“What is all this?” A smile tugged on my lips.
He picked up a handful of the pale pearls and offered them to me. “Hoshiko calls them seashells. Personally, I prefer the term sea bones. Apparently, the people here string them into jewelry. I thought maybe I could make you another bracelet.” The smile he gave me was almost shy.
I let Everly’s words from earlier settle in my chest. I could do this. Take a rest before the storm.
“Can I make you a bracelet too?” I asked, sitting at his side.
His grin grew. “I’d be offended if you didn’t.”
We worked in easy silence, threading bits of wire through shells and beads. Brenton even made a few extras for the king and queen’s younglings. Every so often, his knee brushed mine. A silent reminder that we were here, together, without duty, making any demands.
“Yours looks better than mine,” I said when he finished a piece, where the beads were perfectly spaced.
He snorted. “I spend many hours crafting with my nieces and the younglings at the orphanage.”
I touched my bracelet, turning the small crystals surrounding my wrist. “You’re always good at the things you do for the people you care about.”
His hands stilled for the faintest pause before his eyes lifted to meet mine. “We all deserve someone who shows up for us.”
“You do that without trying,” I said softly. “Do you have someone who shows up for you?”
One side of his mouth ticked up in a small smile. “I do. My close friends and family have never let me down. What about you, Lolli?”
My gaze fell to my lap before I forced myself to look at him again. “I have Etienne and . . . I have you?” The last words slipped out more like a question.
“You have me.” His words come out certain.
“You have me too.”
His eyes softened, holding mine for breathless beats before he went back to his work. We fell into comfortable silence, passing shells and beads back and forth.
“Everly found me earlier,” I said, rolling a seashell between my fingers.
“Oh,” he said, not really surprised.
I worried my bottom lip between my teeth. “She mentioned you and King Elias strongly suggested she apologize to me.”
He huffed out a sound that was caught somewhere between amusement and pride. “And did she apologize?”
“She more than apologized,” I said. “She helped me with my magic and offered to let me kick her ass in combat training.”
A smile tugged his lips up. “Good.”
I knocked my knee against his. “Good? Which part?”
“The part where you kick her ass,” he said without looking up, but the warmth in his words gave him away. “Anyone who treats you the way she did should reevaluate their choices.”
My heart warmed, my chest tightening in that familiar way he always seemed to cause. Not painful but full.
When I finished the matching set I’d made him, one for his wrist and one for his neck, I turned them in my palm, a bit hesitant. “These are for you.”
His gaze lifted, surprised, and heat crept over my neck to my cheeks when his eyes widened.
He tilted his head, voice low and rougher than before. “Put it on me?”
My fingers trembled when I fastened them, the brush of his skin against mine setting my pulse in a wild race. Finally, it clicked closed. Then his hand circled gently around my ankle, pressing a tender kiss there before sliding his creation there instead of on my wrist.
“What do you think?” He traced the shells against my skin, his voice nothing but a raw whisper. “Looks better here, so itdoesn’t steal attention from the one I gave you before.” His thumb traced the old bracelet, his eyes darkening as if he still couldn’t believe I’d kept it.
