“Are you really home?”
Her grin was broad. “For now, I suppose I am. Where is everyone else?”
“Father is working the pub and Aunt and Uncle are out back in the garden. They talk about you a lot.”
“Do they?” She couldn’t seem stop touching his cheek.
“Mm.” He nodded. “All the time. Aunt Betty cries a lot too. At night, when she thinks the rest of us are asleep.” His bow-shaped lips turned into a frown.
The thought of it broke her heart. Touching the tip of her pinky to his lips until he smiled once more, she said, “Well, I’m here now.”
“How does that man treat you, Shay Shay?” He gripped her wrist tightly. “Is he nice to you?”
Gods, how to answer that question. Rumpelstiltskin was complicated. Divine, dangerous, seductive, cold.
“He’s…” She sighed. “He’s not mean to me. Though he does sometimes get a little grumpy.”
His brows bunched. “I do not like to hear that. What do you do when he gets like that?”
“I…” She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth before exploding into action. “Tickle him like this!” And she proceeded to show him in great detail until she had him in hysterics, hanging on to his side and twitching almost violently.
“Stop. Stop.” He wheezed. “Mercy.”
“Well, I suppose, since you asked so nice.” She dropped a kiss onto his cheek and he hugged her tight, almost bruising her rib cage.
“I’ve missed you so bad.” His heartfelt whisper made her heart melt. Jumping up, he tugged on her hand. “Look at my room. Look what Father made me while you were gone.”
Only once he forced her to look around did she notice the large, rectangular object made of wood and glass sitting on his dresser. Laughing with delight, she tapped the glass and grinned as the beautiful orange and black guppies within scattered. “Your very own fish! How wonderful.”
She could have stayed in this room with him forever, but then she heard the back door bang open and shut and then a female groan. Stomach twisted with nerves, she turned. “Let’s go downstairs.”
He shook his head. “I wanna play with my fish a little bit longer. Don’t leave me again, Shay Shay.”
Smile wobbling for a fraction of an instant, she patted his head. “I’ll try really hard not to, okay?”
His face scrunched up before he gave a reluctant nod. “Okay, but I won’t take long, I promise.”
“Okay, don’t.” And with an air kiss, she sailed down the stairs.
“Briley, what in the world!”
Her mother’s voice drifted to her from the kitchen, and when she rounded the corner, she stopped and held out her arms. Words clogged her throat and all she could do was drink in the sight of her. Betty was as beautiful now as she’d been the day her father had stumbled into her at the public library.
They’d remained on Earth only long enough to let the rest of her family in on the secret fountain of youth—life in Kingdom.
Shayera had never met her grandparents; they’d not wanted to come along, claiming that they were too old for such adventure. Only Briley’s insistence had made Uncle Kelley come along.
Mother’s dark eyes grew wide. Rubbing at the dirt on her cheek with the back of her hand only caused it to smudge worse. Her blue-jean overalls were stained with dirt and streaked with mud, but to Shayera she’d never looked prettier.
“My baby.” Betty broke the silence first, rushing to her daughter and wrapping her up tight. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
Somehow Mother always smelled of the soft fragrance of baby powder. Inhaling deeply, feeling as though her very soul were being cleansed, Shayera snuggled into her breast, remembering when she was ten and a hug was magic and could make all the monsters disappear.
Giving her a final big squeeze, Betty dropped her arms and led Shayera to the table. “How is this possible? I thought you’d be gone three months. Not that I’m not overjoyed, mind you.”
Shayera laughed. “I have no idea. I was in the castle, ready to dive into the next test, and then I was here. I don’t know, maybe Rumpel is being nice to me, letting me see you before I have to go. Or maybe this is the test.”
Betty scoffed, flicking at her daughter’s hand. “This is no test, I can assure you. You’re really here. How is he treating you?”
“All things considered, not too bad.”
Narrowing shrewd eyes, Betty studied her daughter. In a former life she’d been a psychologist and had never lost her ability to read others. “I sense a but in there.”
She quickly shook her head. “No but.” But that wasn’t entirely true. The memory of last night, of what they’d done, came crashing down on her, making her feel suddenly hot and combustible.
As she twisted her thick hair into a fat braid, Shayera’s grin wavered.