I tugged my hand away. “We’re fine.”
“That’s what I said. It’s just a fight. He loves you. You know he’s crazy about you.”
“We’re not fighting.”
“Oh, you’re fighting, you’re just never in the same place long enough to realize it. What?” she searched my face, her eyes wide and worried. “Delaney?”
That was it, wasn’t it? He didn’t even want to put in the energy to fight me. Or he was hiding something. Something he didn’t want me to find out about. Maybe something unforgivable.
“Hey, I’m just shooting off my mouth,” she said, catching at my hand again. “You know how I am. Talk first, brain later. You and Ryder are good. You just said you’re good. He’s…he really loves you. Trust me, Delaney.”
I had to clear my throat before words could happen. “We are good.”
She squeezed my hand. “Sometimes work gets in the way. I bet he’s going to surprise you. Do some big romantic gesture, like a dinner or something. If he does, you just let me know and I’ll switch a shift so you can do that big romantic making up. Okay?”
“You just switched to days. I don’t want to throw a wrench in the gears until we get into a steady work flow.”
“We’re pretty close to steady. If you just had some time together to talk, I’m sure you’d see everything is okay. If you give me time for a quick nap, I can take your afternoon into evening shift.”
“I wasn’t going to work—”
“Yeah, you were.” She held my gaze until I looked away. Maybe Ryder wasn’t the only one avoiding at-home time.
“I’d have to see if he can get home for dinner tonight. Then order in something. Or cook.”
“Definitely order. You’ll try to make the perfect meal and burn something, then end up ordering five-dollar pizza from the gas station.”
“That was once.”
“Let’s not have it be twice. I’ll be on shift at four. Should give you plenty of time to sweet-talk your man into coming home.”
“This won’t get you out of watching Xtelle.”
“Cynical. If she gets out of hand, I’ll ask my half Jinn baker boyfriend to grant me a wish. Maybe turn her into a little pewter charm I can keep on my bracelet.”
“You only get what? Two actual wishes a year from him?
“One big wish and a few tiny ones.”
“You aren’t going to waste those to turn Xtelle into a charm.”
“Ha-ha, of course not. Ha-ha, see how much I was joking? I’ve never ever thought of something like that before. Taking advantage of my half Jinn boyfriend. Why just the idea. Heavens, no.”
“Jean.”
She strolled toward the Jeep, flour drifting off her in little wisps, the breeze teasing her bright hair. “You really need a day off. I was joking.”
“No, I mean, I know. But have you had any doom twinges?”
“I’d tell you. You know that, right?”
I nodded. It was a comfort I held onto tighter than she probably realized. As long as she didn’t feel like something massively wrong was about to happen, then the memory fades I’d been experiencing couldn’t be something deadly.
I’d told her about them. Told Myra, too, because I’d promised both of them I wasn’t going to do dumb things that might get me hurt without consulting them first.
Everyone we’d talked to in town, who might know about the aftereffects of having my soul in a demon’s possession for more than a year, was pretty sure we were in a wait-and-see kind of situation.
Wait and see if my soul could knit back together.
