He paused for a moment, and then I heard him take a step. Then two. He began looking around. “Nice place,” he commented. “It looks exactly how I expected it to.”
I chose not to be offended by that comment. “Thanks! I did everything myself. Well, most of it. I’m almost ready, hang on.”
I sprayed myself with my favorite fig and berry perfume, gave my hair one final fluff in the mirror, tucked the front strand behind my ear, and wandered out to the main area.
I caught a good look at Redd for the first time, my eyes dragging from his feet to the forget-me-nots in his grasp, all the way to his face.Damn. I had to discreetly wipe my chin to make sure I wasn’t drooling. Redd looked incredible. The vampire was always infuriatingly handsome, but today, he looked even better.
His hair was tamed with product and his stubble was perfectly tidied. He was wearing trousers and clean boots, and a sweater that looked so soft that I wanted to rub my face on it.
I realized I was staring and shook myself out of it, only to realize that he was also staring at me. Thank the gods. I quirked my eyebrow at him and planted my hand on my hip.
“Ready, stranger? Or would you like to ogle me some more?”
He rolled his eyes at my use of his old nickname. “Don’t make me regret this. Where should I put these?” He held the flowers out in my direction.
My heart squeezed at the gesture.Forget-me-nots are my favorite.I delicately pulled the bouquet from his grasp, ignoring the dusting of dirt coating some of the petals. I scampered to the kitchen to find a vase for them.
“Thank you! I can’t believe you got me flowers! How’d you know to choose these ones?”
“I was working at Lunette’s today, you know, and I might have mentioned something about seeing you later,” he said a little bashfully.
I snorted. “Yep, that makes sense. How did you know where I live, by the way? Are you stalking me?”
“I only had to ask one person. This town is small, everyone knows where you live. Don’t flatter yourself.” He nudged mewith his shoulder. I nudged him back twice as hard. Before he could get me back, I scampered ahead of him.
“Where to?” I asked.
“Well, there aren’t many options, considering there are only two places in town that serve dinner and I don’t feel like cooking today. How does Ginger’s Pub sound? Some drinks, some food, some folk-watching?”
I smiled broadly, fangs poking my bottom lip. “Ginger’s is perfect. Her stew is better than the diner’s anyways, but don’t tell anyone I said that.”
“Your secrets are safe with me.”
Redd cleared his throat. “You look incredible, by the way. You are always a beautiful woman, but you look especially lovely in that sweater.”
I beamed at him, my cheeks burning hot. “Thank you. I was just thinking that you look rather ravishing yourself.”
We hiked to Ginger’s in companionable silence. I had my hands shoved into my cloak pockets because it was stillfreezingand covered in snow, but I made sure to accidentally (on purpose) brush shoulders with Redd a few times.
He even grasped my elbow to help me through some of the especially deep snow patches, even though I was plenty tall enough to trek through them myself.
We passed an old mailbox on the way–the one that had started my journey with my penpal. I could almost swear that it was looking better than it had when I tripped over it a few weeks ago–the mortar less crumbled and the bricks more intact. But that didn’t make any sense. Nobody maintained those things anymore.
It was now completely cleared of snow.
Redd caught me looking at the mailbox and asked, “Those things really are everywhere, huh? I wonder why nobody hasknocked them down yet.” He examined the stone structure with a curious scrutiny.
I shrugged, but I was secretly panicked at the thought of the mailboxes being taken down. I’d lose my penpal! “I guess it just feels right to leave them there. They’re a fixture, you know? They’ve been there since the Old Gods roamed the realms. There would be no reason to take them down now.”
“Yeah, maybe…” He murmured.
We slipped into Ginger’s and chose a table near the back. It felt weird sitting here instead of my usual stool in the corner. The pub was especially crowded this evening. It was crowded every evening, but the snow must’ve been driving more people to drink than usual.
Understandable. Cheers to that.
Ginger flitted over to us and did a double take before she composed herself. “Fiella! Redd! Oh, how lovely to see you both. And together! Well, it’s nice to see you anyways, but you know what I mean.” She shook her head. “What can I get you guys?”
“Hi Ginger, I’ll have today’s cider with a shot of the best animal blood that’s in the icebox right now, and whatever stew you’ve got boiling in the back today. And he’ll have the same. Thanks!”
