Men Are Frogs (Fairy Godmothers, Inc. #2) - Saranna DeWylde Page 0,5
you should be the one interviewing to work with FGI.”
“Maybe I just should. Imagine me, Zeva Davis, fairy godmother extraordinaire.”
“I can see it,” Zuri agreed easily.
She really could. Zeva had a kind and nurturing nature, but she also had a spine of steel. She liked to help people and was good at helping them, even if they didn’t want it.
Actually, that was one of the many places where Zeva excelled.
But where did Zuri excel? Where did she fit? She’d thought it was wedding planning, but now she wasn’t so sure.
As a wedding planner, she’d really thought she was changing the world, one Happily Ever After at a time. Maybe that had been naïve.
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?” Zuri asked, blinking innocently.
“You know what. I can feel it when you start with that self-doubt. This is just a tiny setback.” Zeva held up her hand. “I know, it doesn’t feel tiny right now. But in the grand scheme of things? You’re going to look back on this one day and everything that’s happened is going to be a bump in the road that you’re going to laugh about with your children.”
Zeva was right about most things, but Zuri wasn’t sure about this. “I was always so sure about who I was, what my strengths were. I thought I had an eye for love. Now, I’m not so sure.”
“Zuri—”
“I’m not even sure I believe in love anymore.”
Zeva snorted. “Of course you do. Unless you don’t love me?”
Zuri got up and slid her hands into her jean pockets. “Of course I love you, wombmate. That’s not what I mean. I mean romantic love. It’s all crap.”
“Look, you can’t hold all men responsible for Alec’s actions.”
“I’m not, but . . . You know? That’s not it at all. It’s that none of them are actually Prince Charming.”
“You should clarify that, because none of us are fairy-tale princesses, either. We’re just human. We are all flawed.”
For some reason, those words made her heart break just a little more.
“Oh, honey.” Zeva got up and pulled Zuri into a tight hug and held her there. “Listen. And I mean actually listen. It’s not about finding someone who is perfect, it’s about finding who is perfect for you. You and Alec, your angels played well together, but your demons didn’t. Also, he was a lying shitbag of the lowest order.”
“Prince Shitbag of the Shitlords of the Round Table?” Zuri sniffed.
“Exactly. Your person will not be a shitbag. He’ll have angels and demons just like all of us, only his will fit with yours.”
“I want to believe you.” Zuri’s heart wanted to believe more than anything, but it was still hurting and afraid. She found comfort in Zeva’s arms. In her warmth. In her strength. In her absolute surety. Zuri inhaled deeply, holding in her scent of coconut oil and the vanilla she dabbed behind her ears. Just like their mama.
Zeva laughed. “So what’s stopping you?”
“It’s just I’ve kissed so many frogs.”
Zeva pulled away, and her eyes searched Zuri’s. “Maybe they’re all frogs because you keep hoping that you’re the magic that will turn them into a prince. It doesn’t work that way. People aren’t projects. You have to take them as they are.”
“What about all that rot about the magic of love?”
Zeva laughed. “It’s not rot. Love makes you better. It makes you want to be your best you, but you have to work on yourself because you want to. Not to be worthy. You’re already worthy.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“You’ll see,” Zeva said knowingly.
“I hate it when you do that.” Zuri picked up a box and carried it downstairs to the pickup truck they’d borrowed to move the last of her boxes into storage.
“And I hate it when you do that,” Zeva said from behind her with another box.
“What?”
“Walk away from me before I’m done with my pep talk.” She grinned.
A strange wave of homesickness washed over Zuri. “What was I thinking? I can’t go to Ever After. What am I going to do without you?”
“Everything? It’s all going to work out. You’ll see.”
“How do you know?”
“The same way I’ve always known. I just do.”
They went back inside and carried down the rest of the boxes until all that was left to do was finish packing her dishes.
“This is it,” Zeva said. “The last thing before you start your new adventure.”
A new adventure. Zuri liked that. She wished she could have the same wide-eyed hope about it that Zeva did.