Page 63 of Give Me a Shot

The coolness of the break room made Jess shiver a little, drawing attention to the fact that she’d gotten sweatier than she’d realized outside. She decided on a water out of the vending machine while the men settled in around the table. She’d agreed to that day as their first practice session a bit reluctantly. Mo and the other Faire blacksmiths had been getting together at the School to create the items to sell for the past few weeks. But that day Mo wasn’t participating—he had Maddie that weekend.

Their schedules hadn’t lined up very well to get together the past few weeks, but they’d made up for it with long phone calls, texting each other throughout the day, and video call dates. The video dates had been a good way to spend time together, but they’d only made her desire to touch him, to be physically with him, grow more and more.

Didn’t anticipate video calls being such an important part of my life.

“I think it’s going to come together nicely,” Brian said as Jess joined them. “This was a good idea, putting on a Faire to raise funds.”

“Kind of you all to help out,” Ned said.

Keith swatted away the praise.

“An opportunity to shoot in garb, dazzle some patrons, and slide into Ren Speak? Every Rennie’s dream.”

Jess blinked twice.

“I’m sorry,” she said. She looked at Brian. “You saidpatronearlier, which I gathered means a person who comes to the Faire. And I’ve heardgarbbefore.” She looked at Keith. “ButRen Speak?Rennie?Please help me out here.”

Keith smiled broadly.

“Ren Speak is the language we use at Faires. The manner of speaking. And Rennies are people who either work the Faires or go to them very, very regularly,” he said.

“Oh,” Jess said.

The men began discussing other things, but their voices faded away. Cassie must have been a Rennie, if that’s a term that refers to regular participants. Cassie went as often as she was able. The room dimmed, Jess’s throat got tight, and the muscles in her arms began screaming. She hadn’t known that Cassie was a Rennie, that there was a specific word for people into Faires. She probably had friends she enjoyed chatting with in Ren Speak. Jess wondered what else she didn’t know about her sister. She knew what she should have known—that she’d failed to see how abusive Cassie’s relationship had become and that she’d suffered because of it. How many other ways had she failed in truly knowing her sister?

“Right, Jess?”

Ned’s question shocked her back into the present.

“Uh…I missed that.” She sat up straight. “What?”

“Said we’re probably good for today. We’ve got a couple more sessions planned; let’s wrap it up,” he said.

“Yeah, sure,” she said, standing as the others did.

As Brian and Keith stepped into the hall, Ned caught her elbow.

“You all right?” he asked, his brows knitted.

Jess swallowed hard. She didn’t know how long she’d zoned out, and she did not like that Ned seemed to have noticed.

“Great,” she said.

Ned searched her face, frowning.

“ ’Kay,” he said. “See you next week.”

—

The pain in her muscles had turned into a dull ache by the time she got home. But her stomach had declared rebellion. Rubbing it as she rushed to the medicine cabinet, she found the medication the doctor had prescribed and knocked back twice the dose. She leaned over the sink and took deep breaths. Steinem trilled behind her.

“Hey,” she said to him with her eyes closed. “I’m okay.”

He walked back and forth, rubbing his sides against her leg. She smiled.

“I am,” she said. “Don’t worry.”

He trilled again.

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