Page 2 of The Human’s Heart

“That’s exactly why I came inside. A’s driving me nuts with his bossiness out there, and I’m sick of watching construction when I know nothing about it. At this point, I’m used to helping make our homes out of living trees—or watching A do it—so this is foreign to me. Figured I’d come in here and start lunch.” He let out a small chuckle, and I couldn’t help but grin at that.

“Can I help?”

“Sure.”

He was already making some kind of pasta salad thing, so I got to helping with the sandwiches. Apparently, most of the Ellwoods were vegetarians, so I was learning different things to make them. Right now, I was doing a mixture of cucumber and avocado sandwiches, and of course, a few peanut butter and jelly ones—nothing could beat a good PB&J.

I wanted everyone to have choices, and because I knew how the Ellwoods—and my boyfriend—were, I made about a billion of them while Sebastian worked on a bunch of different sides. Because I had no doubt we were going to feed the construction crew too.

“How’s work going?” Sebastian asked a few minutes later.

I shrugged, not taking my eyes off the cucumber I was cutting up, lest I cut myself or chop off a finger. “It’s going. I like working at the bar, but it’s just a job.”

He nodded. “I understand that. I kinda felt like that my whole life before I met Ailin. Now, I enjoy the work we do with the BCA, but I also enjoy the little odd things we do here and there to help people… even if half the time we end up bringing home some little creature or something.”

With a small snort of amusement, I nodded, unsure of what to say. I didn’t know a lot of details, but Zay had told me that his grandparents did a lot of work in the community, using their magics to help people. After a second, I cleared my throat. “It’s good that you like it now.”

Even though I wasn’t looking directly at him, I could hear a smile in his voice. “Thanks.” There was a brief pause. “Do you like bartending? Is that what you want to keep doing?”

My automatic answer was something along the lines of there isn’t anything wrong with being a bartender, but then I took a moment to actually think before I got defensive. I didn’t think Sebastian was asking because he thought being a bartender wasn’t a good job. He was asking because he was trying to get to know me.

Trying to get to know his grandson’s boyfriend—viramore, whatever.

So after a pause, I gave another shrug. “Honestly, I don’t know. I truly do enjoy it, especially since Jett works with me, and I love the other employees too. But I can’t deny that bartending wasn’t what I dreamed of when I was little.”

“What did you want to be when you were little?”

I felt my cheeks heat. “Um, a veterinarian… I always loved animals and wished I could’ve had a pet when I was a kid.”

He snorted. “You’ll fit in perfectly with this family, then. Just about everyone is an animal lover, but no one more than my viramore.”

For a moment, that information surprised me, but then I thought about it, about Ailin’s nature magic, and I figured it made a lot of sense. Plus, whenever I saw him with any of his family’s Bonded Ones, I could tell he loved them.

Not to mention the two hellhound puppies Sebastian bought him for Winter Solstice.

Yeah, Ailin was definitely an animal lover.

I smiled at Sebastian. “I haven’t actually thought about that in a long time, if I’m being honest.” Not since I was a little kid. Once I was old enough to really understand what my parents were doing—or rather, what they weren’t doing; taking care of me and my sister—I’d been way too worried about keeping myself and Harlow alive.

And look how that turned out.

I winced to myself and pushed thoughts of my sister and her death out of my head.

It wasn’t my fault, and deep down, I knew that, but there was still a big part of me that felt guilty, that felt like I could’ve done things differently and saved her.

“You okay, isa mezelie?” Zay’s voice asked in my head.

“I’m alright. Just… thinking about Harlow.”

There was a brief pause. “Do you need anything?”

“No, I’ll be alright. Lunch is almost ready, so I’ll see you in a minute.” If I didn’t put a stop to it, Zay would march right in here and whisk me away to somewhere private so I could cry on his shoulder or maybe just so he could hug me.

Honestly, a hug sounded fabulous. But I wasn’t about to make him stop what he was doing just so he could hug me.

“Alright, isa mezelie, I’m here if you need me.”

“I know you are. Thanks, puddin’ pop.”