Page 35 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
And I couldn’t feel a thing coming from her.
“What’s wrong? Miles? Are you okay?”
I stared in shock at Winter for a few seconds. “I… I can’t feel her emotions.”
All the tension left him. “Oh. That could be because she’s your familiar, or it could be because I’m here.”
“I thought I had to touch you for your… null stuff to work?” I had no idea what to call it, butnull stuffwasn’t it.
He shrugged and shot me a grin. “So… that’s true if I’m not purposefully pushing my… lack of magic out, but since you had that whole gnome attack thing happen, I thought it would be nice for you to have a break.” He winced. “I’m sorry. I should’ve asked first. I didn’t… I… this is what I used to do for my mom when she had an overwhelming day, so it’s habit, I guess. I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “No, don’t be sorry. I don’t mind at all. This is… nice.” I stared at my cat, who was lying on his cat tree, and figured now would be a good time to pet him without my gloves as well.
I didn’t usually worry about picking up Odin’s emotions because he was usually happy to have me petting him, so his presence—and the presence of his emotions—was soothing.
But the thought of not having to worry about sensing anything at all was too appealing not to take advantage of.
I walked over to Odin and called over my shoulder, “Can you keep doing it? Do you mind?”
“Not at all.”
“Thanks.”
I scooped Odin into my arms and buried my face in his fur as Sola rebalanced on my shoulder so she didn’t fall off. Odin began purring right away, and Sola rubbed her beak against the back of my head, trying to get in on the action and making me chuckle.
Winter asked, “Is it working?”
“Yes.” My eyes felt a little watery, but I still turned to face him. “Yes. I… thank you. I… you’re so… this is so… peaceful. You don’t… you don’t know how much this means to me. Thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure.” He sent me a smile, and it was so genuine that my earlier worry that I’d messed something up by insisting on going back to the mansion melted away.
When I picked up Winter the next morning, I had three coffees, three muffins, and three breakfast sandwiches in tow. Hopefully, he and his friend would like at least something that I’d brought with me.
Winter and his friend came out of his house and jumped straight into my car. Luckily, I had a truck with a back seat that I’d cleared of tools earlier, so this mysterious friend was able to sit back there.
As soon as they sat in the car, Winter said, “Miles, this is my best friend, Lyric. Lyr, this is Miles. You guys might recognize each other from high school.”
I blinked, then assessed the person in my back seat. They had bleach-blond hair with blue and purple highlights, big hazel eyes, and a pretty face. It took me far too long to figure out who exactly they were because they hadn’t gone by the name Lyric in high school—but I knew better than to say their other name aloud.
“Hey, Lyric, it’s nice to, uh, see you again.”
They smiled widely at me. “It’s nice to see you too. Winter’s been talking nonstop about you forev—”
“Lyric,” Winter said sternly, cutting them off and reaching back to smack their leg. “Shut it, ass.”
Lyric grinned, shot me a wink, and smacked Winter’s shoulder. “Just messin’ with you, boo.”
Winter sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “This was a mistake.”
That made Lyric cackle, and even though I was a little uncomfortable with a new person I didn’t know well, I still smiled. The two of them were obviously close, which was sweet, even if a little green monster reared its ugly head—but I ignored that.
Or at least, I tried to.
I thrust the bag of food at my friend, or whatever he was, passed Lyric their coffee, and held up mine to Winter. “I haven’t drunk out of it yet, so I thought you could try the mocha so I know if you want it next time.”
He sent me another of his bright smiles and took the coffee from me. “Thank you.” He took a sip and hummed. “Mmm… that’s delicious. Yes, on the mocha next time.”
When he tried to hand it over, I pushed it back to him. “You take that one. I’ll drink the other.”
