Chapter 19
After Luke had flown away, Emmeline had been too wired up to go to the bookshop to work on her proposal, so instead, she had gone home, where she had cooked way too much food.
She ended up packaging up most of the food for Saphira, dropping it off at their cottage with a note that said, For you and the baby ??.
That had helped a little.
The next day, as Emmeline headed to Tales he really was such a little fatso. Shaking her head, she pulled the bag out of her purse and gave him a few, which he happily gobbled up.
“Honestly, yes,” Vaneeza replied with a little laugh.
Emmeline pulled out the snack, and Ember perked up from the smell. The bookseller moved the rest of the books out of the way, clearing the path for Ember to come out from where he was stuck in the corner of the window.
“Ember,” Emmeline cooed, shaking the bag. The baby dragon perked up.
“Come on, angel,” Vaneeza said, holding her hands out. “Come on.”
Ember wiggled out of the corner, squeezing out.
“Good girl!” Vaneeza said. “Come on.”
The baby dragon jumped up onto the table, then leapt into flight, flying into Vaneeza’s outstretched arms.
“Good girl,” Emmeline said, feeding her some of the fried bitter gourds. By Emmeline’s feet, Motu flapped his wing, smacking her leg. She glared down at him, while he opened his mouth wide.
“Here,” she said, giving him some of the snack, as well. She met Vaneeza’s gaze, and they shook their heads, laughing.
“Thanks for the help,” Vaneeza said. Emmeline waved her free hand. “We missed you last night.”
Too upset from her encounter with Luke, Emmeline hadn’t gone to the book club meeting last night. She let out a short breath. “I’m sorry to have missed it, too,” she said, wincing.
Ginny had sent her an annoyed text for not being there, as well, and Emmeline had already promised to make it up to her.
The first meeting they had gone to was fun; there were about ten people there, different ages with different breeds of baby dragons.
The bookseller leading the club had been a sweet, middle-aged man, explaining how he didn’t have a dragon of his own but he loved to see the baby dragons of the community.
“Hopefully we’ll see you next week?” Vaneeza asked, and Emmeline smiled.
“Definitely!” she replied. “I just got caught up with something this week.”
Remembering exactly what she had gotten caught up with last night made her heartbeat quicken as she said goodbye to Vaneeza and headed for the office. When she reached the closed doorknob, she paused. Was Luke already here? She hesitated for a moment, and Motu flew into her shoulder.
She gave the baby dragon a look, and he returned the gesture, as if asking her, What are you waiting for?
Taking a deep breath, Emmeline opened the office door, entering. Her pulse spiked when she spotted Luke sitting in his usual seat, his back to her. She expected him to turn and say hello, but the only hint that he’d noticed her arrival was a slight stiffening of his shoulders.
Emmeline’s brows furrowed. She closed the office door behind her, then set down her bag and coat. Still, Luke didn’t turn, the quiet office filled only with the sound of keys clicking as he typed on his laptop.
So you’re not going to say anything? she wanted to bite out, but why should she speak first? He was the one who needed to apologize. Emmeline clenched her jaw, pushing the words back.
Lifting her chin, she sat down and got to work, though her mind was hardly functioning. She glanced over at Luke’s rigid posture.
He was supposed to be groveling, and here he was being cold.
Her temper flared. Suddenly, she couldn’t bear to be in the same room as him.
Closing her laptop with a snap, she grabbed her things.
Motu flew up beside her as she threw open the office door, heading out to work on the main floor.
She didn’t care that the door slammed on her way out.
As she sat down on one of the reading chairs, Motu settled by her feet, his body warm against her leg.
Releasing a short breath, she pulled open her laptop.
A moment later, she felt Motu rub his face against her knee.
Glancing down, she saw the baby dragon looking up at her, big purple eyes concerned.
With a sigh, she reached down to pet him, and he nuzzled against her hand. Her heartbeat slowed, steadying, and she got back to work.
As she focused, he eventually got up from her feet, going to roam around. One of the booksellers was restocking the shelves, and Motu flew over, helping him. She watched fondly as Motu put a book in his mouth, flying up to the top shelf to hand it to the bookseller on the ladder.
“Thanks,” the bookseller said, petting Motu’s head, and Motu flapped his wings happily, clearly pleased with himself.
Emmeline let him play around, keeping an eye on him from above her laptop to ensure he wasn’t causing trouble, but he seemed to know not to go out of her sight or to wreak any havoc, thankfully.
As her baby dragon played, she worked on the coffee shop proposal.
She had already worked out the menu—with a focus on different coffee brews made with coffee sourced from Inferno, of course—and was looking over the quote the contractor had given her for the renovation.
It seemed reasonable and, since the bookshop had worked with the contractor before, she figured it would be the best rate, but she had reached out to two other contractors as well, just to compare.
Now, she was working out decor details—she wanted the vibe to be different from any other cafe in this area, particularly the Baby Dragon Cafe, since that was just a street away.
Her plan was to lean into the bookish side of things—maybe even have themed drinks based on characters from famous novels.
She also wanted the to-go cups to be covered with book quotes.
Plus, she wanted the furniture in the seating area to be fuss-free and minimalist in design rather than spacious and comfy; that way, customers would feel more inclined to browse the books as they drank their coffees, rather than sit down.
Working on the proposal was enough to distract her, but then, about an hour later, she saw the office door open from across the bookshop. She watched as Luke exited with his things, closing the door behind him.
Despite herself, she held her breath, waiting to see if Luke would come over to her.
But he didn’t. Instead, he slipped on his coat and headed for the door. As he did, he glanced her way, just as she looked up. Their eyes locked across the bookshop, and a crease appeared between his brows. His brown eyes were so sad.
For a moment, she thought he would change course, come to her, but he didn’t. She must have been imagining the expression on his face because he didn’t say a word. He just left.
He left, again.
It shouldn’t have hurt, but it did. Terribly, tears welled in her eyes, and she hastily blinked them away.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she scolded herself. “Fuck’s sake.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, but as she did, his face flashed in her mind. She didn’t understand why he looked so anguished when he looked at her. She was the injured party, here. Wasn’t she?
It was all too complicated—all too much.
And she needed to focus. It was week four of six, and while she’d made good progress with her proposal, there was still a long way to go to make her presentation perfect.
She straightened her back, turning her attention to her work.
Three evenings later, Emmeline and Luke still hadn’t exchanged a single word since their disagreement.
He hadn’t tried to explain why he had reacted the way he had. It was stupid of her, but she wanted to know what had made him to behave in such a manner. The curiosity was eating at her. A silly part of her believed that maybe he had good cause—but then why wouldn’t he tell her if so?
He seemed adamant on avoiding her entirely, completely freezing her out. In the almost four weeks they’d been working together, she’d never seen him so focused, and often, he only stayed at the bookshop for an hour before heading out, rather than staying for the entire evening the way he used to.
She was still angry with him, but such behavior made her feel . . . abandoned, which was ridiculous, she knew. They weren’t friends. They most certainly weren’t anything more. Him avoiding her shouldn’t have bothered her.
But it did. And that only made her feel worse.
She wanted to understand.
Which was why, after another silent evening, Emmeline mounted Torch and headed for Bayview. Maybe she could find Flint and ask him. It would obviously be only one side of the story, but it would give her a better idea of why Luke was behaving the way he was with her.
The weather was bitingly cold tonight, frigid and unrelenting. She buried her nose in her neck scarf, trying to look through the icy wind at the lake to search for Flint.