Chapter 19 Ris #2
“Well, since we’re confessing things, I was searching for rent-controlled buildings just the other week.
Because I agree, I don’t want to re-sign the lease.
I love our place, but I don’t want to be under a corporation’s thumb.
So I guess we should start looking, huh?
” He looked down, Fitz cocking his head. “You want to be a suburban boy, Fitzy?”
Fitz swished his tail in response to his name, but held back on offering an opinion.
“Do you think he’ll adapt well?”
“I do,” Ris said decisively. “He’s not starting over again from scratch. He’ll be moving with his family. It’ll be new for all of us.”
“True. And no steps would be a bonus. If nothing else, this will get you closer to the clubhouse, right?”
She exhaled at the mention. “Right.”
The group had voted on whether to keep the name, and she had been surprised when her original, clumsy idea was unanimously approved.
Colloquially, though, they all called it the house.
The house that didn’t exist yet, maybe, but the house nonetheless.
She and Caleia, it turned out, worked surprisingly well together.
Those early fears that the dryad would steamroll and take over had proven unfounded.
She had dozens of ideas, had done in-depth research into each one, provided loads of data, and had a memory nearly as long as Cambric Creek itself, but she was nothing if not collaborative.
“Passive fundraising is the way to go. If we want to do a few dedicated events or drives throughout the year, I think that’s fine, but let’s not stress everyone out before we even have anything tangible.”
“Please,” Ris had agreed, laughing. “Just saying ‘fundraising’ out loud gives me the hives.”
Caleia worked and lived at Saddlethorne Farm, which Ris found initially surprising, until she learned the dryad was in charge of record-keeping.
Every crop, every soil rotation, every drop of rainfall, she was there, with a spreadsheet.
She was voluntarily bound to her tree, the old ways, she’d called it, but doing so increased her already considerable lifespan.
Ris thought she understood why the dryad was so eager to find a community that would last.
The benefit of working for the largest agricultural supplier in the community was that Saddlethorne had a long reach, and she and the owner, a recalcitrant centaur named Cal, who had flirted with Ris shamelessly the first time she met him, had a close relationship, born from the land they shared and solidified in respect for what each other did.
Having the opportunity to do fundraising through Saddlethorne was a huge boon, and the early success buoyed the others, the encouragement they all needed to seek out their own inside tracks.
They quickly learned whose employers offered corporate matching for employee charitable donations, where they could post affiliate links, and how best to leverage the strengths they didn’t even know they had.
It had been several years of meeting at the community center, several years of continuing education lectures and hobby chats, classes, and coffee clutches.
Individual friend groups had naturally bloomed, and although they were a long way off from Cevanore, they were growing, slowly but surely.
They’d more than tripled their numbers from that very first community center meeting, and although Ris knew it was small beans compared to the Elvish institution in town, it felt monumental when she considered those three friends from yoga who’d come to her very first event.
Ris had just been about to point out another Ainsley-friendly Cambric Creek fact when she did a double-take, nearly giving herself whiplash as she spun around.
Letting go of Ainsley’s hand, she walked back half a dozen paces.
She recognized the back of the Elvish woman who had passed them, her shiny waterfall of chestnut hair neatly secured off her face, cinched with a bow at the back of her head, matching the identical little girl walking beside her.
“Silva?” When their long-absent coworker turned, Ris felt herself instantly overcome with emotion. “Silva!”
She rushed at the younger elf, engulfing her in a hug before she could turn away. “Oh my stars, we have missed you so much! Silva, it’s so good to see you!”
Silva’s face heated, flushing a deeper purple, her eyes filling with tears. “It’s good to see you. I’ve missed you all, too.”
“What are you doing here?! Are you just in town for a visit? Please tell me it’s more than just a day or two; we have to get together. I insist.”
As she spoke, her eyes turned down to the small girl clutching Silva’s hand. Ris felt her stomach drop out of her body. Well, shit. That’s a revelation.
“No . . . I’m not home for a visit. We’re in the process of moving.
Actually, I just got an interview callback today from the office,” Silva laughed.
“I haven’t worked since I left, and ironically, it’s the only callback I’ve received so far.
They didn’t have anything for me to do while I was there, but they’re willing to take me back, I guess. ”
Silva’s eyes followed Ris’s, her mouth turning up in a soft smile. “This is my daughter, Aelin. Bunny, this is my friend, Ris. Can you say hi?”
The little girl gave Ris a shy hello, burying her face in Silva’s side, her wide, honey gold eyes peeking out just a moment later.
“I’m so thrilled to hear that, Silva, you have no idea. Wait, the office office? Hello, I’m HR! I’m pushing you straight through. Go to the interview to meet the team, but I’ll email the manager to let them know . . . We’ve all missed you so much. Is-is Tannar also coming—”
“We’re not together anymore.” Her voice was still Silva-soft, but there was a slightly harder edge that Ris didn’t remember existing previously. “So, no. He’s not.”
Ris swallowed as she nodded, keeping her smile in place, unable to tear her eyes away from the little girl still peeking out from the side of Silva’s skirt, Tate’s tiny miniature with Silva’s coloring. Oh, I’m sure you’re not together anymore.
“Are you back in the enclave with your parents?”
