Page 43 of Forged in the Fire
If I had to bet on it, I’d guess she was probably in her early fifties, ten years younger than she appeared.
Elena snatched my hand and swung it between us. “Isn’t she sooo freaking pretty, Lulu? I told you.”
“Stunnin’,” Lulu drawled.
I shook my head as I looked at Elena. “You’re ridiculous. Have you looked in the mirror?”
Elena beamed like she’d never received a compliment before. “Really?”
Lulu chuckled. “Sweet girl, you’re gorgeous. No one tells you since they know they’ll get their jugular ripped out by your brother if they do.”
Frustration filled the roll of Elena’s eyes. “He’s so overbearing sometimes, I want to scream.”
“Well, you know why he is the way he is,” Lulu said softly. “After everything, I think you’re lucky he lets you out of the house at all.”
My attention volleyed between them. Trying to catch up. To understand the flash of what looked like terror rip through Elena’s expression.
Then she sighed and looked away as she mumbled, “I know.”
When she looked back, she was all bright smiles again. “Okay, Brinley is starving, and you know that will never do around here. We must feed her.”
“She’s come to the right place.” Lulu hobbled back to the buffet table, showing off a significant limp in her left leg.
While I stood there with the walls spinning around me.
Unsure of what was going on. I hadn’t expected anyone to extend any welcome, and these two had to be the most genuine people I’d ever met.
But I needed to remember what brought me here. Remember the man who was out haunting the periphery of the fire.
Lulu started making me a plate, scooping up giant spoonfuls of potato salad and buttered corn and cole slaw.
I moved to her side. “I can do that.”
“Oh no. It’s what I do around here, unless you don’t like something?”
I shifted in discomfort.
Was she here paying off a debt, too? Was she stuck working for this jerk?
I didn’t like it. Not one bit.
I gulped down the ire. “Everything looks amazing.”
Elena curled an arm through Lulu’s and set her head on the outside of her shoulder. “It’s how she loves us. Through her food.”
Oh.
Okay. Fine.
Not what I was thinking.
“Believe me, between her and Meems,” Elena continued, “you’re going to be well fed while you’re here. You may never want to leave.”
Yeah, that was not going to happen.
Lulu passed me the plate, then she insisted on making one for Elena, too.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
