Page 18 of The Nixie and the Frost Elf

"There's no but, Lexi," he responds. "I'm still hurt. And we still have things to talk about. But it's okay. It's happened, and we just have to decide if we can deal with it or not."

I bite my bottom lip but find myself nodding. I don't want this to be something that breaks us, and holding it over myself is likely to do just that. I need to trust Edur when he says he's interested in making this work between us, and I have to trust myself that I'm not going to mess this up again.

Chapter 9

Lexi

Playing cards are scattered across Edur's bed, and I lean forward to tidy them up while I wait for him to get back from the kitchen. I forgot how much we throw cards around when we play together, but it's a nice thing to rediscover.

Everything about us is nice to rediscover. I've missed him more than I ever admitted to myself, and now I'm being forced to face that, and regretting every moment we've spent apart.

I finish tidying the cards into a pile and put them neatly on Edur's bedside table. The door opens, and I look towards it to find him coming inside with two bowls in his hands.

"Here," Edur says, handing me a bowl full of ice cream covered in bright blue sauce and sprinkles. "And don't worry, I double- and triple-checked the bubblegum sauce to make sure it's also dairy-free. I remember the consequences the time it wasn't."

I wrinkle my nose. "I'd rather you didn't think about that while we're on a date."

He shrugs and comes to sit next to me on the bed. "I want you to have a good time. That includes making sure that you have the right kind of ice cream."

"Well, I appreciate it." A warm fuzzy feeling spreads through me at the fact he's thought of all of this for me. I dig my spoon into the ice cream and take a bite. "Mmm, this one is good."

"I made it," he responds.

"What?" I stare at him, my eyes wide. Of all the things I thought he was going to say, that wasn't one of them.

"I challenged myself to learn how to use my magic to make ice cream. I started not long before you left school because of how much you complained about how terrible the dairy-free options were."

"They were bad." I look down at the bowl. "You were really doing that for me?"

"It also seemed like a fun challenge anyway. And I have frost magic." He holds up his hand and lets a few snowflakes drift up off it, even though I'm well aware of what his magic can do. "So that was also part of it." The snowflakes disappear as he closes his fist and returns to eating his own bowl of ice cream.

"I had no idea." I look down at the bowl. "Thank you. That's very sweet."

He beams at me, making the ice crystals around his eyes shimmer. "I'm glad it's good. I haven't actually been able to test the recipe on anyone lactose-intolerant, so it could have been terrible for all I knew."

I laugh and eat more of the ice cream. "Well, you've got one lactose-intolerant person's seal of approval."

"And the only one whose opinion matters." The way he says it makes it clear that he thinks what he's saying is true, which fills me with more warmth. He's making it very hard to remember the reasons that I'm supposed to be careful when it comes to forming relationships. But maybe that's a good thing. Mate bonds are strange things. I can reject it if I want to, but it's also an indicator that something within us is compatible. I hope that it's right.

I finish my ice cream and put the bowl down next to the stack of playing cards. "You can make that again."

He laughs. "There's more if you want it."

I shake my head. "That's probably too much ice cream. Part of no longer being twelve is that I know I shouldn't eat too much of it."

"Sometimes, it's fun to go back to things we'd do when we were twelve," he responds.

"Well, bowling and ice cream parties are certainly just as enjoyable nearly a decade later. What else should we try?" I muse.

"Getting absolutely drenched in the rain and just dancing," he says, the expression on his face making it clear he's thinking about the specific time that happened.

"Your magic was starting to flare up, and some of the rain was turning into ice when it hit you," I say.

"I barely noticed. I couldn't take my eyes off you as you danced. You looked so carefree."

"I'm a nixie, I love the water," I point out. "As well as music and dancing." I let out a sigh.

"Even if they're nixie traits?"