Page 72 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
She snorted again. “Tastes better if you sauté it, but I was running a bit behind this morning and didn’t have time.”
Everly pushed her plate to the side to comb her fingers through Victoria’s long hair. With expert ease, she started braiding the thick strands of her hair.
“You don’t really have to be here at a certain time,” I told her. “It’s not like you’re getting paid or anything.”
Not like anyone in Colina was getting paid. People who continued to work did so for the benefit of others. In the past month and a half, money had become irrelevant.Unfortunately, so had our local bakery and coffee shop. It wouldn’t be long before I ran out of coffee and sugar. The idea of that made me want to sob. Yeah, I knew it was stupid and selfish, but regardless, I’d complained about it to Elias a few dozen times. Again, selfish, but he listened to me with such intensity, seeming to hang on to my every word, like what I said and cared about mattered. Like he wanted to right every wrong in my life.
Everly used the tie around Victoria’s wrist to tie the end of the braid. Then she took the uneaten flowers and placed them around her braid.
“Wow, look at how pretty you are, Tori,” Elias said from behind us.
Victoria jumped up and ran toward him with Everly inching herself up to follow her. When Victoria hugged his legs, he knelt to hug her back. And there went my silly little heart, pitter-pattering over this man.
“Eli.” Her eagerness in seeing him seemed to wash over him, and he hugged her a bit tighter before letting her go. “Did you bring me more toys?” she asked.
He ruffled her hair. “Actually, I brought you a sled. A real one. George and Brent are outside and ready to pull you around if you want.”
“Like my toy sled?” She lifted the small sled he’d made her and ran it over his hair and face.
“Tori,” I chided.
His eyes twinkled when they met mine. All sweet and amused and sexy as sin. Almost as beautiful as the dimples that flashed on either cheek.
“Even better.” He pushed his head against her stomach, a lot like the way Hee-haw did to me, and made her squeal.
“Can you play with me too?” she asked, her voice hopeful.
He kissed the crown of her head and my heart. . . dear God, my heart.
He held out a pinky and said, “I promise you I will as soon as my back’s all better.”
She twined her pinky with his, and that was it. I swear there wasn’t a force on this earth, fae or otherwise, that could keep my heart from trembling.
“I’ll watch her,” Everly said, offering her hand to Victoria, who took it with a look of mischief in her eyes. “If you don’t need me here?”
“Go.” I waved her away. “Have fun. Tori, listen to Everly.”
She peered back at me over her shoulder, and I could already see the trouble she’d cause me when she was a teenager. Assuming she was still around. Her mother had never been gone this long, and given our circumstances, I no longer wondered if she would show up again. “It’s a lot more fun when I listen to Uncle George,” Victoria said. “He likes my ideas that you say are crazy.”
Elias barked out a laugh while I shook my head.
Uncle George. She called the fae, man, whatever that I still distrusted her uncle.
“I’ll make sureUncle Georgebehaves himself.” Everly’s smirk made Victoria grumble.
Once they left, Elias seemed to pace in place, putting his hands in his pocket only to take them out while watching me with a small smile on his handsome face.
“Have you had lunch?” I asked him, pointing toward our small spread.
While Victoria had finished her food, neither Everly nor I had touched ours.
“Not yet.”
“Come.” I patted the empty spot next to me. “I’ll share some of my food with you.”
“Actually, I came to fix your pipes,” he said. “Donnie said they froze, and you’re not getting any water.”
Looking up at him from where I sat on the floor, I put my hands on my waist. “You’re telling me you’re a plumber too?”
