Page 102 of Hand-Fasting and Other Hazards
Becket blinked. “What? Why?”
“Probably because I was a gutter rat?—”
“Ivy!”
“What?” Ivy shrugged. “It’s true. I didn’t have the best grades, and I came from the system. But my test scores were great. Still wasn’t enough.”
“You are definitely enough,” Becket said quietly.
Ivy grinned and punched him in the shoulder. “You’re such a good friend.”
Nia smiled. Good. Just friends. It was nice to see Ivy keeping that promise to focus on herself for once.
“If you’d gotten into Videt Hall,” Nia said, “we’d never have met.”
“True,” Ivy said.
A server dropped off bread for the table and a small plate of hush puppies for Jade.
Nia snapped a photo and sent it to Lochlan.
Last night, she had rummaged through his clothes and found one of his old college shirts. It was recently worn, soft and threadbare. The shirt was almost comically large on her, but it smelled like him: pine and soap and something warm she couldn’t name. She’d worn it to bed like some kind of sad wife whose husband had been gone for years at sea, not for a couple of nights in a cushy castle.
She’d almost taken a picture of herself in the shirt. But they had only slept together once, and it didn’t feel like they’d reached sexy photo-sending territory yet.
Still. She’d wanted to.
Nia wondered what he was doing in Dover.
“So, you two met in college?” Becket asked.
“Yep!” Ivy said brightly. “What about you and Lochlan?”
Becket hesitated, his shoulders tightening slightly. “The same. We met at Videt Hall.”
Ivy leaned in. “It’s okay. You guys deserved it. And look at you now.”
Nia barely heard them. She was watching her phone. Waiting. Lochlan didn’t text back.
Maybe he was busy. Caught up in whatever power games his brother needed him for. Maybe there were deals to make, alliances to manage, the kind of work he couldn’t tell her about. Or maybe his horrible sister had?—
“How’s our witch?” Becket asked pointedly.
“What?” Nia blinked. “Lochlan?”
Becket raised an eyebrow.
She coughed and grabbed her margarita. “I’m not sure. He usually just asks about Jade.”
“Right…” Ivy dragged the word out with a smirk.
“You’re among friends,” Becket said. “Spill. Are you sad? Do you miss him?”
“It’s been two nights.”
“But who’s counting?” Ivy grinned. “Why’d he go back again?”
“His dumb big brother talked him into it,” Becket said.
