Page 23 of In the Care of Magic

Letting her hair go, xe leaned xyr head back to take a good look at her. “You know what? I want to see how much you can read when you have my fingers in you.” There was a devious smirk on xyr face that promised no good— or maybe, in a way, it did. “What do you say?”

She held back her own grin. “I’m not usually one to back down from a challenge.”

“I knew you were going to say that,” xe said, pleased.

She nibbled softly on xyr shoulder to tease xem, then quickly grabbed her book for their next game.

TEN

day off

“Ijust noticed something,” Lyle spoke from xyr seat at the kitchen table, watching Jillian as she baked.

She spared xem a quick curious glance while she worked. “What is it?”

“You said you came here to relax, yet all you’ve been doing is work.”

Jillian frowned, hands mixing the dough inside the bowl. “I’m not working. These are hobbies, I chose to do them for fun.”

“In theory you’d be right, yet you still work from morning to evening,” xe corrected her, playing with the arrangements in the vase on the table. “You still end the day exhausted and aching.”

“That’s not the only thing making me exhausted and aching.”

Jillian’s attempt at a joke was met with a deadpan stare.

“I’m serious, you need to take an actual day off,” xe softly said, real concern in xyr beautiful blue eyes as xe paid attention to her body language. “Being so obsessively work focused is not good for your health. And as far as I know, you might not be as fragile as humans, but you can still get sick.”

“I’m fine,” she grunted defensively, hands progressively getting rougher with the dough. “As you can see, I’m still standing, safe and sound.”

“Don’t be snarky with me, you know perfectly well what I mean,” xe snapped back, matching her frustrated energy.

She lowered the bowl on the counter, not wanting to smack it down but accidentally doing just that. “Me letting you boss me around in the bedroom doesn’t mean you can tell me what to do in any other situation.”

Lyle’s face fell as xe considered her reaction, and she shifted uncomfortably under xyr scrutiny. “Why did that get you so mad?” Xe genuinely asked, brows furrowed. “I’m worrying because I see its effect on your body and mind, how you are quick to fall asleep every night. I’m worrying because you’re clearly still overworking yourself. I’m not trying to control you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“I never said you couldn’t.”

She stared down at the bowl, heart beating heavily. Lyle’s question repeated in her head. Whydidxyr statement rile her up?

“I need to be active,” she quietly said. “I need to make myself useful.”

“To whom? There’s only you here. There isn’t anyone you need to impress or please.”

“It’s the only thing I know how to do.” Her voice gradually raised, slightly shaky, eyes still looking down at the bowl. “I just…I just need to do things.”

Since she was a kid, it was all she knew how to do. Her grandma loved Jillian when she helped in the garden, her parents would only give praise when she showed improvements in her magic, the people in the town only liked her if she gave them spells and potions. She was only satisfied with herself when she was doing something fruitful.

“Your value isn’t in what you do, and it’s especially not in what you do for others,” xe calmly said, making her heart squeeze painfully. “You’re not lazy for taking time off, or worthless if you spend a day sleeping instead of gardening or cleaning the house. You should do things because you enjoy them and because youwantto do them, not because you need to be useful to others and yourself.”

Slowly, Lyle got up and walked around the table, positioning xemself behind her. One of xyr hands went to her soft waist and xe leaned to kiss her shoulder.

“You can take today off,” xe continued, voice soft. “I can help you make this dessert, and then we can relax all day. How does that sound?”

Jillian took a deep breath, inevitably melting against xyr solid body. “It sounds nice,” she admitted, quietly. “And also impossible.”

“I’ll make it possible. You just need to trust me.” After one more small kiss, xe detached xemself from her and looked at the mess on the counter. “What can I do to help?”

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