Chapter Fourteen #2
She bit into the gooey sweet goodness. She hadn’t eaten a s’more in years, and she’d forgotten how delicious and savory they were.
“I like your hair like that,” Mars said.
“Messy?” she asked. Oh, she knew a few curls were probably sticking straight out of her messy bun.
“Yeah, it looks wild. Goes with your eyes.”
She pursed her lips, but Mars shook his head. “I’m not bringing them up. Just telling you I think they’re really sexy on you.”
Oh. Her defensiveness eased and was immediately replaced with this mushy feeling of butterflies in her stomach. “Remember how we were talking about things that are a benefit of traveling together early in the relationship?” she asked.
“Yeah?”
“Maybe figuring out how sensitive touchy subjects are right out the gate is important too.”
“My touchy subject would be the night we were Turned by my stepdad.”
“Gah, I can’t even imagine what you went through, Mars.
” To Turn a Cat, the Maker had to nearly kill a human.
That’s what she’d heard. And that had been the intention of his stepfather—to kill all three of the Ledger triplets.
And then his mother had stayed with that man as her sons fought to figure out an entirely new existence, born of pain.
She couldn’t imagine the betrayal. “I won’t ask about it if it is your touchy subject, but if you ever want to talk about it, I’ll listen. ”
“Same for you. I won’t ask about your Cat anymore. Tell me if you want, and when you’re ready.” His marshmallow was on fire, and he blew out the flame, and built another s’more. “You’re safe to talk about whatever you want, whenever you want.”
“Thank you,” she said thickly. He didn’t understand how much that meant to her. She didn’t even talk about it with her mom if she could avoid it. The Cat was her touchy subject and always would be.
“All you’re doing is making me more interested in you, mystery girl.”
“In that case, I won’t be answering any more of your questions, ever,” she joked. “Stay obsessed.”
“Fine, we’ll just fuck all the time.”
“Deal.”
He chuckled and reached down, plucked a powdered donut from the opened bag, and pressed it into the burned marshmallow, then topped it with a graham cracker.
“Oh my gosh,” she whispered in awe as he handed it over to her. “Are you a genius?”
“Probably,” he said.
“Abe liked my eyes because of the color,” she blurted out as he began loading another marshmallow. “I mean after he stopped begging me to take the colored contacts out, they became this big thing to—”
Stellan appeared suddenly around the corner of the porch and hesitated on the edge of the firelight glow.
Ren and Mars both sat there startled and frozen.
“Do you want to hang out with us?” she asked.
“Why would I?” Stellan snapped, and then turned and walked to the RV.
“Okay,” Mars said, watching his brother disappear around the side of the RV. “That was normal.”
“Look, you don’t know everything,” Stellan barked, heading back this way.
“Here we go,” Mars muttered, his face shutting down immediately as he angled his marshmallow over the fire.
Stellan stomped onto the concrete pad of the porch and stood by Mars, glaring at him in fury.
“Want a s’more?” Ren asked, just to break the awkward silence.
To her surprise, he bent down and snatched the bag of marshmallows and a metal rod, then began loading a half dozen marshmallows onto it and sat next to Mars.
“Want me to message Misty?” Ren asked. “I can invite them out here. They might still be awake.”
“I can’t do any more kumbaya shit today,” Stellan grunted.
Mars snorted. “Same.”
“I thought y’all had fun at the dinner,” Ren said, licking dripping marshmallow off the edge of her s’more. She was a sticky mess.
“Do you even know how to eat?” Stellan deadpanned.
“Not with this facemask on,” she admitted, unoffended.
“You look stupid,” Stellan told Marsden.
“At least I’m getting laid, buddy.”
“Oh geez,” Ren muttered.
“Who says I’m not getting laid?” Stellan demanded. “Maybe I’m getting laid more than you.”
“Dude, why is there truth to your tone?” Mars asked. “Do you have a lady?”
“Maybe I have four hundred ladies.”
“Lie,” Mars said blandly as he sandwiched his melted marshmallow.
“It’s hard being here,” Stellan said suddenly.
Genuinely curious, Ren asked, “Why?”
“Because.” He inhaled deeply and glanced at her over the flickering fire. “I did a lot of stupid stuff here that I didn’t know was happening, but now I can reach my tiger, and now I have all these memories.”
“That sounds overwhelming,” she said softly.
“I don’t want your pity,” he gritted out.
