Page 42 of The Burning
“People are usually stupid when given the chance.”
He laughed. “You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”
I pulled my lip between my teeth and nodded. “I’d be a great lawyer if I wasn’t so empathetic and too poor for law school.”
“Okay, Miss Empathy . . .” His voice changed to a whisper. “To everyone but me. Let’s go to the baby shower for Elodie, not them. Plus, I can help you get that chair home? Your house is sort of on the way,” he said.
It wasn’t.
“I’ll figure it out on my own.” I blocked the low sun from my eyes with one hand. It was shining bright, just behind Kael’s head and shoulders, but his broad body hid most of the light, except for where it crept around the edges of him.
He laughed. “Wow. You’d rather be stuck here with this chair with no way to get it home than ride with me. I didn’t realize it was quite at that level,” he said in a sad voice.
“I wouldn’t have had the chance to tell you how I felt and it’s not like you actually asked. You ghosted me.” I rolled my eyes, arguing to lighten up the conversation. “Obviously it would be easier for you to bring the chair, but I wasn’t thinking of you offering to take it.”
“You know I will gladly help you—anytime,” he said.
I wanted to tell him that no, I didn’t know that. Not at all.
“I really wanted the chair and now, thanks to you, I have it, so whoever drives it home doesn’t matter,” I said in a dramatic way while hugging the back of it and sighing. “It’s so beautiful.”
“Yeah.” He paused and I caught his eyes on my mouth. “It is.”
I could feel my heart pounding. He licked his lips.
“Come on, Kare. Come with me. You don’t want to miss her baby shower. I’m sorry they didn’t invite you, but this is about Elodie, not them.”
I rolled my eyes heavily. “Oh, don’t you try that salesy shit on me. I’m immune to your charm.”
He smirked at me, calling me a liar with his eyes. “Right.”
“Besides, I don’t know if I should go now that it’s almost over. I was going to throw her one closer to her due date. I thought people waited until they knew the gender of the baby. They should have waited so people could actually know what to buy.”
I looked up at Kael. He was leaning against a dining-room table set that was only eighty dollars for all six pieces. It looked at least a hundred years old and cool as hell with etchings of lines in the wood, marking family dinners, excited kids, memories made. Kael’s finger traced along the edge of the table, collecting a tiny bit of dust.
“I have no idea why they did it now. I just found out yesterday, so I guess it was a last-minute kind of thing. I’m almost done with her gift. It’s still got another week until it’s ready, but I’m still going to stop by and at least show my face at the party.”
I glared at him.
“Even though your baby shower would have been much, much better.”
I smiled. So did he.
I looked around at the booths that were still open. “Ugh, and even if I stop by, I won’t have a gift. What did you get her?”
“A crib,” he told me, his voice lower and the cocky smile evaporating into the sticky market air.
I couldn’t help but smile. “A crib. Wow.”
“I’m making it, though, so it’s taking longer than expected.”
My mouth hung open. “You’re making it, as in building it yourself?”
He nodded.
“Now I definitely can’t show up with you, you’re showing me up too much.”
That was so sweet of him. I needed the reminder that he wasn’t always an emotionless toy soldier, and that I wasn’t a total crazy person for having seen something completely different in him once upon a time. Him building Elodie a crib for her baby by hand definitely did the trick of flipping my opinion of Kael. The thought of him coming here to buy wood to build a crib was pulling me to him emotionally. It changed something in the way I was looking at him, brought in a little light that I hoped Kael would put out with another lie before I was too far gone.
