Eva narrowed her eyes, but Lily just grinned. After three months together, Lily was immune to Eva’s glares.
“Only okay?”
“She’s no Ariel.”
Eva shook her head. “I don’t know. You have the audacity to insult me when you’re in my house, wearing my clothes, eating my food—”
“Making your food, you mean?” Lily countered, adding the last pancake to the stack and turning off the burner. “Unless you don’t want any of these.”
Lily waved the plate toward Eva, and her traitorous stomach rumbled. Eva was a good cook, but Lily’s talents when it came to sweet treats were unrivaled. Eva had been going out on extra runs to compensate for the increased calorie intake.
“I won’t turn them down.”
Lily laughed as she set the plate on the table.
“Thank you for breakfast, Lily,” her mother said, and Eva wasn’t sure who appreciated Lily’s presence in their life more. Lily and her mother got along like a house on fire—often banding together against Eva, but Eva didn’t mind. She was happier than she could ever remember being, and she knew it was all down to the woman sitting beside her.
“Not a problem,” Lily said. “I thought I’d better take advantage of our last quiet morning.”
Tomorrow, the school year began again. At least they had two institute days to ease them into it, but Eva wasn’t looking forward to it. Usually she was desperate to get back to her classroom, boredom taking hold in the long break, but she’d enjoyed her summer with Lily more than she’d ever thought possible.
A part of Eva was scared to go back to work. She and Lily had been existing in a bubble for the past three months, splitting their time between Lily’s place and High Grove, and Eva didn’t want it to pop once the real world crept in. Eva worried about making time for one another when their schedules were a mess, and while she wasn’t worried about their colleagues finding out, she did worry about what they might say to Lily. Would they try to talk her out of it? Not that she’d listen. Lily was almost as stubborn as Eva, and she hadn’t given Eva a single reason to doubt she wanted to be with her.
Old wounds healed slowly, but Eva finally felt like she was in a good place and she didn’t want anything to jeopardize that.
“Have you got anything nice planned for the day?” Her mother broke Eva out of her thoughts.
“Shopping,” Eva said around a mouthful of fluffy pancake. “Seeing as somebody is woefully unprepared for the coming year.”
“Well, we can’t all be as anal as you when it comes to organization, can we?” Lily’s eyes were bright in the early morning light. “Have you got your label-maker ready?”
“Yes, to label you with a warning—highly irritating.”
“Oh, you two.” Eva’s mother shook her head. “Never a dull moment when you’re together.”
Right on cue, a commotion erupted in the corner of the kitchen. Franklin—who had been sleeping soundly, exhausted after their run—leapt up with a yelp as a streak of black fur made a beeline for his bed.
Franklin’s claws skittered on the linoleum floor as he scrambled to his feet, racing under the table to hide behind Eva’s legs as Hades perched in the center of the dog bed and licked delicately at one of her paws.
“You big baby,” Eva said, stretching a hand down to scratch the top of Franklin’s head. “You’re three times the size of her.”
Big brown eyes blinked up at her.
“Oh, look at his face.” Lily leaned over to give Franklin a pat of her own. “I’m sorry I keep bringing her here to terrorize you.”
“Please, she’s harmless. He just needs to stand up for himself.” Which he wouldn’t, because he was too soft.
“They need some time to warm up to one another,” her mother said, and Eva thought of her and Lily, and how far they’d come in a year.
“That sounds familiar,” Lily said, a smile playing around the edges of her mouth, and Eva knew she was thinking the same. “He’ll grow on her eventually.”
“Wear her down, more like.”
Lily knocked Eva’s shoulder with her own, and Eva smiled, settling a hand on Lily’s thigh beneath the table. She was going to miss mornings like this, the three of them doing the crossword with nowhere else to be.
High Grove hadn’t ever felt like home, but now, with Lily, Eva felt content, could imagine a future there in a way she never had before. And it had only been three months, but it was long enough for Eva to know one thing: Lily was a part of her life she never wanted to be without.
* * *
