Seven Days to a Kiss

nd I ha

an have mine, but no one comes home to the Garden District mansion. It was our

birthday, Ethan

actly like my sister, Gabrielle. The same long, dark hair, the same way she held her head, even the same style of folk music she

e cold and final. He didn't eve

was looking around our ho

g to be w

ave been screaming, throwing things, feeling the

se I was al

one he' d loved and thought was lost forever in a fire years ago. I' d spent months finding it, getting it restored to perfecti

d on

bsession with Ethan, was a chain that held

eper. He was drawn by the sheer force of my refusal to pass on. He l

uch, child?" his voi

t speak,

a deal. Seven days. You have seven days to get that man to kiss you. A real kiss, on

ny real emotion. It was always a duty, a peck on the cheek for

acce

y husband replace me, I felt the clock ticking.

y a whisper. "Ethan, please. Just

isgust on his face. "Are you

I said. It was the truest

nd. "Don't be so dramatic, Joc

face in his hands, looked into her eyes-my sister' s eyes

o real, it felt like I w