Page 21

Nothing new. Nothing wrong.

So why do I feel like I’m crawling out of my skin?

With everything as it should be, I give myself a shake. “Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. You were putting away dishes and trying to figure out why the hot vampire is acting like a yo-yo.”

Did I just call him hot out loud?

I groan and swipe my hand down my face.

“Jeez, Cordelya. Get over yourself and stop thinking about him. He isn’t interested, and even if he was, you do not have time for romance. You’re on the clock.”

The words taste like ash as I speak them. The thought of leaving is never great, but leaving Ravens Hollow makes my heart ache painfully.

With that dread weighing me down now, I open the pantry to discover I’ve done all the prep but have no ramen. Closing the pantry door, I lean against it, heaving a deep sigh.

“Guess food will have to wait until after I get back from grocery shopping.” I say to the animals. I pack the prepped food away, crate the animals, and head for the door.

Grocery shopping when you have to carry everything home because your car is still being repaired takes strategy. The hand basket I picked up when I entered the market is bearable now… barely. But I still need several more items, including some cans that will add more weight to the bags.

“It’ll be good exercise,” I say to myself very unconvincingly.

With a sigh, I head for the next aisle in search of the driving factor of my grocery run—ramen. I step carefully around the wet floor sign and start scanning the shelves, waiting for a flavor to speak to me. Once I’ve picked a few and added them to my basket, I turn and head for the canned goods.

Except I don’t make it past the wet floor sign as I collide with a shopping cart. The cart pushes me back onto the wet floor, and my feet slide out from under me. My body goes airborne. My arms flap like an ostrich with delusions of flight as the items in my basket scatter across the aisle.

For a moment I feel suspended in air. Then my body crashes to the floor with a distinctive thud.

“Cracker Jacks,” I groan as pain shoots from everywhere in my body, specifically the ankle I landed on.

“Oh shit, oh shit, or shit!” a panicked voice comes from above me.

When I look up, there’s a woman with vibrant red hair leaning over me. “Are you okay?” she asks, extending a hand to me.

“Ember? What’s going on? Are you okay?” another equally panicked voice, this one deeper, gravelly, and most definitely male, calls out, fast approaching.

I take the woman’s hand and begin easing myself to sitting.

“In the ramen aisle, Logan,” she calls over her shoulder.

“I’m so sorry. My cart wheel caught the wet floor, and I lost control. Are you okay? Does anything hurt?”

I stretch my back, wincing. “I think my pride took the worst hit,” I say, laughing at how I must have looked flapping my arms as I caught air then plummeted.

“Ember…whoa. You okay, ma’am?” asks the owner of the voice from earlier.

When I look up, I nearly swallow my tongue. The first thing I notice is the slightly pointed ears and the coarse fur-like hair sticking out from them. That is followed by striking golden eyes, broad shoulders, and muscled arms.

“She says her pride is the only thing hurt, but she keeps wincing when she moves,” Ember says.

“Can I help you stand up?” Logan asks.

“That would be great.”

Logan offers me his hands. I make a very unladylike noise as I pull up, and then yelp when my ankle nearly gives out as I try to stand. Ember and Logan both grab one of my arms and help me lean against the cart.

“So it might be more than my pride.”

“Hang tight,” he says, dashing up the aisle and away.