“Back to you.” Prim brought me out of my haze. “You’ve been busy since you returned?” She raised her eyebrows.
“Stop, shh,” I pleaded.
Milly slid our drinks in front of us, taking us seriously, leaving two apiece.
“It was while I was in Florida,” I said. “It shouldn’t have happened, but it did, and now it’s complicated.”
Prim’s eyes looked like they were going to bulge out of her face. “Donovan?”
I nodded.
“I told you he liked you. At the party.”
The nape of my neck started to burn, and not because Prim was feeling any sort of sadness toward Bruno. This was all me. I’d started to react to my own shitty feelings.
Sliding a delicate elastic off my wrist, I tugged my hair into a low ponytail and wrapped it tightly. “Maybe we’ve always had some sort of weird crush. I don’t know, but it can’t be, or whatever. I’m a yin to his yang, but it’s not allowed, if that makes sense.”
Prim took a long sip of her martini. “Is this some book crap? Fiction you made up? Yin and yang usually work. He pulls, you push.”
I felt my head shaking. “No, our powers are opposite and both strong forces. We don’t sync like that. Mixed together, we’re not a match. That’s what our mothers would say.” It was the most I’d talked about Donovan, and a wave of relief washed over me.
“But you had a tryst?”
I couldn’t help the laugh escaping me. “No need to be so dramatic. We had a few nights, some tender moments, celebrated Christmas. Maybe that’s why—we bonded over the holiday, nothing more.”
Her eyes flew to my ears. “Oh my Lord. I thought those were out of the ordinary for you to choose.”
“What?”
“The earrings.”
Again, all I did was nod.
“This is why he came back guns blazing, dragged the human—Valerie—out of here. He was beside himself over the medic notgoing to you. There were rumors, but I thought this was all born out of guilt.”
“No, he brought the medic and that was that. The end of the line when it came to me. I’m a delicate piece of glass and he’s a hammer; that’s how much we don’t fit.” I was sucking down Malbec number two, and all of a sudden happy to have number three waiting.
Prim grabbed my hand and squeezed. “This is absurd. You’re not listening to your mom. Look at you, a woman who’s smitten.”
“I have to. Plus, he won’t go against his mother.”
“Nonsense. He’s a grown man, and you didn’t see him when he returned. We took it as maniacal warrior, but it was man in love.”
“Not love,” I quickly interjected.
“Oh? Want to bet?” Prim batted her eyelashes at me and then tossed her chin up.
I didn’t tell her there was no need to alert me to Donovan being here; my entire spine was chilled, goose bumps running up my legs. Judging by how freezing I was, he was close.
“Ladies,” I heard.
Prim looked like a cat who ate the canary and was in hot pursuit of a second one. I wanted to tell her to wipe the grin off her face, but Donovan was standing by my side now, and imaginary icicles were forming in my undies.
Prim spoke first. “Hey, Donovan.”
“Prim, how are you on this lovely evening?”
“Tuvy and I were just getting all caught up.” She winked, and I wanted to smack her.
