After a few seconds Daphne began to dig in as well. A surprisingly comfortable silence blanketed the kitchen as we ate and as I finished my food I realized that it was the first time I’d shared a meal like this in a long time.
As if she was reading my thoughts, Daphne glanced up from her plate. “Thank you for this, it’s been a really long time since someone has cooked for me.”
I shrugged. “It isn’t a big deal.”
“It is. My mom was a terrible cook, but our chef always made my favorites,” Daphne insisted.
“Chef? Are you rich or something?” I asked, surprised.
Daphne’s eyes widened as if she’d told me something she shouldn’t have. “Do you turn into stone when you sleep?”
She was changing the subject. Drawing a line between us. Things about her life outside of the town were clearly off limits.
That was fine with me as I apparently needed to relearn how to mind my own fucking business.
“No. It’s a myth that we turn into stone every time we sleep. It’s only used when we need to recover or for religious reasons,” I explained around a mouthful of bacon.
“Religious reasons?”
“Yeah, gargoyles are a Celtic species. We ascribe to many of the same holidays that the Celts do. Winter solstice being one of them.” I wasn’t sure why I was explaining it in so much depth. I didn’t observe any holidays anymore, let alone the Winter solstice.
Winter was always a nasty reminder of everything I had lost.
Shaking off my suddenly depressing thoughts, I glanced up at the human in front of me. “You can stay here as long as you don’t bother me. I’m not used to having anyone around, let alone a human. I’ll help you fix your car and then you can figure out where to go next.”
Daphne blinked at the abrupt change of direction that our conversation had taken. I had drawn my own line between us with my words.
A pink flush filled her cheeks as she nodded. “Thank you for letting me stay at all. I’ll be so quiet you won’t even realize I’m here.”
I snorted inwardly. Fat chance of that. Every inch of me was acutely aware of where the little human was at any given time, and the humming in my chest had only grown since last night.
“Are you finished?” I asked, nodding at her half-eaten food.
Daphne nodded and I piled her plate on top of mine, dumping both in the sink.
“Come on, I’ll give you a ride to the Wharf.”
“You don’t have to, I can walk,” Daphne hurried to stand, her fingers gripping the crossbody bag she had strapped across her chest.
I held in my sigh and turned to face her fully. “Dragonfly, let’s clear this up right now. If I don’t want to do something, I won’t offer to do it. If I say I’m going to give you a ride, I’m going to give you a fucking ride. Are we clear?”
Daphne nodded and swallowed heavily. For a split second I was afraid that I’d scared her with my words, but the deepening flush of her cheeks told me that was definitely not the case.
The hum in my chest swelled to a fever pitch and I rubbed at it, confused. “Besides, I’m not sure you’ll survive another trip down those stairs. I’ve never seen a human as out of shape as you.”
Daphne’s dazed expression shifted as she glared at me. “Well I’m sorry that I don’t pass your gym bro workout muster.”
“That’s all right, we’ll work on it,” I shot back smugly.
Daphne’s mouth opened but no sound came out before she snapped it shut again and stomped out of the kitchen muttering under her breath about stupid gargoyles and something I couldn’t quite make out.
The grin on my face ached and I rubbed at my jaw, wondering when the last time I’d smiled so much in such a short span of time had been.
Ten
The cheerful ding of the bell above the door made me look up from the pile of old client files that I’d been spending the morning trying to digitize. The shop had been open for decades and it took Effie threatening to quit for them to finally start using technology.
That meant that there were nearly fifty years of documents that needed to be sorted and digitized so that they could be accessed from any tablet or computer in the shop.
