It only helps a little.
“Why don’t we eat something?” she suggests. “I’m surprisingly hungry for being in a dream world.”
His stomach is too knotted to think of food, but he nods.
“I wish for waffles with strawberries and whipped cream,” she says, and he slides his eyes closed.
She did that for him. Asked the heartlanding for one of his favorites to cheer him up.
He needs to do better than this. She deserves better than his moping.
When he looks at her, she’s eyeing him uncertainly.
She definitely deserves better than this.
“Elowyn. Come here.”
She doesn’t hesitate, and he wraps his arms around her and holds her close as she clings to him.
“I love you,” she whispers.
“I love you, too. And I’m sorry. When I was there, all I wanted was to be here with you, and now that I’m here, I’m the worst sort of company.” He sighs.
“Hardly the worst. Just a little...distracted.”
He laughs and holds her closer. She’s like the sun. Always full of light.
Except when she was trying to obliterate the hearth with her fire magic, but that was hot in more ways than one, and he certainly won’t complain about the fiery side of her.
At all.
“You know, this day would be a lot easier to endure if I wasn’t trying to avoid setting you on fire,” he says when he lets her go.
As she lowers herself to a chair at their little table, she smiles up at him from beneath silver lashes, and his heart thrums faster.
“Perhaps it’s worth the risk, my love,” she says. “To lift your spirits.”
That would definitely cheer him up.
Stars above. They can’t do that. Not without getting the go-ahead from Tharios.
“Elowyn, you know we can’t.”
“I almost convinced you that time, though. I could read it in your eyes.”
Shaking his head, he takes the seat across from her. “It was a very brief lapse in judgment.”
“Perhaps the next lapse could be a little longer.” Her eyes twinkle as she lifts a forkful of waffles to her perfect lips.
“A little longer, huh? How long do you think you need?”
She almost chokes on her waffles, and heat creeps up his neck.
What in the world possessed him to say that?
“How long are you offering?” she asks after taking a sip of water.
Are they flirting? They don’t do that much.
