Page 17 of Dark of Winter (Wild Haven 1)

Davis

The pie in my hands is still warm as I let myself into Birdie's house. I don’t bother announcing myself. Birdie’s house is like a second home to me. It’s more of a home than the one I grew up in. The house is a large Victorian with a wraparound porch that has wicker furniture strategically placed to take in the view and overhead fans with large palm blades that drift lazily around from the ocean breeze. It’s everything my home growing up wasn’t, welcoming, warm, safe. The house sits on a piece of property that overlooks the ocean on a cliff. When I was a kid, I used to stand on the edge and imagine I was at the end of the world.

The island has a split personality when it comes to the architecture. When it was originally settled, the houses were built in the traditional colonial style, the rectangular shaped homes pleasing in their simplicity. Sometime in the late 1800s a fire tore through half the island, lighting up the old wooden houses like dry tinder. It was a miracle the entire island didn’t go up in smoke. The homes that were rebuilt favored the new Queen Anne and Gothic style, making the island a living architectural timeline and Birdie’s house is an example of that.

I make my way through the hall to the kitchen, the low hum of voices carrying toward me. My cousin Ruby is usually at dinner whenever Birdie decides it’s been too long since we’ve gotten together. Her home situation was just as shitty as mine and this house is as much of a refuge for her as it is for me.

The closer I get to the kitchen, the more I realize that I’m not just hearing Birdie and Ruby’s voices. There’s a third speaker that has all the hairs on the back of my neck standing up in recognition. My steps falter before I cross the threshold of the kitchen. I consider dropping the pie off on the table by the front door and sending Birdie a text later to tell her something came up. If I didn’t know she’d verbally rip me a new asshole for skipping out, I might have done it, but hell, I’m a damn adult. Most of the time. I can survive one dinner.

I rub my free hand over the back of my neck, hoping to settle the bite of electricity that appears whenever Miri is near. And damn if she isn’t standing in my nana’s kitchen, drinking a glass of wine and laughing with Birdie and Ruby as if they’re long-lost friends.

“I can feel you hovering in the hallway, Davis. Get your butt in here!” Birdie shouts from the kitchen, chuckling merrily. Feeling like a skulking child, I press into the bright kitchen, squinting at the change in lighting from the dark hall to the lit-up kitchen. Miri noticeably stiffens, and Ruby is too quiet to be up to anything good. She’s far too observant, and I have no desire to have her up my ass about Miri as soon as she can get me alone.

Setting the pie on the counter, I lean down to press a kiss to Birdie’s cheek. With deceptive strength, she manhandles me around to face the one person I was actively avoiding today. Despite the fact that I’m 6’3” and all solid muscle, there’s no fighting her.

“Davis, come meet our guest. This is Miri, not Miriam, Evelyn’s daughter. She just moved to the island and is fixing up the Wilds cottage. Isn’t that fantastic?” Birdie digs a finger into my side as if hoping to pinch me into remembering I have manners.

“Miri, this is my grandson, Davis. He’s an old fart in a young man’s body, so just ignore all his grumbling.”

The look on Miri’s face is one of utter delight as her eyes drift from the pie to Birdie poking my ribs. I swear there’s a gleam of an unshed tear in her eye, probably from suppressed laughter. She presses her lips together and then sucks in her cheeks with a loud inhale through her nose, just barely mastering her glee.

“I didn’t realize Birdie was your grandmother. What a… pleasant surprise.” Miri smiles into her wineglass as she takes a drink, obviously trying to wipe the smirk off her face.

“Yes, well, I didn’t think we were at the stage in our relationship where we were swapping genealogy charts.” There’s no point trying to keep the annoyance from my eyes. I’d fail. I don’t have much of a poker face. In fact, if you ask Archer, I only have two faces, pissed off, and slightly less pissed off. Right now though, I’m not sure what is fueling my reaction. Is it that I feel responsible for Miri’s safety here on the island? Or that she makes me feel things I’ve tried to bury deep for years? Fuck, my head is messed up.

“Oh, do we have a relationship? I guess we’re at the being-an-ass-and-saying-rude-things stage.” Some of the mirth ebbs from Miri’s eyes as she stiffens, and her grasp on her wine glass tightens. I take a step toward her, and she does the same.

