Page 153 of Moonless

I hide my mouth in Eskan’s hair. He’s trying to see around me, which is a shame, because I need him right where he is until I can keep a straight face.

Birdie hasn’t even looked at her father. She’s working her fingers farther into Rauk’s fur, pulling his hand toward herself.

“Birdie, gently.” Nobody in this family listens to me.

She opens her fist at last. Then she stands on the bench, raises both arms toward Rauk, and tips her head back.

“Up, hairy man. Up!”

Hairy man. Oh, I’m using that.

Somebody over by the tables laughs and turns it into a cough.

His hands come up, then stop on either side of her.

He looks at me.

He’s got no idea, has he.

Birdie stretches higher, bouncing on her toes. “Up.”

“She means you.” I shift Eskan farther onto my thigh. “Left arm. Sit her on it. Keep her off your shoulder.”

Rauk checks the bandage on his right arm, then slides his left hand under her bottom. He scoops her up on that arm with his elbow kept low, and only the heel of his right hand touches her back until she’s up.

There. Was that so hard.

She ends up sitting on his forearm with her feet on his thigh. He spreads his fingers so the claws stick out past her legs and nowhere near them. When she lunges at his face, his right palm comes up behind her again before she can tip. He’s got her.

“There?” He looks at me.

“That’s good.”

Birdie catches his shirt at the collar and starts telling him something. I get a word about Colm and another about a bird. Rauk bends his head to hear the rest.

She points across the clearing, and he looks where she’s pointing. Then she takes a fistful of his jaw fur to turn him back.

“I’m listening,” he tells her.

She’s got a lot more to say. He listens to every bit of it with both ears tipped toward her and his thumb resting on her knee.

I blink, and a tear drops onto Eskan’s hair. Rauk’s got my niece on his arm and his whole attention on some story about a bird, and I want to put a baby of ours in those hands. I want it so much I’ve gone hot all the way down, on a bench, with a child on my knee and the whole pack looking on. I want him to look at me so I can kiss him again, and then I want all of them to go away.

Eskan pats my cheek, and I turn to kiss his palm instead.

Mel sits down beside me with her knee against mine. She looks where I’m looking, then at my face, and starts to grin. Then she leans in close to my ear.

“We’ll make sure you two have plenty of space tonight.”

I give her a light elbow above the bump, and Rauk looks over with Birdie still on his arm.

Chapter 34

Birdie sits on my arm with her feet on my thigh. The old wound in my left arm aches under her weight, so I lower my elbow until my leg’s taking most of her, and she keeps talking. I’ve caught bird twice now, and not much else. One little hand goes up toward my ear.

I bend down far enough for her to reach the fur. She strokes it once, then takes hold.

“Gently,” I tell her.