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“Sure,” I sighed. “Actually, what’s that—”
The blindfold fell away, and I was left staring at atremendousworkspace! I saw rack upon rack of tools and blow-tubes. Entire shelves of colorful glass rods, arranged right to left in every color of the rainbow and every shade in between.
“Oh MY GOD…”
There were blowtorches. Bench-mounted torches. Aluminum tables for light shaping, and steel tables for more durability. Fuel and fresh air pipes criss-crossed everywhere, exiting through flanges in the opposite wall. They fed into two full-sized glassblowing furnaces — the latest models — looking so shiny and beautiful I doubted they’d ever been turned on.
“No way!” I shouted.
“Yes way,” Aiden laughed.
“No fuckingway!”
My God, there was even an annealing oven.
“Just listen to her!” Connor exclaimed with a laugh. “I didn’t think she had it in her, but she curses like an angry pirate.”
They didn’t let go of my hands, I yanked myself bodily free. I was in awe. I was in shock.
“This… This—”
“Is all yours,” confirmed Aiden. “We had it put in over the past week, while they were doing the other construction. Or rather, Elliot made the arrangements. We just facilitated the—”
“That bastard!” I shouted. “That all-controlling, has-to-get-his-waybastard!”
For a long moment, my lovers only looked at each other. They exchanged confused glances.
“Is that a good bastard?” Connor asked hesitantly. “Or a bad bastard?”
“A little of both,” I managed to crack a grin. “But mostly good.” I passed the first furnace, running my hand lovingly over the top curve of it. And there was so muchglass!So much in the way of materials, I didn’t even know where to start.
“Okay,” I admitted. “Definitelygood.”
Aiden tilted his head. “So we can tell him you’re pleased?”
“You can tell him he’s got the mother of all thank yous waiting for him when he gets home.”
I couldn’t believe it. The shop hadeverythingI needed! Every tool, every instrument, everything I could’ve wanted, and then some.
And it was all right here, in the back of the mansion…
“And what about us?” Connor huffed. “It might’ve been his idea, but we helped facilitate this little surprise for ya.”
“Oh I’m pretty sure you boys will getyourthank yous later tonight,” I winked.
For the next couple of minutes I moved around the room, touching each piece of equipment. It just didn’t seem real. Most impressive of all, nothing was left out. I couldn’t have designed the place more perfectly if I tried.
Elliot.
It was all due to his attention to detail, his taking of mental notes at the museum. He’d built this place in his head, I realized. And he’d obviously honed it to perfection with some help from professionals, too.
“And this is really mine?”I asked again, still incredulous. “All of it?”
“Of course,” Aiden smiled. “Plus new shipments of rods every other week. I told Elliot you’d need an assistant, and he wanted to hire one. But I told him to let you do that, because you might want someone fromShatter.”
“An assistant…”
“Of course you could use me in a pinch,” he grinned. “But I’m gonna break a bunch of shit.”
