“He helped as much as I wanted.”
Oscar smiled, finding humor in the darkest of places as usual. “Ah, I get it. I could try to do something, but I might make you worse than when you started. Most of us have gotten pretty lazy and let Hawk handle the hard stuff.”
“Don’t you touch her, Oscar. I saw what happened to the last person you tried to fix,” Bertha said from the other side of the room. “Her splinter turned into a stab wound.”
He waved a hand in the air. “See? Not a good idea.”
Bibbi dropped down beside me, some knitting in her hands, and shook the entire couch. I grimaced as I resettled my leg.
“Oh, sorry,” she said, as she glanced at my leg propped up on pillows.
“It’s okay. How’s the knitting going?” From the look of the bumps, bulges, and a few holes, not well.
She held it up. “Eh. I thought this would be easier for some reason. Lots of people do it in Rest, you know, so I figured how hard could it be?”
Gillian walked in the back room. “Sorry I missed dinner.”
She shouldn’t have been. The majority of her roommates were happy she’d given us a few more minutes of peace before she showed up.
“Hawk was late to come and get me,” she said. “Now that I’m back to work, it’s safer for me to be escorted.”
Bibbi gripped the knitting needle, looking like she was getting ready to stab someone.
“Safer, you say?” Oscar asked.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear any more about it. With Bibbi sitting here with her needle ready to go, it might not be wise. Of course, we were all going to hear it anyway, because that was Gillian.
“You know, just in case I’m being targeted by the grouslies.” She was picking at a plate of Bertha’s food that had been left out for her, making faces that said it all. “Bertha, amazing as always, but maybe a touch too long in the oven this time?” She leaned back, putting a hand on her chest. “Hope you don’t mind me saying that.”
“Of course not. We all need a little constructive criticism, right?” Bertha looked about the room. “Oh, dear me, I think I left my glasses in my room.”
One gone.
Oscar squinted as he continued to rub his chin. “Gillian, I thought that attack was a coincidence. Why would you be targeted by the grouslies?”
Bibbi was near vibrating next to me, and there was no way Oscar didn’t know it.
“Oh, well, since I own one of the most frequented shops in Xest and I’m a figurehead in this community, it only makes sense that I’d be a target of value.”
Oscar hummed. “No, that doesn’t really make sense to me.”
Gillian laughed. “Oh, stop it, Oscar. You’re such a teaser. How have you girls put up with him for so long?”
“I don’t know. He’s a real rascal,” Bibbi said.
Gillian kept going, not missing a beat. “I had a chat with Hawk about how I really didn’t feel safe being out and about without protection, and he clearly agreed, because he’s walking me back and forth every day. That’s why I’m late. He was a bit tardy.”
He’d tried to run me out of Xest to “protect me,” but with her he made himself personally available. Hawk was escorting her everywhere.
I blocked out the rest of the conversation. There was no need to hear any more. Xazier had implied it. The horde of people beating me had probably been gossiping about it, along with the rest of Xest. I was an idiot.
Gillian’s skinny little legs appeared in front of me. I’d never realized how scrawny she was until right now. I glanced around. Besides Bibbi and me, there was no one left in the room. She’d driven them all out, as usual.
“Do you mind?” Gillian pointed to the free spot on the end of the couch, a cup of cocoa in her hand.
“Of course not.” I shifted slightly closer to Bibbi, who was rolling her eyes and still gripping the knitting needle with dubious intentions.
Hawk walked into the back room and nodded at Bibbi and Gillian, ignoring me. He grabbed a drink from the corner and then left again, all the while giving me silent rage vibes. It was quite something, considering he wouldn’t look at me.
When Gillian was attacked, he felt bad for her. Me? I was a jerk somehow.
Gillian couldn’t seem to break her stare from the door Hawk had left from. “Is he mad at you?” she asked. “Is everything okay?”
She tried to act concerned, but there was a hopeful undertone that made me want to gag.
“I don’t know. That’s Hawk for you.”
Bibbi’s knitting needle was pointed in her direction. It wouldn’t have been bad if I wasn’t sitting in between them. I used my finger to steer the point away from me.
Bibbi dragged in a deep sigh and slowly went back to her knitting, in between glares to the other side of the couch.
“This was an excellent batch,” Gillian said, then sipped her cocoa. “Neither of you want some? I really outdid myself.”
“No, thank you.” Bibbi’s jaw barely moved.
Gillian looked Bibbi’s way and closed her eyes just slightly, as if she were finally picking up on a potential problem.
“I’m good too. Thanks,” I said, drawing the attention back my way. Gillian was driving us all nuts. Was she annoying? Yes. Was she a bad person? No. I’d have to have a talk with Bibbi. She was not allowed to kill Gillian just for being alive, no matter how much everyone might enjoy missing her.
Gillian stayed quiet for all of two seconds, seemingly back to oblivion, before she started right back up. “You know, I kind of thought you and Hawk were a thing,” she said.
“We’re work partners…of a sort.”
Bibbi looked back up, this time with narrowed eyes in my direction, as if she were going to use her needle on me instead.
She could think whatever she wanted. A couple of kisses didn’t make Hawk and me an item. If you weighed them against all the fights, the scale was near hitting the floor on the enemy’s side. I’d called us partners—of a sort. That was about as accurate as it got.
“I don’t know. I picked up on this strange vibe, but I guess I was wrong,” Gillian said, failing to hold back the happiness in her voice.
“Yep. You were wrong. Nothing going on.”
Bibbi kept looking up at me, as if the words coming out of my mouth were the most shocking things she’d heard in a year. She flashed a look at Gillian and then shook her head, going back to her knitting.
“I guess that makes sense. You’re new here, after all. It only makes sense that he’d want someone born and bred in Xest. You know, just how you’d be better off with someone from Rest? You just understand each other better.”
“Uh huh.” That was all I had left in me.
Gillian, oblivious to the fact no one was interested in what she had to say, continued, “I always thought Hawk was a bit, I don’t know, scary, I guess. Since I’ve come to live here and gotten to know him better, I find myself drawn to him. You wouldn’t mind if I, you know, pursued him, would you? I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.” The sugary sweetness in her voice did nothing to disguise the steel in her gaze. She’d have no problems stomping on toes to get her way.