Page 33 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
When he didn’t finish, I hesitantly said, “Touch?”
He blew out a breath. “Yeah… yeah. And… this is just… you’re so quiet.” He huffed out a small laugh. “I can sense other people’s emotions, even when I’m not touching them. I have to work to ignore it, you know? Most of the time, I don’t reallynotice because I purposefully don’t pick out individual emotions, but… there’s always this sort of buzzing in the back of my mind, if that makes sense? But with you, there’s… nothing.”
His gaze was distant, and since I definitely wasn’t an empath, I had no idea how he was feeling. Did he think this was a good thing or a bad one?
After a few seconds, he met my gaze again and sent me a soft smile. “It’s… nice, peaceful.You’repeaceful.”
I licked my lips and swallowed around my dry throat. When we were kids, I’d had a small crush on the cute emo loner. In the past couple of years, when I’d seen Miles in passing, that crush had never truly gone away.
But with him staring at me like this, like I was someone worthy of his time, that crush bloomed and blossomed in my chest, and I had the desperate longing to kiss the man.
His gaze flicked down to my lips, and for one glorious second, I thought that maybe he wanted to kiss me too.
But then he looked away, cleared his throat, and pulled his hand out of mine, leaving me cold and unsure.
Miles stood and headed for the kitchen, saying, “I’ll get us some drinks while we wait for the food. Let me see what I have.”
I sighed out my frustration and flopped back on the couch.
Odin immediately climbed onto my lap and up my chest to rub his cute head against my chin. I petted him. “Heya, buddy. Your daddy’s frustrating.” I gave the top of his head a kiss, wishing it was the top of Miles's head instead. “Do you think he likes me, Odin?”
His answer was a purr, and I couldn’t help but wish that meantyes.
Itook a bite of my food, then pointed my fork at Miles across the table. “What do you think happened? I’ve never seen gnomes act like that.”
“Me neither, and I have no idea. They practically attacked me.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t even realize they were smart enough to understand what an empath is, let alone how to hurt one.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t think so either. I mean, I know they have at least some brains in them—it’s one of the reasons I fight for catch and release, you know? But that was… I honestly don’t even know what the hell that was.”
“There’s gotta be a reason they were acting like that.” I paused. “Unless Martha Cohen has the smartest gnomes alive in her mansion.”
He snorted out a laugh that turned into a long sigh. “Maybe something set them off.” He shrugged. “Hopefully, we’ll figure it out when we go back.”
I blinked. “Go back?”
He met my gaze with a furrowed brow. “We didn’t finish the job. Plus, I gotta grab all the traps and release the things at the sanctuary.”
“You seriously want to go back? Are you insane?” What the hell? Why the fuck would Miles want to put himself in that situation again? “We need to turn the job over to someone else.”
Something flashed across his eyes, his entire body turning rigid, and I knew I’d made a mistake. “You don’t need to comewith me.” Before I could protest, he continued. “I’ll pay you for today, but you don’t need to come back.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it. I just don’t think you should go back there, Miles.”
He flinched, and I knew I’d made another mistake. “I’ve been doing this job by myself for five years, Winter. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of this.”
“That’s not what I meant at all. I just… the mansion is dangerous for you.”
His nostrils flared, and he flinched again when I saidyou.Fuck. He thought I didn’t think he could do his job, but that wasn’t what I meant. He thought I was putting him down for being an empath or something, didn’t he?
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Fuck my stupid mouth.
After a brief pause, he said, “Thank you for your help with… everything. But I’ve got this. I’m sure you can see yourself out.”
When he got up from the table, I scrambled to get to my feet and stop him from escaping upstairs. I blocked the staircase, and Miles wouldn’t meet my eyes. Sola sat on his shoulder—she hadn’t left the entire time I’d been here. She glared daggers at me, but her practitioner wouldn’t look up from the floor.
