Page 72 of A Thieving Curse

“She sounds nice.” Relief washed over Raelyn. Lucas didn’t have a crush on her. She hadn’t realized just how uncomfortable the idea made her until the moment she knew he fancied someone else. They were friends, and that was perfect.

“So…” Lucas cut off a large slice of bread. “Do you know what I should say? I want to talk to her, but I don’t know how, so I haven’t.”

“Have you tried, ‘Hello, my name is Lucas, what’s your name?’”

He gave her a look like she’d recommended juggling hedgehogs, and he was both flabbergasted and concerned for his safety. “Just…just like that?”

“You don’t need to be flowery.” She unwrapped her fish. “Be yourself. If she doesn’t like you when you’re being yourself, then she doesn’t deserve you.”

Lucas gnawed on his lip. “Do you think she could like me?”

“Why ever not?” Raelyn pulled bits of meat off the fine bones. “You’re easy to like.”

“I’m not so tall as the carpenter’s son or Alexander.”

She tilted her head. “Why would that matter?”

“I don’t know.” Lucas ate several bites of bread, looking thoughtful. “Everyone says I talk too much.”

Raelyn lowered her fish. She felt terrible she had ever teased him about asking too many questions. “You’re energetic and full of life. I don’t mind that you talk a lot. You just have a lot of curiosity and thoughts. If this girl doesn’t like how exuberant you are, that’s her loss.”

Lucas combed his fingers through the side of his hair. “Thanks.” He devoured a couple slices of bread, then unwrapped his fish. Raelyn listened to the birds chirping in the trees around them, enjoying her own food.

“If she tells me her name,” Lucas asked, “what do I do then?”

“Use her name and ask her about herself.” She tossed aside the picked-clean bones and cleaned her fingers on the linen before putting it back in the basket. “Something like, ‘how is your day going, Sarah?’ Listen to what she says and do something you’re good at. Ask questions.”

He wrinkled his nose. “I guess that doesn’t sound too hard.”

“Girls are just people, Lucas.” She cut off a slice of bread and spread jam across it. “Talk to her like a person, and you’ll be fine.”

“Thanks.” Lucas opened his flask and took a long drink, then opened his mouth, closed it, and took another drink. He kept looking at her askance and squirming, and finally she couldn’t take it any longer.

She opened her flask. “Something you want to ask me, Lucas?”

“Are you in love with Alex?”

Raelyn choked and water spewed painfully out of her nose. Coughing, she turned away and wiped her mouth with her sleeve as she gasped for breath. When she could breathe again, she faced him. “Why would you ask that?”

He looked out over the meadow. “I think he’s in love with you.”

Her jaw fell open. She tried to speak, but all that came out were strangled noises. “What makes you say that?”

“He talks about you all the time. You make him smile.” Lucas turned back to her. “He keeps trying to think of ways to make you happy here, and he’s sad when you help my mom or dad instead of going with him. Alex is always watching you with this look in his eyes, like he wants to hold you and never let go.” He grinned. “And you make him purr.”

Her ears burned. “I… I…”

“I think you love him, too.” Lucas nodded knowingly. “You seem as happy to go with him to check the traps as he is to have you along. And I see how you look at him. Sometimes, after he makes you laugh, or when he flies with you, you look at him like the butcher’s daughter looked at the carpenter’s son.”

Her skin was going to catch fire. A lump formed in her throat, and she felt jumpy, like she should be moving. She picked at a piece of grass on the blanket and flicked it away.In…love with Alex?She raised her flask to her lips, but her throat was too tight to swallow, so she lowered it again.

Lucas thinks…Alex loves me?The idea sent butterflies through Raelyn’s stomach, and the reaction terrified her. Sure, Alex was kind and funny and annoyingly, endearingly haughty and had a voice she could listen to forever. He had a wonderful laugh, and he loved his little adoptive family. He looked frightening and had a temper, but inside he was soft and precious.

But…outside…he had a tail. And wings and claws. And even if she didn’t see him as a monster anymore, that was off-putting.But he’s handsome, too,her heart whispered.You like making him smile.But a part of her brain said,and he has fangs.

“I think he’s afraid to tell you,” Lucas continued. “He doesn’t want to scare you. You were so scared that he’d force you to marry him when you found out who he was. He doesn’t want you to run away again.”

Raelyn swallowed hard and tore apart a blade of grass. She didn’t know how to respond, or even what to think. Running away wasn’t a possibility, but she couldn’t seem to get those words past the lump in her throat.

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