Page 38 of Forged in Peril

Her cheeks went pink again, and she pulled the sleeves of the sweater over her fingertips, her thumb poking at a loose bit of yarn.

“I’m fine, sorry, just have some things on my mind,” she said breezily. “Anyway, have you eaten yet? I made pasta and meatballs for mom, and there’s still a bunch left. There’s no way we’re going to eat it all ourselves.”

“I stopped at a drive-thru on my way back from Corpus Christi, but honestly, I could definitely eat again, if it’s not going to cause any extra work for you,” he said. “They charge like five dollars for a burger the size of a coffee lid these days. It’s just not cutting it.”

“I wonder how Ben can afford enough groceries to stay alive,” she joked.

He chuckled, thinking back to the last time he had been in a grocery store with his largest, most gym-addicted brother. He’d spent more on a week’s worth of food than Cam spent in a month.

Then again, Ben also lacked Cameron’s habit of ordering takeout every day, but that was beside the point.

“He must have a side hustle I don’t know about. You’d be amazed by how much chicken breast one person can eat in a week.”

Bristol smiled and got up from her spot on the couch, gesturing toward the kitchen. “I’m just gonna heat that up. You can eat here if you want, or we can sit at the table.”

“The table sounds great,” he said, getting up and following her deeper into the trailer.

He noticed that some of the tension had gone out of her shoulders as she walked, and her fingertips were no longer tangled in the fabric of her sweater.

It seemed that her reluctance to let him get closer was fading away, but it did little to calm the confusion that reigned deep within his own heart.

A part of him wanted to get closer to her and to break down her walls.

But another part–the smarter part, most likely–knew that he was treading on dangerous ground. He’d walked into this same minefield before, and he’d ended up watching his dreams shatter all around him.

Could he handle it if it happened again?

He forced the thoughts from his mind as he took a seat at the cluttered formica table, watching as Bristol fixed him a plate of delicious-looking food and stuck it into the microwave.

“Sorry it’s not the fanciest setting for your microwaved delicacy,” she joked as she rifled through a drawer in search of a fork, not bothering to turn around. “This house is kind of a disaster area.”

He glanced around the room. It was a little messy, and held the typical cluttered look of a small space that had been lived in for a lot of years, but it was hardly a disaster. It made him feel immediately at ease, like he could curl up on the couch with a book without worrying about messing up the throw pillows.

“Honestly, I think it’s great,” he said to Bristol’s back. “It reminds me of how it looked back in high school. Sometimes it’s nice when things don’t change.”

She paused with one hand on the door of the microwave.

Bringing up their shared history was risky, he knew, but he couldn’t help it.

Being here, with her, eating a simple dinner of leftovers after Moira had gone to work… It was like going back in time.

He knew that she could feel it, too.

“Right,” she said at last, bringing over the plate of steaming pasta and setting it in front of him with a glass of ice-cold soda on the side. “I can agree with that, I guess. I miss living in New York sometimes, or even in San Antonio, but there’s something nice about the way most things in Silver Grove tend to endure.”

He paused to say a quick food blessing before picking up his fork, and to his surprise, Bristol joined him. He wasn’t sure where she was with Jesus at the moment, but with a mother like Moira, he hoped that she hadn’t strayed too far.

He didn’t want to bring it up at the moment, though. Finally, things felt more comfortable, and he wanted them to stay that way, at least long enough for him to eat dinner.

“This is delicious, by the way,” he said after his first couple of bites. “Thank you so much.”

Bristol had always been a good cook, which made sense–her mother’s cooking had always been legendary among the local kids, and he and his brothers were no exception, particularly after their own mother had died.

“You’re welcome,” she said softly, sipping at her own soda.

They sat there in silence as Cameron ate, but now, the quiet that stretched between them was no longer uncomfortable.

“So,” she said after a few minutes, once his plate had nearly emptied. “How was your day, aside from the mediocre fast food on the way home?”

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