“I know the beanie isn’t always enough,” she chirped, pleased that I appeared to like her gift. “And you like purple, and the beanie is blue, you said your Cy’s eyes are blue. I don’t know what shade of blue but that’s the color I could come up with when Rosa met up with me and Joanie and helped me dye the-”
Dropping the wrapping cloth, I crushed Dace to me in a bear hug.
“Thank you. I love it.”
“Oh good! I was worried,” Dace gushed. “I didn’t want it to make you more sad,” she admitted.
“It makes me anything but sad,” I got out between loud sniffles.
“Good!” Dace was sniffling now too.
We pulled back, got one good look at each other, then laughed and hugged one last time.
“And thank you, you know, for sticking up for me, with Daisy and, well, everyone and everything.” Dace’s eyes were glassy as hell but her smile was huge.
Before I could say anything, she added in way of explanation. “For all of it. Village gossip gets around, you know? I never wanted you and Kehlor to fight about you living here with me. He doesn’t like me and that’s fine with me, but-”
“Hey, don’t believe everything you hear.” I wasn’t confirming or denying any of the rubbish going around. My arguments with Kehl were deeper than who I was or wasn’t around, and I knew it.
“The last thing I want you to think is that what’s going on with me and Kehl has anything to do with me being friends with you. Trust me, it’s really not.”
Dace took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay.”
Motioning to the table, I held out the paper I’d used as a key and the seven second rule evoked loaf of previously tossed bread. “Bread and sweet beast butter and a lesson in Creeson?”
“Do you think I could really learn it?” she fretted.
“Yep.” She had me for a teacher and where others lacked patience and understanding with her I had it in leaps and bounds.
If Berkr was the same with her then maybe I’d feel more settled that he seemed to be in some kind of thing with her, whatever they were or weren’t calling it. I didn’t ask and she really didn’t offer it up.
Studying the wig she’d gifted me, I had to ask, “Where did you find such long hair?” Who donated it, hung in the air.
“Oh. It’s mine.” Dace fingered her hair, just past her shoulders. “From before,” she explained. “I cut it all off for a book.” She said it so matter of fact, like it was no big deal.
“Did you get the book?” I blurted.
Lifting her fingers, she wiggled them at me, “Stuck my hands in a fire to save it and everything.”
“Was it worth it?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Yes,” she answered without hesitation. There was more to it than that but she wasn’t forthcoming and I knew her well enough not to pry. She’d tell me when she was ready. She always did.
“Was there any particular word or phrase you wanted to say?” I started off.
“Oh! I know!” Rushing off to her bed, she pulled a ragged, beat up looking book from underneath her pillow. The cover was missing, the spine badly warped— it had definitely taken some fire damage. She cradled it like it was her most prized possession. “Could we translate this?” she asked.
Carefully, I turned to the first page and read it. A spicy, beastman Why Choose Romance. Got it. “We could try,” I murmured as I paused and glanced up at her.
“Rosa said Zhuii doesn’t know how to read English very well. He struggles with the human language. Maybe- Maybe we could translate it and gift it to her.” Before I could think to ask, she pointed to the books on her shelf. “She gave me all of those.”
“That was nice of her.”
“She felt bad. I only picked out three, but then she kept bringing them to me until I told her to stop,” Dace explained.
“She’s the reason you cut your hair?” I questioned.
Dace sucked her lips into her mouth. She held them like that until I stopped making the face that had her reacting like that. Cupping her hand over her mouth, her eyes crinkled, telling me she was smiling and trying to cover it up. “You look just like Berkr when he’s trying to pry something from me.”
