Free Beautiful Curses: Book One by J. Dorothy Page B

intend to be together. I don’t ever intend breaking up with her. We’re in it for the long haul.”
    Gabriella looked up at him with wide innocent eyes, while her newly manicured nails pressed into the palms of her hand.
    The long haul? Who was he kidding?
    “Really? That’s surprising. You've only been seeing her for a couple of weeks.”
    Spencer sat next to her on the bed. “Yeah. I know, but I think I'm falling in love with her.”
    In love? Not happening.
    “I hope you aren’t thinking proposals,” she said, putting on a high pitched voice, her nails pressing harder into her palms.
    Spencer ruffled his hair again. “No. I'm not that impatient. Who knows what's in our future, but for now, we are together, and I want it to stay that way.”
    Gabriella didn’t understand his feelings. Not that she wanted to. For now though, she had the part of the concerned sister to play.
    She patted his knee. “I promise I’ll clear things with my friends and I promise they won't cause any more trouble.”
    “Good. Thank you.”
    “Um ... but I don't suppose you’d let me tell them how you left a model for her?”
    “No. No more stories, Ella, just tell them the truth.”
    “Alright ... Only can I say one of your London friends led me to believe you were dating a model?”
    “Absolutely not.”
    “Fine,’ she pouted at him. ‘They're not going to like it and probably won't speak to me again.”
    Spencer smirked. “If you have to make something, tell them I told you to do it to keep your girlfriends off my back. It sounds like I have an inflated opinion of myself, but anything to save your reputation.”
    She smiled sweetly. “Thanks. That might just work. And Spencer, I really am sorry. I hope you believe me and forgive me.”
    He put his arm around her and gave her a quick hug. “I can never be mad with you. I’ll always forgive you.”
    Gabriella gave him a bright smile and got off the bed. “Well, now that's cleared up I need to get ready.”
    Spencer frowned. “By the way, who were you really with the other night? We saw Mason outside the cinema and he said he hadn't seen you all night. I was a little worried.”
    Gabriella didn't answer straight away, and then tapped the side of her nose. “No more stories, right! Just know that I'm safe and you have nothing to worry about. I might tell you someday,” she said, grinning to herself, as she walked out of the room.
     

 
    FIFTEEN
     
    Jo turned up the volume on her iPod, her favourite track now playing. The rain had started to fall heavily as they drove through the English countryside. Jo hoped the weather would improve, but had her doubts. Then again, bad weather or not, nothing could put a dampener on spending three days with James. She sat in the back of Peter’s Land Rover with James as front passenger while Spencer and Beth followed behind in his car.
    They planned to stop for lunch in the local village and wait for the train. Spencer’s friends, Luke and Tobias were travelling down from Scotland and needed to change in London before travelling on to Cornwall. Luke had been staying with Tobias over the Christmas break.
    Jo’s thoughts wandered to the weird events over the past couple of days—glad that Spencer and Beth had sorted out their problems. Jo was still baffled how everything got so mixed up. All in all, it was sorted, and Beth believed Spencer had been caught up in Gabriella's little white lies and wasn’t involved with a model or anyone else in London.
    Jo chuckled to herself. Spencer had given Beth the mobile numbers of all his friends and their emails. Jo could just see Beth as a paranoid girlfriend texting his friends to monitor his every move. Spencer acted like an idiot sometimes. Beth had much better things to do with her time than act like a demented stalker.
    When they stopped in the village to wait for the train, Spencer offered to go ahead to the cottage and get things organised. She and James shared a smile and even Peter