promise. If they think we’re meant to be—”
    “What can they do?” I wanted to laugh. If I dealt with my manipulative, controlling family, why couldn’t he deal with his?
    “You don’t understand,” he said, musing to himself. “You couldn’t. Elizabeth and Grandma are the ones to watch. Alice . . . well, I might be able to convince her to leave it alone. Chloe can’t do a lot, at least not about this, but she’s tight with Grandma.” He shook his head, glanced over at me. “Even if I managed to convince everyone else to turn a blind eye, Grandma won’t. You got us into this mess by going to Magical Matchups. I need your help to clean it up.”
    “Oh, come on. You’re a big, strong guy. Are you seriously telling me you’re afraid of your female relatives?” A laugh did bubble out now, which surprised me. But I couldn’t imagine Scot being afraid of anyone, let alone a quartet of women.
    “Trust me. You have no idea what’s going on here.”
    “Then tell me.” I faked a yawn and fidgeted, ready to be alone. Ready to put this and Scot behind me. I wasn’t going to do this fake-dating thing, regardless of what he said, but curiosity made me ask, “Why is this such a huge deal?”
    “You, of all people, wouldn’t believe me if I tried to explain.” He closed his eyes as if trying to find the words that would convince me to agree. Opening them, he said, “The women in my family believe in fated relationships. If they want to, they will invade our lives in . . . well, in ways I can’t really articulate. I’ve given this a lot of thought, and the only