Page 214 of In Somnis

The sound of the kitchen door swinging open cuts me off, followed by a snort.

“What the hell are you guys doing?”

I look up and find Nevan standing in the doorway, upside down from my angle, with a yellow construction helmet on his head, a hi-vis vest over his shirt, staring at me with a grin he can’t quite hold back.

“She has cramps,” Jasper offers helpfully.

Nevan frowns at me on the floor, then at the crystals, and back at me. “Can’t she take an ibuprofen?”

“See,” I say to the ceiling.

Jasper sighs the sigh of someone surrounded by people who will never understand him and begins collecting the crystals. I sit up and help, dropping some into the pocket of my yellow dress before pushing myself to my feet.

“Happy birthday,” I tell Nevan, grabbing his hoodie strings to pull him down to my level and pressing a kiss to his cheek before I look him over again. “Wait. Is that… are you Bob the Builder?”

“You guys told me to wear the same costume as last year.” He adjusts the yellow helmet with one hand. “Something about heightening her chances of remembering.”

“And wanting a repeat performance,” I confirm.

“It’s what I wore last year.”

Jasper leans toward me and stage whispers, “She had to have been absolutely hammered,” and I choke on a laugh.

Nevan ignores this with the dignity of a man who has been ignoring Jasper his entire life.

“And what are you?” He looks me over—the yellow dress, the lemon clip, the whole situation—and one eyebrow goes up. “A lemon?”

I grin, and he snorts.

“Hey,” I say, pointing at him. “Two days’ notice. And it’s not like I’m exactly baddie costume material to begin with.”

“You could have been,” Jasper says thoughtfully. “You just keep choosing fruit.”

He’s dressed as a witch, and yes, a witch, because apparently, warlock is not the right word, and male witches are still witches.

“Anyway, I have your present here, birthday boy.” I turn and grab the little box from the counter behind me, except I can’t turn back around because Nevan has stepped up so close behind me that there’s no room. His chest is warm against my back as he reaches past me and takes it from my hand, opening the box before I can present it properly.

It’s a keychain, a little heart split down the middle into two pieces, each half with BFF stamped into it in tiny letters. I bought it from the only shop in town that sells anything remotely gift-like.

“I know it’s not much,” I start. “This town really doesn’t have a lot of⁠—”

His lips press to the bare skin of where my neck meets my shoulder, making me shudder and my breath catch.

Goddammit.

“I love it,” he murmurs into my ear. “Thank you.”

He pulls back, and I turn around properly. He takes his half of the keychain and clips it onto his keys without ceremony, then holds out the other half to me. I put it in my pocket, then look away before I keep staring at the way he’s looking at me.

“I saw the spread outside.” Nevan changes the topic, and my eyes find his gray ones again. “Everything looks incredible. You outdid yourself. That must have been so much work.”

“Thank you, and no, it was fine.”

“I couldn’t find the banana bread, though.”

“That’s because nobody should see it.”

Jasper laughs from somewhere behind me.