Page 65 of Stubborn as a Shadow

“Uh… Don’t drag your spoon across the bottom of the pot…”

His mouth twitched. “Did you burn it?”

“Uh… Maybe? I stirred it, I swear, but cooking over a fire isn’t as easy as it should be.”

Nelson grabbed the spoons I’d set out on the counter, but he ignored the bowls. He came over and sat beside me. It almost felt like we were having a romantic picnic. He offered one of the spoons to me. I took it and glanced at the bowls on the counter.

“No sense dirtying another dish if we don’t have to,” he said. “Is this one mine?”

I grimaced. “Yeah. But if it’s too burned, we can throw it out and make another one. I think I saw another cream of mushroom in what we brought over here.”

“This is fine.” Nelson reached for the pot.

I wasn’t sure if I’d ever eaten directly out of a pot before. My life had already become so interesting after meeting Nelson. We’d run away together, broken into places, and cuddled all night. Now we were having new culinary experiences.

These were the moments we’d look back on fondly as we grew old together.

A guy had to have goals, right?

I’d promised I wouldn’t try to seduce him, but I hadn’t given up on the idea of being with Nelson. He was just too… captivating.

Violet would be mortified by the turn of my thoughts. I could already imagine her arguments against Nelson. “He’s isolated you,” she’d say. “He’s lured you with the promise of an artifact he won’t even let you touch.He’s trapped you in a remote location with no cell service.” Then she’d make some pointed reference to Stockholm syndrome.

But she was disturbingly protective of me, so her opinions were skewed. It was a wonder she had helped me prepare to attend the market this weekend. At the thought of her, pain pierced through my chest. She must be so worried about me.

I wished there were some way I could get a message to her, to reassure her I was safe. But our phones weren’t working here.

“You going to eat that soup or just stare at it?” Nelson nodded toward the pot I’d left to cool on the tile.

I picked up the pot by the handle. Nelson made the process of holding the pot with one hand and spooning soup into his mouth with the other look easy. It wasn’t. At least not for me. It was like my body had been too well trained to sit at a table and eat out of a bowl, and it was rebelling at the idea of doing anything else. Nelson’s eyes crinkled at the sides as he watched me.

“Is the pot still hot?”

I tapped it with my finger. “No. It isn’t too bad.”

“Why don’t you try sipping from the pot instead?”

Yeah. That was a lot easier. And by skipping the spoon, I didn’t dislodge any of the burned bits on the bottom, although it still tasted burned. Violet had gone through a phase where she’d added smoky paprika to everything she cooked, so I tried to pretend this was just a new smoky flavored soup. It almost worked.

We ate in silence for a few minutes.

“So why did you make the cream of mushroom soup for me?” Nelson asked.

“I thought you might need it to help with your magic.”

“But how did you know mushrooms helped me?”

Was he serious? “Because no one eats as many mushrooms as you did last night. Not unless they lost a bet.”

Nelson chuckled. It was a nice sound. Deep and rumbly. “You’re right. Mushrooms do replenish my magic. I take it you don’t like them?”

“Little rubbery balls of sadness? No, thank you.” I shuddered and pretended to gag.

Nelson laughed again. This time, laughter came more easily to him. “No, I didn’t lose a bet, although my friends do bet a lot. It’s usually just a winner-takes-all wager. But now I’m wondering if we should switch things up and have a consequence for the biggest loser too.”

“What kinds of things do you bet on?”

So, Nelson told me about the people in Willow Lake, about the bets they made, and about the powerful supernatural cat who always won. He spoke affectionately about the people in his life, and a sense of longing curled through me. Yes, I had Violet. But she was the only one I had. I’d always dreamed of having a circle of friends to tease and laugh with. It sounded wonderful.