Page 57 of Thor

EPILOGUE

It’d beensix months since Thor and Elle had met, and they still couldn’t go a day without putting their hands all over each other. She was glad that their apartment was right above Thor’s shop, it made access to a bed quite convenient.

He’d helped convince Elle to start making jewelry, so they’d turned the backroom from a sparring room into a shop for her to work in. She hardly believed she owned her own business. She’d named itIf the Ring Fits, proud of her own cleverness. Thor had taken her down to the jewelry district of Los Angeles where she had sold her largest ruby to purchase many smaller uncut stones and gold to make her creations. And to her surprise, though she hadn’t been open that long, and she hadn’t finished many pieces to stock the shop, she’d had dozens of custom orders come in from Thor’s family.

At first, she’d thought they were simply being kind, but then she’d started getting orders from patrons of both the Raven Weaver and Valhalla’s Throne.

She finished setting a pink sapphire into a platinum setting when her loud rock music shut off.

Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr complained from their pen and Elle turned from her workbench to find Thor walking toward her.

“Time to get ready.”

She set the ring in a velvet box to finish later. “The food needs to go in the warmer.”

“Done.”

“Did you turn it on?”

“Like you showed me.”

“What about the cake, did you take it from the fridge, so I can frost it?”

“Sitting on the counter next to your frosting and cake knives.”

“And the wine—”

“Chilled and ready to go. The only thing you need to do is whatever you need to.”

Elle went down her list mentally to make sure she was ready to host her first family dinner.

“Do you think I made enough meat?” she asked.

Thor wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek. “Elle. You have taken cooking lessons for two months. You took baking lessons from Demeter at the Butternut Bakery. You had the table set a week ago. Everything is ready. And remember, it’s our family. It doesn’t have to be perfect.”

“But I want it to be perfect. It’s the first time I’ve hosted a family dinner.”

“And that’s why no matter what you do, everyone will love it. Because they love you, and they want you to be happy. Except for maybe Fenrir, he doesn’t care what anyone thinks about anything.”

Thor kissed her head and swatted her on the rear. “Go put on that sexy new dress you had made at Metamorphosis Boutique.”

Her heart pattered thinking about the dress. “It really is beautiful.”

“It should be, it’s like your jewelry, one of a kind. Now go, before I have to come up there and help you shower.” He winked at her.

“If you did that, I have a feeling dinner might be late.”

“We could always reschedule for tomorrow.”

She pushed away from him. “No. I’ve done too much work.”

“Then you better hurry, they’ll be here in thirty minutes.”

“Thirty? I told you to tell me when there was only an hour left.” She rushed toward the door.

“I did,” he called. “But you couldn’t hear me over the loud music.”

Elle shook her head and jogged to the winding metal stairs. She had to hurry.

---