At that, Silva laughed. Again, it was a Silva laugh, one Ris recognized well, high and light, musical in its cadence, but again — a sharper edge, a shard of glass amongst the polished crystal.
“No, but actually, we might be neighbors. I’m moving into the condos over by the trolley stop. Are-are you still over there?”
“I’m not. We actually live in the city, we have for a few years.” We have since Tate disappeared and wrecked everyone’s lives. Ainsley fell apart and so did you, remember?
Ris watched Silva’s eyes flicker up, darkening at whatever they found. Which is probably your boyfriend. “But we literally just discussed today, like ten minutes ago! Uh, potentially moving back to town, so who knows! I’m just so happy to see you. We have so much catching up to do.”
“I think my happy hour days are mostly numbered. But I’d love to get together for coffee. Whether I get the job or not.”
They exchanged numbers, Ris adding Silva’s email address as well, promising she would reach out that week for coffee. “I have this thing I started here, and actually, you’re one of the elves I had in mind when I started mapping it all out. You can come to the next meeting and meet everyone!”
A soft, pleased smile turned up the corners of Silva’s mouth, her eyes shiny with tears again.
Ris remembered how happy she had been to have been included in the plans Ris made with Lurielle, a lifetime of weekends ago.
She wanted to ask a million questions, wanted to find out what had happened since Silva left town, wanted to question the parentage of the little elf at her side .
. . but she recognized, in Silva’s eyes, the same look she occasionally saw in Caleia’s when they got together for planning.
A desperate need to simply belong somewhere without feeling as though it were temporary. Later. You can ask her questions later.
“I’d really like that. It’s been . . . I’m really glad we ran into each other.
I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like, coming back.
We’re dropping stuff off at the condo and then going home to pack up a few more boxes.
It’s a new unit, so they’re still putting in the plumbing, but we’ve already mostly moved in. Just a couple of days more now.”
“Yeah, me too. Glad, I mean. We’ve missed you so much, Silva.
I think a happy reunion is pretty auspicious for your move.
And I’m so happy you’re back. Good luck with your move, and we’ll definitely talk this week.
” Ris turned her eyes down again to the little girl, the little elf with Tate’s face.
“It was nice to meet you, Aelin. I hope I’ll see you and your mommy real soon, okay? ”
Ris felt a panicked twist move through her when she turned away.
There was no question in her mind who the father of Silva’s little girl was, not unless Tate had a twin brother who’d breezed through town.
But how is that even possible? She was grateful Ainsley had given them space, finding him further down the aisle, waiting.
Great. Just what you need. A rehash of an old argument about something that doesn’t even make sense for him to be mad over.
“Silva?”
Ris turned her face up, forcing a smile.
“Yeah! She-she’s moving back to the area.
It’s really nice to see her. What’s left on our list?
We’re supposed to be looking for honey, right?
” They turned in unison as she hooked her arm around his, attempting to change the subject with a note of finality.
For a moment, it seemed to work. They made it all the way to the aisle’s end before Ainsley stopped short, thrusting the dog’s leash and her hands.
“Just . . . just wait here. I have to do this.”
“Ains, please don’t—”
He spun away, not giving her a chance to stop him.
Ris closed her eyes. Please don’t make a scene.
Please don’t start something that’s going to cause an argument for us.
We’re in such a good place. I don’t want to fight.
Fitz pushed his face into her leg, staring up with his big, shining eyes, tail swishing.
“If your daddy gets tossed in lock-up for being disorderly and causing a scene with a little girl, we’re leaving him there for the night. ”
She thought Fitz seemed to agree.
When Ainsley came loping back up the aisle a few minutes later, Ris was beside herself.
She probably looked like she was doing the bathroom dance, hopping from foot to foot, the dog beside her doing a better job of keeping still.
His dark eyebrows were knit together in consternation, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides, taking the leash from her hand without a word.
“Ainsley—”
“I had to apologize to her,” he blurted, his words silencing her. “I was . . . really awful to her for no real good reason.”
“Yeah. Yeah, you were.”
He ducked his head, nodding silently after a moment. “We talked about it in therapy. I thought I was just being a good friend, but . . . she didn’t deserve that, and I needed to apologize.”
The panicked feeling dissolved, and Ris melted against his side, tightening her grip on his arm, her eyes fluttering closed.
“I’m really glad you did that, babe. If only you had a sexy, brilliant girlfriend who told you the same thing a million times.
I’m glad you talked about it in therapy, though.
I think you probably needed that as much as she did. ”
“I mean, she basically told me to go fuck myself and get away from her,” he choked out, that hard bark of laughter making a return after so long, making her wince. Definitely not the same Silva. “But I earned that, so . . .”
He was quiet for a moment as they continued, the honey forgotten, making it all the way to the doors. They were in line for the scoop truck, Fitz swishing his tail in anticipation, before Ainsley spoke again.
“Did you clock her kid?”
Ris closed her eyes, turning her face into his arm for a moment, breathing him in. The ghost in her kitchen was gone, and she wasn’t interested in his return. “Yeah, babe. I did.”
Ainsley nodded, his jaw tight, but said nothing else. It was the best outcome she could’ve hoped for at the moment, Ris supposed, sliding out her phone as Fitz gobbled up his pup cup, tapping on Lurielle’s name.
You need to call me.
This is NOT a drill.
Silva’s back.