I purse my lips, thinking about it. Now that we’ve cleared the air between us... “I wish I’d asked more about ice cream.”
But he has a point. Acting from my gut, I’m satisfied.
Maybe Icantrust myself.
And maybe that was his actual goal.
Zan absorbs that for a second. “Well. Let’s talk about ice cream, then. What do you want to know?”
“Whatdon’tI want to know,” I say fervently.
Zan huffs in amusement.
“How do you make it?” I ask. “Can it really taste like anything?”
“There’s a recipe at the cottage, I think,” he says. “And yes, pretty much—some of the popular flavors from abroad are vanilla, chocolate, and cinnamon. But there are lots of local ones, too, like the blackberries that groweverywhere—”
I perk up. “Everywhere?”
Zan points to a patch of brambles. “Everywhere.You can’t stop them. And the variety on Sanctuary Isle has changed since the Quiet. They start ripening in spring and keep growing even into the fall, so they call them Evermore Blackberries—”
I make a beeline for the thicket, crouching down and reaching in to dig for berries before Zan appears in a flurry and grabs my hand.
Touching again. That rush.
I meet his eyes.
They’re so close.
“Not that way,” he says gruffly. “There are thorns. Here.”
Gently, he guides my hand to pick my first blackberry.
“I wouldn’t have expected someone covered in hard scales to need to take such care with thorns,” I tease, trying not to make this weird for him even though my entire focus is on the point where our hands touch.
“I learned to model safety for Tasa and Kovan’s children,” Zan says dryly.
Imagining Zan taking care of children fills me with feelings and I shove the blackberry into my mouth to distract myself.
My eyes widen.
Oooh, that’s good.
And imagining what it would taste like with cream and sugar...
I turn back to the bush with renewed and very keen interest.
In moments I have picked my first berry all by myself and shoved it in my mouth. Then another, and another, and another—
“Yora, you don’t have to eat themallright now—”
I turn to Zan wide-eyed with my cheeks puffed out because my mouth is so full of berries.
And finally,finallythe sound I have been waiting for—
Zan laughs, and laughs, and laughs.
It’s a full, rich sound, breathtaking for its vibrancy and honesty and Iachefor him to be able to feel and express delight like this always.