“Well, then go fuck yourself, Stellan,” Ren said lightly.
He narrowed his eyes at her like he wanted to spew venom at her, but she interrupted him.
“If you put a powdered donut in the middle, it’s epic.”
His gold glowing eyes narrowed even more. “I don’t know if I like you or not.”
“Same,” she said blandly.
Mars was biting back a smile as Stellan reached for the powdered donut bag. Mars cast her a quick glance and winked.
The timer on her phone went off, and she shoved the last bit of donut s’more into her mouth and pulled the facemasks off them. “Want a facemask?” she asked Stellan as she made her way toward the door to go warm up a washcloth to wipe off the excess collagen from Mars’s face.
“That’s for chicks,” Stellan called after her.
“So, no?” she asked.
The words, “Fuck no,” echoed into the house with her, and she laughed at how easily he was baited. With Stellan, one could not take anything personal. Mars didn’t have to explain that part. She just understood.
“Was Abe your boyfriend?” Stellan asked as she pressed the warm wet cloth on Mars’s face.
“What?” she asked, confused by the random turn in conversation.
“You said Abe liked your eyes.” Stellan looked annoyed at her for not understanding his random ass question. “Was he your boyfriend or something?”
“Ex boyfriend.”
“He liked your cougar?”
Her stomach did a little flipflop and she shook her head, wanting to sidle away from this conversation.
“He never knew I was a Cat. He just thought my eyes looked cool, and he liked for his friends and coworkers to notice and guess at the color. Sometimes they change in different lighting. It was like a party trick or something for him. I used to think about wearing colored contacts and tell him they were my regular eye color just to stop his games.”
“He sounds like a chode,” Stellan said around a mouthful of melty marshmallows.
“He is one,” Mars muttered. “I saw him a few days ago.”
Stellan chewed slower, eyes on Mars. “Where was he?”
“Nope,” Mars said.
“What’s his name?” Stellan asked.
The hairs on the back of her neck lifted and chills zinged up her spine.
“Absolutely not. He’s fine. He’s with someone else. Ren doesn’t need you to defend her.”
“Chh,” Stellan said. “As if I would.” He stood suddenly and took the whole box of graham crackers with him and walked away, changed his mind, turned back around, glared at Ren, and turned the firepit off. Then flipped them both off and went to the RV and disappeared inside.
“Your brother is an incredible specimen of a man,” she said.
“If you say so,” Mars muttered. “Specimen of a pain in the ass, more like it.”
“He really drugged and abducted you over state lines.”
“I can hear you, assholes!” Stellan yelled from inside the RV.
Ren pulled Mars’s hoodie neck up over her mouth to hide her snickering, and Mars was leaned back in his chair with his shoulders shaking with his quiet laughter. He looked over at her and started laughing harder.
“You can’t look at me in a serious situation,” she cackled. “I’m not the one to do that with.”
Mars was laughing even harder now and had to put his hands over his face to try and control it.
“Benefit to traveling together early in the relationship to meet family,” he croaked out. “You can see how dysfunctional their family is right out the gate.”
“Hey, Dame seems normal,” she said kindly.
“Dame turns into a tiger and hunts squirrels twice a week.”
And now she was cracking up again imagining a big strong tiger chasing those little critters around. She had to bury her whole head in his hoodie because every time she looked at him, they both laughed harder.
“Fuck Abe and his party tricks,” Mars said as she poked her head back out of his hoodie like a little messy-haired turtle.
“What?” she asked, noticing the seriousness that was taking over his expression.
“Fuck your ex and his party tricks. Your eyes are gorgeous but not just because they’re supernatural. They’re pretty because you can see your whole soul in them.”
The laughter fell from her throat. She didn’t know what to say. It was the nicest compliment she had ever received.
Up until now, she’d hated her eyes.
Up until now, she saw what a freak she was when she looked in the mirror.
Up until now, they just made her feel different, when all she really wanted was to fit in.
How could she hate them now that Mars had said that?
“It’s true, Ren. Your whole soul.”
And she could hear the truth in his voice. She knew without the shadow of a doubt it was how he really felt.
She didn’t say anything back. She didn’t have the words that would do a thank you justice. He was snuffing out her insecurities like candles.
Ren climbed into his lap and curled into a ball, slipped her arms around his neck, and rested her face against the tripping pulse at his throat.
No words needed to be said.
He was purring again.