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And he wants it to be, with a profound yearning that he hasn’t felt since... well, since he was seven, and all he wanted was—No. He couldn’t have it then and it’s still not his now.
The shrill ring of a phone cuts through the conversation. Elisha squints at the number flashing across the screen. “Seriously? It’s after work hours!” She sighs. “Oh, nope, actually, I guess it’s still the workday for Jessica June.”
“Who?” asks Jamie.
Anita clucks her tongue. “It’s Damian Rhys’s assistant.”
Everyone falls silent so Elisha can answer it at the table, which is another oddity to Ves. Even now, his father always answers phone calls in a furtive way, leaving to go to another room. It’s probably a leftover habit from the days Karl used to sneak around behind Adeline’s back.
Long after his mother discovered the affairs, Karl continued playing at discretion, but even as a child, Ves knew what it meant when his father left the table and his mother waited for him to come back, picking at her plate long after her food went cold. On those nights, Ves wouldn’t rush away to his room and the solace of his books. He always stayed, even if she didn’t seem to notice or care that he was there.
Suddenly, in the cozy warmth of the Rowes’ home, he feels itchy and uncomfortable in his own skin. Everything here is so different, and he isn’t sure he likes it.
“Hello?” Elisha squirms in her seat. “Oh, hi, JJ. How are—Yeah, it’s almost eight here, but it’s no problem. Oh, really? Yeah, no, that’s—Yeah, yeah, I can always ask. Of course. I’m not sure how possible it will be, but—Mm-hmm. Well, I’ll definitely do my best.”
A beat. Her gaze cuts to Ves’s. “Yes, he’s a relative.” Another pause, where Elisha’s eyebrows pinch. “Not a problem at all, I know you’re working round the clock, it’s all go-go-go.” A few more niceties and she hangs up, setting her phone on the table with a sigh.
“Everything okay, sweetie?” asks Jamie.
Ves fists his hand in his lap, inconveniently plagued by the urge to reach out and smooth his fingers over her brow until she relaxes her face. Every muscle is taut, her nostrils are flared, and there’s a distinctly unhappy set to her mouth.
“Uh, just a surprise?” Elisha angles her body to face Ves. “So JJ wanted to give me a heads-up that Damian is interested in coming down here early with a skeleton film crew to get some pre-production footage. Check the lighting for when they start to film next month. Promotional stills. Stuff like that.”
He shrugs. “I suppose that’s fine?”
She takes a deep breath. “Well, here’s the thing,” she says hesitantly. “He wants to do some of it inside the house. ASAP. Like, this weekend. Apparently, he got his start as an assistant on the original movie and actually knew Maeve, so he wants to get in there. But, obviously, I know that’s not what we agreed to, so...”
Even if Ves couldn’t feel all four pairs of eyes staring at him, his answer would be the same. “You really have to ask?” he asks.
Her eyes widen. “No, I know! I knew you’d hate the idea! I just had to make it seem like I was actually going to run it by you, but I’ll let them down easy.”
It feels like he’s wearing an itchy sweater while sweating profusely, so every horrible wool fiber is plastered tightly to his skin. He clears his throat, which is also wadded with skeins of detestable scratchy yarn. Joy. “I meant,” he says, voice rough, “that I’m in this now, Elisha. I’m with you. All the way to the end.”
Her eyebrows are still drawn together, like she hasn’t grasped what he’s trying to say.
“As long as they’re gone before the valuation people get here, they can have whatever they need,” he clarifies, waiting for it to click. When it does, her brows shoot almost to her hairline and the sound she makes is similar to the one that had escaped her throat when he’d sucked the crook of her shoulder just right during their first kiss. Damn if he doesn’t feel rewarded by surprising her yet again.
“You’re not kidding?” She scans her family’s faces as if they have more information than she does. “Seriously, Ves? People underfoot? Being kicked out of your own house?”
“I can check into a hotel for a few nights,” he says. “No big deal. Hotels around here are pet friendly, right? Thor, Thorin, and I will be just fine.”
Momentarily, it surprises him how readily he’s accepted the cats into his life, but then it doesn’t: they’re his responsibility, but more than that, they’re his.
“Yeah, but uh, forget about any chain hotels,” Elisha replies. “We don’t have any of the big ones, and I don’t think you’ll want to stay at any of the motels, but I can call up the B&Bs and see if there’s—”
“Sorry, hon,” says Dave, looking sheepish. “That idea’s out. There definitely won’t be any room at the inn, I’m afraid. At any of the inns. There’s that cozy Christmas mystery writing retreat going on right now, remember? And I was just chatting with Marcy on the way here; she always has the lowdown on everything. Places are already booked up.” He brightens. “Well, except... I do know of one...”
“Whatever it is, we’ll take it!” Elisha’s brown eyes entreat Ves to murmur his own agreement.
Dave grins, flustering Ves with a bold wink. “Chez Rowe!”
Ves thinks staying with Dave won’t be too bad—they’ve been spending time together, anyway, and he’s grown to really enjoy the man’s company—but apparently he’s come to the wrong conclusion, because Anita declares, “Dave is right. We won’t even hear of you going to a hotel when you can stay in our guest room, Ves. You’re basically family. More potatoes?”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Ves
Last night, you meant that I’d be staying with you at your place, right?” Ves asks, watching Dave get to work on repairing the thoroughly rotted runners for the sleigh. They’re in the workshop behind the Chocolate Mouse, where Ves has spent the last few days learning how to split wood along the grain, the properties of hardwoods with excellent bendability, and how to unpick splinters from his hand without his eyes watering—much.
