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“And skip feight club?” Emily asked.
Angel shrugged lightly.
“I think Brenna is going to stay with her mom tomorrow, and Merdon will probably train Hannah at home to avoid any potentially painful reminders.”
Emily nodded slowly.
“Yeah, I think you’re right. I might pull Hannah into helping train the fey to cook, too. She makes some amazing biscuits, which would be a good thing to learn. It’ll be a crowded kitchen, though. Maybe we can split into two groups. Four in our house and four in yours. I could be the go-between.”
With feight club canceled the next day and Emily training her fey volunteers, what was I going to do? I didn’t want to sit around, thinking about Adam leaving for the caves.
“Do you have any menu ideas based on the supplies we have so far? Anything you still need?” I asked.
“I’ve been thinking about the menus and the overall goal for the plan. We want to draw the troublemakers out, right? I think the food on the first day needs to be pretty good. Enough to get people talking. Ryan’s done an amazing job finding supplies. We have a lot of canned vegetables, noodles, and rice. Enough to throw together a decent soup for the first day, easily. But I’d like to up the game. Biscuits would do that. Bread would be even better. Meat even better than that.
“I’m figuring we’ll need at least enough to serve two hundred the first day, three hundred the second day, and the full five hundred the third day. I think the third day is when most of the troublemakers will show up. So a lot more flour if we can find it. And meat. It doesn’t need to be a ton of it. Just enough to have bits floating in the soup to show what Ryan’s finding out there.”
I thought of Tor’s freezer and glanced at him. We would need to talk about that once we were alone.
“I’ll go out with the supply group tomorrow and watch for both those things,” I said.
We talked more about aspects of cooking for the large group and what issues we might face. After a while, I offered to cook dinner for everyone, which turned into an evening of cards with the group. I couldn’t have asked for a better distraction and said a heartfelt thank you to the three of them when they finally said it was time to go.
Angel hugged me at the door, and based on the extra little squeeze, I knew she understood my reason for leaving tomorrow even if Emily didn’t.
“I’ll save you some biscuits,” she promised before she left.
I turned to Tor once the door was closed and gave him a tired smile.
“How do you feel about donating a roast or two if we don’t find any tomorrow?” I asked, moving toward the stairs.
“I will give whatever you need.”
I knew he meant every word of it.
“Thank you, Tor.”
Neither of us spoke as we made our way to the master bedroom. My stomach churned with nerves as I took my pajamas into the bathroom to change. When I emerged, the lights were off, and I could see Tor’s shape already in the bed. On his side.
A glint of light reflected on his eyes, an indicator that he watched me as I pulled back the covers and got in on my side.
“Sleep sweet, June,” he said softly.
“You too, Tor.”
He exhaled deeply. Something about the sound said he was winding down for sleep. It helped me relax enough to close my eyes. Instead of thinking of how I’d screwed up this morning with Tor, my mind drifted to Adam leaving tomorrow.
I hurt for him and hoped he would find the answer he was looking for.
* * *
Bliss.Contentment. Those two feelings lingered with me as I slowly rose from the depths of the best night’s sleep I’d had for a long time. I was warm, comfortable, and didn’t feel an ounce of worry about anything.
I frowned slightly, my sleepy brain trying to remember why I needed to feel any worry.
The reality crash that followed could have been worse. However, why I was so content took center stage over all the other negative aspects of my life.
Tor’s hand gently smoothed over my back. His chest rose and fell under me. I was laying on the man like he was my personal bed space. And based on the hard length pressing into my stomach, he was loving every second of it.
