Page 11 of Falling for the Grumpy Orc
“Well,” she starts, settling her elbows elegantly on the table. “Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, I have an interesting tidbit to share.”
I glance at the antique clock on the far wall, like it’ll save me. No luck.
Evelyn Primrose, with all the finesse of a stage actor, leans closer to Bernice, lowering her voice just enough to make it clear she wants to be overheard. I swear she even cast a sideways glance around the dining room like she wants to make sure she’s not overheard. But she absolutely does.
Right. Gossip as a sport.
“Have you two had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Cassidy Perkins yet?” Evelyn straightens and her wings flick at the tips. “Sweet thing, just took over the Saltwater Lodge.”
Bernice straightens, setting her teacup down. “The lodge? Goodness, I didn’t think that place could attract anyone other than seagulls looking for somewhere to roost. Or maybe a family of raccoons!”
“Oh, it’s in shambles, all right,” Evelyn Primrose says with a dramatic wave of her tiny hand. “But Cassidy, bless her heart, is determined to bring it back to life. Full of ambition, that girl. Full of plans. And wouldn’t you know it? She's cute as a button.”
The smile that spreads on Evelyn Primrose's lips is nothing short of predatory as she leans over and stage whispers into my grandmother's ear, her violet gaze never wavering from me.
"And single. Divorced, actually."
Evelyn pauses for effect, then her gaze goes from me to Bernice and I hate her just a little.
"I sent her straight to Gerralt’s workshop, of course." Evelyn's smile widens. “I got word that she paid him a visit the same afternoon.”
My blood freezes in my veins when my grandmother's amber eyes reduce to slits. If Evelyn's goal was to ruin my day, she can consider it mission accomplished.
“You don't say?" Bernice's eyes turn sharp. “A lovely,singlelady needs help from my grandson?”
Evelyn nods in a way that is simply evil.
I sit up straighter, my thick fingers tapping against my coffee mug. A flash of those hazel eyes burning with fury shoots inside my brain. Then I see it, perfect as in a picture. Her soft, round lips, pressed together into a rosebud pout.
How much I'd wanted to press those lips to mine, feel them nestle right between my tusks.
And that's exactly why I had to say no, because just looking at her had made something warm and dangerous unfurl in my gut, like a hook that hurt and felt good at the same time. Because her bright, infectious smile had nearly cracked my resolve right then and there.
"Shedidpay me a visit, and shedidwant to hire me." I hear the ice in my voice and I hate it. "I turned her down."
Evelyn Primrose gasps theatrically.
"Gerralt," Bernice says with a voice as smooth and soft as poison. "Why would you do such a thing?"
All the while, Evelyn stares at me like she's as surprised as Bernice, but I know she already heard all the juicy gossip from one townie or another. No one in this town knows how to mind their own business.
“Because she doesn’t know the first thing about restoring an old place like that,” I reply flatly, ignoring the way my grandmother looks at me like she wants to practice her knife throwing on my face. Which I’m not putting past her. For the first time in a long while, I'm reminded that Bernice was born and raised in the old ways. She's not one to be trifled with. “I don’t have time to hold some city girl’s hand while she learns the difference between a wrench and a screwdriver.”
Evelyn Primrose gives Bernice a look that practically radiates,Can you even believe this man?Like she didn't orchestrate the whole fiasco. I turn my gaze to my grandmother, who looks at me with the kind of look that makes a grown man squirm like a schoolboy.
"Is that how I raised you?" Bernice frowns and her mouth takes that turn that used to make me feel like crawling under the bed as a boy. “To leave an innocent woman without help or support?”
Bernice's eyes bore holes in my brains and I feel the burn as she brings her teacup down on the table just hard enough to rattle the plate underneath.
“She will find someone else to help her,” I grumble. “She’ll be fine.”
Evelyn Primrose chuckles delicately, like she’s just heard the punchline of a joke only she finds funny. That’s when I know she’s about to drop something big.
“Well,” she purrs. “As it happens, she might have found herself another contractor already.”
I stiffen, my eyes narrowing against my better judgment. “Who? Someone I know?”
“Oh, you know him alright,” Evelyn says, her tone light but her tongue full of acid. “It's Bogdan Ashvale.”
