The Cougar's Trade Read Free

anything wrong with Sean. He was strong and funny and a doting uncle. He would be perfect for some woman. Apparently he was
her
man for the next two weeks. In her head, the projectile missed its mark. The magnet didn’t stick because the surface didn’t have the right charge. There was no
aha
. No click.
    Shouldn’t there have been something? Maybe she didn’t have any magic or a meddling goddess ancestress like Ellery did to steer her steps, but certainly intuition should have spoken to her. But all she got from it was, “
I’m sorry, I don’t know
.”
    “All set? We’re going to go with who we decided on earlier, right?” Sean asked Hank.
    Hank rolled his eyes and muttered, “I don’t see any reason not to. Logic makes more sense than your idea of flipping a coin.”
    “A coin?” Miles looked to Glenda, aghast.
    She whispered, “I’m going to have to trust they know what they’re doing. I’m not a Cougar.”
    Sean skirted around the coffee table and gave Miles’s shoulder, which Glenda’s arm had vacated, a squeeze.
    “Hey, short stuff. Look. I’m touchin’ ya.”
    “You sure are.” And she felt nothing for him besides pity. She put on a smile for him, but it was as phony as she knew his was. She’d seen his happy grins, and the one he wore at the moment didn’t match by a long shot.
    “Yeah. I think so.” Hank looked at Hannah and canted his head toward the door. “Do we want to be civil, or do I need to endure the kicking-and-screaming deal?”
    Hannah cracked each and every one of her knuckles and glowered at him.
    Miles sighed and stood. She took Sean’s elbow when he offered it.
    “Gotta run some errands in town. If you’d like to have lunch, I could show you around.”
    She nodded, probably too fast and too much. “Sure. That’ll…that’ll be fine.”
    Maybe his goddess will take pity on him and let him out of this mess.
She wanted to go ahead and apologize to Glenda and tell her, “
I’m sorry, I can’t. It’s not him, it’s me
,” but she couldn’t get her voice to work. She could hardly move her feet.
    Sean led her outside, past Glenda on the porch, and they started across the yard toward his own small house where he’d left his pickup truck. He made some unobtrusive small talk that Miles answered without thought. She couldn’t manage much more than a simple
yes
or
no
because she was giving herself a mental talking-down from the ordeal. There was
nothing
wrong with Sean Foye. Not a thing. He was a great guy. Maybe she’d even connect with him a bit as time went on. Who knew what two weeks would bring?
    “Sean!” Hank shouted across the yard.
    They stopped, and Miles’s heart seemed to stop right along with it.
    What now?
    “Come back.”
    Sean turned. “’Sup?”
    “Does this feel right to you?”
    Sean cringed and locked his fingers behind his head, tipping his cowboy hat back. He looked down at Miles and pushed up one red eyebrow. “Should be,” he said softly.
    “Based on what?” she asked.
Maybe he knows it’s not right deep down, too.
    “Sorry to be so impersonal about it, but we had to guess based on the position you’d have in the glaring. Mason knew Ellery was his because the goddess told him in a dream, but she was vague about the two of you. Her missions sometimes come with mysteries that need to be unraveled first.”
    “Sean?” Hank called, and the impatience in his voice was hard to miss.
    Miles leaned sideways to look around Sean’s body. Hank stood with hands crossed over his chest, and Hannah mirrored him, giving him a scowl in exchange for his.
    Sean looked down at Miles, and his eyebrows disappeared into the shadow cast by his hat. “Please don’t take offense. We have no idea what we’re doing. You know we wouldn’t have done this at all if we’d had the chance to opt out. The last folks we knew of who did this were from my mom and dad’s generation. And since Dad’s dead, we don’t know how this is supposed to play out.