Page 21 of Under the Lion Star

“I’m heading out to Grandma’s again. You need me to grab anything on my way back through Galvord?”

“All good here,” she shook her head. “Yunia said she would be bringing home your and Nima’s gowns either today or tomorrow, so make sure you find time to let her do the final measurements for alterations.”

I nodded, feeling both hesitant and excited to see what the twins had come up with for the king’s ball. My only request had been that it not fit too snugly so that I’d have plenty of room for the bloat that was sure to follow me gorging myself at the event.

“You should invite El for dinner sometime,” my mom smirked. “He seems like a rather interesting character.”

“And lose my only friend after he witnesses the chaos we call a family? Absolutely not.”

My mom chuckled but nodded her head.

I’d told her all about El after Grandma had let it slip that I was spending time at her house with a companion of the male variety. On the one hand, it made my heart warm to know that my grandmother was so close with my adoptive parents, but on the other, it was yet another gossip pipeline that I had to be aware of.

Still, the idea of inviting El over for dinner wasn’t wholly unpalatable. I wasn’t ready to part from his company just yet.

El was already waiting at the city gates when I arrived, leaning against the wooden post of the fence that bordered the first mile of the roadway. He offered me a one-sided smirk at my approach and pushed forward until he stood, towering over me.

“We could have been done last week if you ever woke up at a normal hour,” he nudged my shoulder with his own.

“Yeah, yeah,” I waved him off. “Should finish today.”

“Yup.”

I tried to read his tone and body language, wanting to know if he was as upset at the idea as I was. As usual, he gave away nothing, a fact that frustrated me to no end over the last two weeks. How long would it take for someone to put a crack in those walls he’d erected around himself? I’d probably never know.

Grandma was away at Aunt Stella’s when we arrived, but El and I got to work. The only bits remaining were to finish painting the more detailed trim that surrounded the doors and windows.

Even though it was uncompleted, the house looked ten times better. El had taken it upon himself to prune the overgrown plants and add a few perennial flowers for color. We’d spent a day straightening the brickwork along the path that led to her front door, and El had repaired the stairs so they no longer groaned whenever someone used them.

“Can you help me with this?” El asked from around the corner of the house.

“What’s up?” I replied, wiping the dust from my hands as I approached.

“I need to replace this,” he gestured at a length of gutter where the vines had eaten through the metal. “Can you hold onto that end?”

“Sure.”

I stacked several wooden crates, giving it a firm shake before stepping up. Climbing with the limited grace I could manage, I reached up and held the section of the rain gutter. I peered over my shoulder at El, waiting for his next move, only to catch him blatantly staring at my ass. He looked away quickly, clearing his throat, but I saw it.

Honestly, I was just relieved the physical attraction wasn’t one sided.

I turned my attention back to the gutter, unable to clear the satisfied smirk from my face while El got to work. He cut through the metal until he had removed the damaged section.

He raked his hands through his hair, leaning carefully off the ladder to grab the replacement piece and moving it into place. I loved how his tongue slightly peeked out from between his lips whenever he concentrated on a task. With an intense focus, he bolted the new section into position, studying his work silently and then giving a curt nod to no one in particular.

His eyes always held a lighter glow when he worked, as if he were, for a moment, able to push back the demons he was running from and find a bit of reprieve.

“All good,” he said to me with a small smile as he descended the ladder.

I dropped my arms with a groan and started shaking them out. Which turned out to be a terrible fucking idea.

The crates I stood on shifted, and while I made a valiant effort to maintain my balance, gravity ultimately won out. I slid off the side of the stack, hitting my head against the corner of one, and landed on the ground with a thud.

“Fuck,” El hissed. “Shit, Z, are you okay?”

He held my face in his hands, the skin rough and calloused but surprisingly warm. His blue eyes darted back and forth over mine while a crease formed between his brows, and his mouth slid into a frown.

“I’m fine,” I assured him, moving to stand up.

---