“
Stick around, though. I’m going to need all the help I can get to figure all this out.”
“That’s me! Mister Helpful. Captain Dependable.”
“That sounds like a brand of adult diapers.”
“This nickname needs some work. Lord Wonderful? The Incredible Hunk?”
“Please, for the love, go inside.”
He laughed, then clomped up the steps and into the house.
“Reth,” I shouted. “Reeeeeeeeth! Reth! Reth, Reth, Reth! If you don’t come in the next thirty seconds, I’m going to do find David’s golf clubs!”
“That tone and level of voice does nothing attractive you for, my love.”
I jumped, startled, but of course Reth would be behind me, leaning heavily on the porch railing.
“You,” I said, glaring. “Fix it. Now.”
A look of disdain on his face, he leaned over and trailed his fingers across Lend’s forehead. A single whispered word, and then . . .
Nothing.
“You liar!” I shouted, standing so abruptly that Lend rolled off my lap and down a step. As he hit the first one, color bloomed through him into his usual glamour and his eyes flew open in panic.
“He was asleep, Evelyn.” Reth’s lips were pursed, but I knew he was smiling gleefully on the inside.
“Lend!” I lunged forward, knocking into him, and we both rolled down the next two steps, landing in a heap on the gravel at the bottom. “You’re awake!”
“Evie! I’m . . . wow, why am I so bruised?”
“Shut up,” I said, grabbing his head and pulling him in for a kiss. It was freezing and we were on the ground but I didn’t care, couldn’t care, not when I could touch my Lend and he was awake to touch me, too. I knew I’d missed it, but it wasn’t until now that it hit me just how empty and desperate it felt to be separated from him like that.
“Maybe,” he said, between tracing my neck with kisses, “we could go inside?”
“Maybe,” I agreed, not getting up.
“Or maybe,” Reth said, his voice dripping with disgust, “Evelyn could come with me to determine how best to fulfill her end of the deal.”
Lend lifted a hand off me and held it in the air. I couldn’t see what he was doing with it, but I had a good idea, and I heartily approved.
“See what I meant about the ability to focus?” Reth snapped. “You two are ridiculous.
”
”