Kol snorted. “You didn’t accidentally give something intangible away, did you? Like your voice or your firstborn?”
They remained locked in a staring contest of sorts until Piper felt compelled to shout, “Of course not!”
Finally, Kol dropped another one of those heavy sighs. “Well, if we leave now, I think we’ll get back in time to meet your family for dinner.”
Piper swallowed. “Oh, my god, I actually forgot about that.” To be fair, she’d forgotten about a lot of things when she thought she was going to be murdered by fanged geese.
“Well, you’re welcome for remembering.”
Piper should have scowled at him again, but instead, her brain lit up and she grinned stupidly.He remembered all on his own.
10
Too Much Attention
Alcyon spruces were much better at dealing with stymphalian-goose-riding pixies than humans were, but Kol expected both to turn into weeping willows after Piper’s near abduction. She surprised him though, bright and cheery with her family at dinner and then giddy while the two of them stuffed her purchases into her closet for wrapping later.
When he returned from showering, he anticipated the day’s trauma would really sink in, and she would berate him with an endless string of questions as she searched for comfort amongst the madness into which she’d been flung. Maybe she would even sit close to him and want him to…perhaps…hold her hand again? But instead, he just found her passed out on the bed, snoring quietly into her pillow. He’d carefully crawled over her, but she didn’t stir. So much for her Grinch-detection system.
Kol should have been relieved for the silent night, body still sore and drained from the poultice he’d made to heal the injury he’d given that goose, but he lay awake, dwelling on the memory of Piper wrapping herself around him. She’d done it solely for protection, of course, instinctively glomming on like a baby emerald-horned opossum, but she’d sure gotten over that need quickly, and he wasn’t…he wasn’tdisappointedabout it or anything, just…just confused.
You have very big feelings, he heard in his mind by too many stoic, elven voices, and he did his best then to shrink them.Huh, yeah, weird, whatever.
The tree too was in relatively good shape considering the strength of their bond, but Kol reasoned that since Piper’s near breakdown happened outside the house, the spruce was largely unaware. Unfortunately, Piper didn’t plan on spending much time away from the house, so her big feelings needed even closer management. There was agitation in the spruce’s limbs the next morning, a sort of stiffening that would lead to splinters if he wasn’t careful, so Kol pumped the tree full of a photosynthetic spell and refilled the water in its base.
When he went to the kitchen, he found Piper with her brows knit and lips pursed, just as agitated and stiff. She had apparently exhausted her allotted merriment the night before and was back to her grumpy old self, cleaning up after her breakfast casseroles were devoured.
“Good morning, Pipsqueak,” he lilted, watching her stiffen further at the playfulness in his voice.
She grunted back. Bad morning, then.
Kol gathered up the abandoned plates from breakfast and started filling the dishwasher at her side, gaze flicking to the window over the sink and the darting forms of her younger cousins in the yard. “Is everyone out back?”
“Yeah, the snow that fell last night is apparently good for balls.”
Kol blinked. “Forwhat?”
“Balls. For fighting?” She dumped out a pan that had been soaking and clicked her tongue at the caked-on eggs then caught his unwavering gaze. “Oh, my god, Kol, forsnowballfights. You’re just the worst Christmas elf, aren’t you?”
Kol shushed her, pulling his hat down, but not even Grandma Tilda was tottering around inside to hear. He went up behind Piper anyway, keeping his voice low. “I’mnota Christmas elf.”
She chuckled as she scrubbed at the crusty bits on the pan, and the sound vibrated right through him as he inched even closer to her back. “Sure you’re not, Buddy.” She tossed a grin over her shoulder, dark eyes honing in on him, and for a split second she was as cheerful as she’d been the night before.
Piper’s bare arms worked at the pan as she returned to cleaning. She was wearing loose pajama pants low on her hips and another tight tank top, but there was no way she was cold after all the work she’d been doing at the oven. He could feel the residual heat himself as his gaze fell over her shoulder to the valley between her breasts.
He caught himself returning her laughter then, having gotten dangerously close. Given another inch, he would have pressed her right to the counter and himself against her, and then what?
Get told to fuck off, probably.
“Oh, you’re doing it wrong,” she groused, nudging him away to rearrange the bowls he’d put in the dishwasher, reverting once again to Pissed-Off-Piper.
Kol left her and crossed the kitchen to the little eat-in area in its corner. Hung on the wall were a number of photographs, improving in quality as the years went by, each depicting a Christmas gone past. He could identify Piper in all of them by her massive, dark eyes and genuine smile. She was usually squashed up against her mother with whom she shared olive skin and dark hair unlike the other MacLeans who were pale and freckled. “You know for someone who loves Christmas so much, you sure are a Scrooge.”
“Excuse me?” She stood straight and whirled around to glare at him all Scroogily. “Ebenezer Scrooge is a stingy, capitalist pig who has to be threatened with his own mortality just to give health care to his single employee. How am Ianythinglike that?”
“He’s a pig? I thought he was a duck.”
She just stared at him, blinked, and then threw her hands up. “He’s a fictional character! Sometimes he’s Michael Caine and sometimes he’s Bill Murray, but he’s neverme! I love feeding people.”
