They added another winky face, and all I could do was grimace because I really didn’t need to hearanyof that.
Tan: Oh my Mother, stop while you’re ahead, kiddo.
Oakley: But, Stepdaddy, I didn’t do anything wrong.
Tan: Brat.
Three little dots came up, and I knew Oakley was going to keep this little byplay going if I didn’t step in, so I quickly wrote up a text and hitsend.
Me: I’ll text when I get home, but I’m leaving now, so I’m muting this nutty and weird group text.
Before I could mute it, one more text came through.
Oakley: Seriously, Dain, have a great time tonight. But be careful.
Me: I always am.
I muted it and stuffed my phone in my pocket so I wouldn’t keep responding and didn’t have to feel all the buzzing since I was sure they’d all keep going if I let them. My fingers immediately went back to tapping on the steering wheel. Great.
I was nervous. Which was ridiculous. This was a date, yeah, but I knew it would be the only one with the handsome snow yeti. I was only going on this thing to prove to him that I wasn’t his viramore. It was a way of letting him down easy.
Hopefully.
I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
I mean, I’d be over the moon if he was my viramore—I’d seen how in love viramores became once they got to know one another, and it was a dream relationship for sure—but he couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible.
And I really didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
So maybe that was why I was nervous.
He was going to realize I wasn’t his, and it would be awkward and horrible, but we’d… go our separate ways and move on.
My chest panged sharply, and I rubbed at it. What the hell was that? Why did it keep happening? More nerves? Ugh.
With a grumble, I ignored the pang and entered Lanche’s address into the GPS. It would take a good twenty or so minutes to get there, so I put on my latest audiobook—How to Flirt with a Hellhound—and headed out.
When I got to the edge of the city and the directions were still telling me to go straight, I almost pulled over and called Lanche because this couldn’t possibly be right. There was no way the guy lived outside the city lines, was there?
But then I saw that I was only a minute away, so I forged ahead. There were warning signs before you crossed into a dangerous area, anyway, so I’d have plenty of time to pull over if need be.
Just as I had the thought, I drove past a sign that said I had a mile before I entered frost basilisk territory.
Well, that wasn’t what the sign said exactly, but that was what it meant.
My stomach was queasy, but then my GPS said, “Turn right now.”
“Oh, thank the Mother.”
I slowed down, glad no one was behind me, and searched for a road or driveway or something. It was hard to see past the snow bank, but I found the turn-off and went that way.
This road was long, windy, and surrounded by about a billion trees, running along the edge of the border but not crossing it.
Finally, the GPS told me to turn again, and I found a long driveway that I followed up a small hill and around a curve.
At first, I didn’t see a house at all. It was just more trees and snow all over the place. But as I pulled up closer, the structure finally showed itself, and I couldn’t help but gasp.
It looked as if the trees themselves, along with a shit-ton of ice and snow, formed a large home in the side of a… mountain? A hill or a cave, maybe?
