"You won't know until you talk to him. I know you're scared of getting hurt, but think about the alternative. What if he does love you, which I think he does, and you don't tell him that you feel the same. In ten years, you both find out, but you've missed the opportunity to have something. Don't let that slip away from you because you're scared, you'll always regret it," she says.
"How do you know all of this?" I ask.
"Books." She taps the cover of the one she put down to talk to me. "You should try it. They're a lot of fun, and you might learn something."
I raise an eyebrow. "And that's where you've learned things about love?"
"Also from a bit of experience," she says. "But never anything like what you feel for Nate."
"You don't know what I feel for Nate. Those feelings are inside ones, not outside ones."
She rolls her eyes. "I know that. But I've been listening to you talk about him for fifteen years, or is it nearly sixteen? And I've seen the way the two of you interact. If he's not in love with you, then I'll let you take me down to the kitchen, and I'll be your sous chef for an entire day."
"Really? You'll do that? Do you even know what a sous chef is?"
"It's not difficult to work out if you know a little Gaullessian."
"What do you get if you're right?" I ask.
"I'll think of something," she responds. "Maybe you'll have to make me a specific cake for my birthday."
"All right."
She gives me a reassuring pat on the back. "You've got to talk to him."
"I will. But not tomorrow. I need to process all of this first."
"All right, but you shouldn't wait too long. You can't put it off forever just because you're scared of getting hurt."
I'm not sure that I believe her, but I do know that it seems like this is going to eat away at me until I do something about it, which means that it's only a matter of time before I have to tell Nate how I feel. I just have to find the right words to do it.
Chapter 14
Nate looks relieved when Ember whizzes past him to sit on top of the wood-fired oven. She lets out a squawk in his direction which I assume means that she wants feeding.
"One second," he says, heading over to the sink so he can wash his hands. "You're a demanding dragon, did you know that?"
She lets out another cry, but it's less intense this time.
"I'm sorry, she should know better," I say, giving my dragon an unimpressed look.
"It's not a problem, I brought some scraps in earlier for her. I also thought that we might be able to train her to do the meringues by giving her one piece at a time," he says.
"Without burning ourselves."
"Yes, well I haven't worked out that part yet," he admits. "But I'm sure there'll be a way." He picks up the bowl and takes it over to where Ember is impatiently stamping her little dragon feet. He puts it down and pulls back just as the stream of flames erupts from her mouth.
"I need to train her to wait for her food."
"It might be a bit late for that if she's been doing this for five years," Nate responds as he turns around.
I give him a small smile, feeling a little awkward after yesterday, and still full of questions following my conversation with Veronica.
"I made some pastry already," he says. "I didn't know if you were going to come tonight."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I should have said."
He shakes his head. "Yesterday was...new."
