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I trust him as he takes me back through, and this time my brain doesn’t seem to grow mold as phantom whispers linger just beyond what I think I can truly hear. It’s uncomfortable, but I retain my senses. When Pollux says I can open my eyes again, I find him gathering up the yarn he knocked over before. “Were these just in bags?” he murmurs as he finds a receipt stuffed in the bottom of one.
Instinctively, I grab it out of his hand. “Yes, and no you don’t need to read this.”
“One hundred twenty-four dollars?”
I clamp the thin paper to my chest. “I was restocking…and getting all the different colors I needed for the frogs I still haven’t finished…” Pointing pitifully at my desk, I say, “See? Not even close to the full rainbow.”
“Kassandra, there are twelve of each color so far.”
“And only four colors.”
He takes a moment to count. “But twelve of each.”
I fold my receipt up. “I have twelve children, and one Zahra, but Zahra will only want the green, purple, black, white, and gray ones.”
“You are going to give Andromeda ten tiny frogs.” It’s not even a question. How dare he bring this energy into my presence.
“Everyone deserves tiny frogs.”
“Where are my tiny frogs? I want all the colors. I will line them up on my desk beneath my monitor,” he says absently, finding his bee on the foot of my bed.
I stare at the large man, who seems genuinely pleased to have found his bee as he sets the bag of yarn down so he can cuddle it.
Again, he is too precious for words.
So I add making another set of frogs to the list of tasks I need to get done before the Christmas party. It sandwiches nicely right in between asking parents and school board members for help with the party menu, and moving.
My mom knocks once on my door as she pokes her head in. “There you are, honey. I thought I heard talking back here.” She glances toward Pollux, who has buried his nose completely in butter yellow. “Dinner will be ready soon.”
Pollux lowers his bee. “Right. I apologize for the intrusion and the suddenness of this situation. I’m sure you have many things to talk about.” He looks at me. “I’ll head back home now unless you’d like me to help explain the whole robbing you of your tears…um…thing?” As sweet as pure sugar, Pollux’s stare turns helpless. Then his jaw locks. “No, no. You can absolutely explain things on your own, in better words, so the food doesn’t get cold. I’ll…I’ll go.”
I say, “She’s inviting you to have dinner with us.”
Pollux has one foot in a void that makes my head all wobbly before I get the last word out. I lift my attention to his face as he says, “What?”
“Mom’s inviting you to stay for dinner.”
His gaze shifts from me, to my mother, then back to me. “I’m nearly certain I heard no invitation. I don’t want to intrude.”
Mom’s smile takes on an edge that causes me to stand up straighter. When she speaks, it’s with Mom Voice. “It’s no intrusion at all. We’d really like to get to know our daughter’s soulmate a bit better before she goes off to live with him. Next week. Wash up, then you can help me in the kitchen.”
With all the finality that lingers inside a morgue, my mother turns on her heel and sashays up the hall.
Chapter 37
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Real men cut onions.
“You know your way around the kitchen,” Kassandra’s mother—whose name Pollux still did not know—said. She smiled as she put tortellini in one pot. “I take it you cook at home?”
On some level, Pollux felt as though he were being tested, but Kassandra didn’t seem troubled as she sat nearby and crocheted another frog. “I started cooking recently,” he said as he chopped vegetables for the soup.
“Oh? Only recently? Why’s that?”
He tempered his tendency to swear. “My…friend dropped off a newborn unseelie with me a few months ago, and he struggles with food. I did not want him to starve, and I did not want to put the responsibility of feeding him on my daughter.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “Who’s taking care of the infant if you’re here and you don’t want to put his care on your daughter?”
