“You’re not a shifter,” Theodora said flatly. “Some people would say I’m not ashe.”
Felicity blinked. “Are you sure?”
“My birth certificate is pretty sure.”
Felicity stared, trying to decide if the familiar features of Theodora’s face were any different now that she knew. Theodora was still Theodora.
“I don’t think that anyone here will care,” Felicity said, echoing Theodora’s own words. “And I’d vouch for you.”
Tears welled up in Theodora’s eyes, threatening her perfect mascara and Felicity had to bounce up to hug her tight.
“It’s not that I wanted to keep secrets,” Theodora sobbed. “But no one here knew me before. I just wanted to fit in.”
“Me, too!” Felicity cried. “This explains why you don’t want to sing,” she added, when they’d done a truly girly dance of hugging and confirming with each other that their makeup wasn’t smudged. “And why you’re so quiet.”
“My voice is kind of a giveaway,” Theodora said regretfully, and Felicity wondered that she’d never noticed how carefully she spoke, always smothering her laughs and saying no more than she absolutely had to. It wasn’t just singing that she didn’t do!
“Luckily, I talk enough for both of us,” Felicity said. “And it doesn’t change anything! We still have a mystery to solve. What spoiled the shrimp and lettuce? Do you think it could be a ghost? It seems like a haunting sort of thing to do. Was Shifting Sands Resort rebuilt on a graveyard?”
“There is supposedly a giant two-headed monster that was turned to stone buried deep below,” Theodora said thoughtfully.
“Well, there we go,” Felicity said. “That’s probably the cause. I’ll suggest it to Chef and we’ll get to the bottom of this!”
CHAPTER10
The bottom of Robert’s first glass of wine was just fine.
Robert could sit in the restaurant and eat a meal and have a drink, and everything was great. He was protected by a layer of frost that no tropical sun could melt, and he could even watch Felicity dance around the restaurant, hamming it up with Breck and flirting with customers.
He wasn’t jealous. He wasn’t sorry. He just...was.
Part of him knew the danger of the ice wall he’d put up. The rest of him knew that it was more dangerous without the wall.
Felicity and Breck were doing an impromptu lead-and-follow tap dance for one of the tables. Everyone around them was laughing and clapping as they bowed and flourished pretend hats and smacked each other on the ass before scrambling back to work. Robert added his applause and finished his wine. Theodora, the very tall, quiet server, smiled and refilled his water glass.
“Felicity will be your server tonight,” Theodora told him. “She’ll be right over with your choices tonight.”
It didn’t make his heart leap up in his chest, though he could feel his stag there, bound in ice like the crystals of frost were bars of steel.
“Lovely,” he said off-handedly.
And she was.
He could appreciate her at a purely aesthetic level when she came to tell him the food options and chat. She was lively and warm, with a light blush always at her cheeks and a sparkle in her beautiful eyes. There was a heady combination of shy and forward to her conversation, like she was flirting with him, but more subtly than she did with the others. Was it all just for show? She remembered everything they’d talked about before, and his preference for lots of ice in his water, and asked if he was excited for the Christmas dinner.
“Chef is pulling out all the stops,” she said, gesturing with her hands. “He keeps talking about hisprecious hams, and going into the walk-in fridge to pet them. Not literally, of course. That wouldn’t be sanitary. But he’s very protective of them. No one else is allowed in.”
Robert chuckled, because he ought to, and thought there was pity in Felicity’s eyes. Did she see through his frosty facade?
“Tonight, we’ve got a lightly-breaded fried cod with a crisp-tender vegetable medley, paired with a yellow saffron rice and drizzled with a spicy balsamic reduction.”
“That sounds fine,” Robert said. It did. Not exciting, just fine.
“Oh, no, you have to hear the second choice,” Felicity said, putting her hands together to beg. “It is too much fun describing this amazing food! Don’t deprive me of this chance!”
Was his second laugh any more successful? He gestured her to go on, and got a loving description of a traditional Spanish paella with chicken thighs, sausage, and prawns, simmered in a seasoned rice with bell peppers and onion.
“I think I still have to go with the cod,” Robert said.