“I wouldn’t have come right out and called you an ass, but since you’re the one who brought it up…” I let that thought trail off shrugging my shoulders as if her narrowing eyes and clenched jaw aren’t doing something to me. As if they weren’t making me want to toss her on the counter, shove down her jeans and plant my face between her thighs. The unbidden thoughts slide around in my head like a pest that needs to be swatted away, and I’m pissed that she can make me feel that way without even trying.

Miri opens her mouth to say something else and then promptly closes it. Her shoulders sink a little, and I frown at the sight. It slowly dawns on me that Birdie and Ruby are staring at the two of us with mouths hanging wide open. I can sense the disappointment in Birdie’s posture, and I feel even worse about my reaction. Jesus, why can’t I stop being a dick to her? I’m like the kid on the playground who pulls on his crush’s pigtails.

“I take it you two have met?” Ruby asks with a raised brow, eyes dashing back and forth between us.

“Yeah.” Is all Miri supplies, and I don’t bother expanding on her answer. Ruby pulls a face. It’s clear she wants to know more, but Birdie steps in, clapping her hands and looking far too pleased with herself.

“Alright, children. Dinner’s nearly ready. You kids set the table and I’ll get the food served up.”

The house has a formal dining room, but we never eat in there when it’s just us. The large kitchen has a long farm table with bench seating that Rhys and I made a few years back, and that’s where we’ll eat tonight. Ruby looks like she’s about to force me into a corner and dig all the dirt out that she can about Miri, but I know her too well and sidestep, actually using Miri as a human shield. My hands land on Miri’s hips, and I move her into Ruby’s path as I step behind her. A little yip of surprise squeaks out of her throat when my fingers connect with her waist, and she glares at me. I smirk back at her, even though I want to suck in a breath when my fingers brush against bare skin. It instantly makes magic thrum to life inside my veins.

She looks incredible tonight. Tight dark jeans that hug her ass and a black shirt with horizontal slashes that start at her shoulder and go all the way down her wrists. When she moves, her skin peeks through and it shouldn’t be this ridiculously tempting to just see those small hints of her arm.

Nearly shoving Miri away after that, I focus on finding napkins and silverware. Ruby hands a stack of plates to Miri while the two of them chat about inane nonsense. I can’t get the scowl off my face because my body has very specific thoughts about what to do with Miri. Ruby tosses me a confused look, because I’m acting like a crazy person, but I ignore her. By the time we’re done getting everything set up, Birdie is calling us over to grab a dish to bring to the table. Miri groans out loud as she carries a bowl of roasted potatoes, nearly sticking her face in them to inhale.

“Everything smells delicious, Birdie,” Miri calls out as she sets the dish down. I follow suit with a platter of salmon that I’d dropped off for Birdie just the day before, freshly caught from my getaway. There’s a dill sauce drizzled over the top and I know it’ll taste incredible. Birdie is a fantastic chef, and she likes to show off anytime she has someone new over to the house.

“Thank you, Miri. Davis caught that salmon for us yesterday.”

Miri’s eyes dart over to mine in surprise, although I have no idea why. She doesn’t know a damn thing about me.

Ruby and Birdie bring the rest of the dishes over and settle on the same side of the table in a united front. Ruby’s smug smile only confirms that it was a coordinated effort to get me and Miri sitting next to one another. They’re like two meddling matchmakers. I know Birdie thinks it’d be just great if her grandson and the child of her daughter’s best friend got together, but she doesn’t know how tangled up our lifelines are, by magic, the Axis, our pasts. Birdie only knows the bare minimum about what happened with my parents, which is only slightly less than me.

Everyone is silent for a few minutes while they dig into the meal, but I knew it wouldn’t last.

“When Davis was four, my husband took him out fishing—”

“—Birdie.” I sigh, but she just ignores me while Miri’s eyes glimmer with joy at my discomfort.

“He caught his first fish and when Burt tried to show him how to get it off the hook poor Davis panicked and started crying. He was so traumatized he didn’t want to go out fishing again for years. I’m still amazed he enjoys it so much now. It’s probably more his elemental power than anything.”

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