“Yeah,” Luke huffed, stewing.
Butternut and Squash sensed Luke and Farhan’s vile moods, and the baby chimeras each bounced over to one of the brothers. Butternut fluttered his little wings until he landed in Luke’s lap, rubbing his face against Luke’s arm. Squash did the same with Farhan.
Luke released a long breath, petting the baby’s furry face. Butternut licked Luke’s hand with his little tongue, and Luke smiled. The sound of Rhea’s knitting needles filled the quiet space, until she set the needles down.
“I know,” she said. “Let’s play a round of ludo. That’ll fix your evening right up.”
Luke snorted. Despite how old they had gotten, they would always be little kids to their mom.
“Mama, come on,” Farhan said, cracking a smile. “Losing will hardly make Luke feel any better.”
“Losing?” Luke arched a brow. “If I recall properly, you’re the one who always loses.”
Farhan snorted. “Yeah, right.”
They set up the board game on a table in front of their mother, both boys sitting on the floor on either side of her as they played. It was hard to say who was trying to cheat the most, but that was half the fun.
In the end, both brothers lost, and Rhea won, but he didn’t care. His mother was right; the game did fix his evening, though that was more from the company of his family than from the game itself. His mother looked brighter than he’d seen her in days, her eyes wide open instead of drooping closed from fatigue. She laughed easily, beaming at her sons.
Afterwards, he and Farhan tag-teamed dinner—creamy chicken handi with naan—and they all ate together. By then, Rhea was tired, since it was getting late. Farhan helped her up to her room.
“Don’t forget your mail, jaan,” Rhea reminded Luke from the stairs, and he grabbed the stack from the front table.
He shuffled through as he made it to his room on the ground floor. Because he still lived at home, they had sectioned this part of the house off into a kind of studio apartment with a separate outside entrance so he could still have privacy and, once he closed the door, he let out a long sigh.
Closing the door behind him with his foot, he continued rifling through the mail. There were a few junk envelopes, but then he spotted some that he knew were bills for Tempest.They were marked with a bright red OVERDUE stamp across the front, and he winced.
He swore under his breath, shuffling past them only to find more bills, these ones from the hospital for his mother.
“Today is truly the worst,” he muttered to himself. He dropped the stack of mail onto his dresser, running both hands through his hair.
Sitting down on the edge of his bed, he buried his face in his hands, closing his eyes. He focused on the rhythm of his heart, beating steadily but slowly increasing as tension seeped through him.
He had wanted to talk to Emmeline, to see if they could move forward together, but he realized now what a terrible idea that was. His entire evening had been derailed because of how she made him feel, and he didn’t need that, not right now.
He should have been focusing on his business, on pulling it out from the dire straits it was in. Heneededto win that investment. He needed to take care of his mother, the way he always did.
Emmeline was his rival. He couldn’t risk forgetting that fact.
Chapter 19
After Luke had flown away, Emmeline had been too wired up to go to the bookshop to work on her proposal, so instead, she had gone home, where she had cooked way too much food. She ended up packaging up most of the food for Saphira, dropping it off at their cottage with a note that said,For you and the baby??.
That had helped a little.
The next day, as Emmeline headed to Tales & Tails, she wondered how Luke would be. She was sure he would apologize, and she was intent on making him grovel for a while before forgiving him. She knew he’d have some sort of explanation, but she wouldn’t accept it, not right away at least.
“Hi, Ola,” Emmeline said, passing by the manager at the front table. “Minh.” They both waved, Ola from where she was bagging a book, and Minh from his reading chair, though he didn’t glance up from his book while he did.
With Motu flying beside her, Emmeline headed forthe office, weaving between customers. She smiled at the booksellers, watching as one of them tried to rescue a distressed baby dragon that had managed to get stuck in the window display. Recognizing the garneta breed from the Baby Dragon Book Club, she went over to say hello to Vaneeza Kiani, who was trying to coax her baby dragon out with burnt naan chips.
“Hey, need any help?” Emmeline asked. “I have fried bitter gourds.” At that, Motu perked up; he really was such a little fatso. Shaking her head, she pulled the bag out of her purse and gave him a few, which he happily gobbled up.
“Honestly, yes,” Vaneeza replied with a little laugh.
Emmeline pulled out the snack, and Ember perked up from the smell. The bookseller moved the rest of the books out of the way, clearing the path for Ember to come out from where he was stuck in the corner of the window.
“Ember,” Emmeline cooed, shaking the bag. The baby dragon perked up.
