Mallory
“Stop right there.”
Mallory paused in her hunched-over state, closed her eyes, and sighed. She was used to neighbors always taking to the great outdoors at the exact same time she stepped outside to fetch her newspaper or mail. She’d developed the perfect conversational bob-and-weave strategy to keep their nosy ramblings brisk and light.
But she couldn’t scramble away from a conversation with Tess. The woman would hunt Mallory like a fox on a hare and Mallory knew better than to run.
She grabbed the newspaper and straightened up as Tess slowly made her way up the cracked walkway. Nadia was at her side, as always, and April was secured snugly in a wrap at Tess’s front.
“If you’re both here at once, my kids are going to think something bad has happened,” Mallory informed them. “There’s a legend around here that where you both go, bad news follows.”
“Hush,” Tess said. Her eyes were tired but her grin was mega-watt.
Oh, hell.
“Is this about me putting in my notice?”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Tess said, “but I imagine I know why you did.”
“Are you here to apologize on his behalf? I know he’s your brother, but…” Mallory shifted her weight and scanned around her in search of prying neighbors. For the moment, they all seemed to be minding their own business. “Let’s not make this awkward.”
“I despise awkwardness,” Nadia said with a shudder.
“Really,” Tess said. “We don’t want that either. With circumstances being as tenuous as they are, we don’t have time for any additional messiness.”
Mallory lifted a brow. “And I’m the mess?”
“No. You’re just a part of one. I’d like to make a proposal.”
“What sort of proposal?”
“Locking you, Keith, and Asher in one room and seeing what happens.”
Shit.
Apparently, the word was already out. Mallory shouldn’t have been surprised. It’d been a day since she’d walked in on Keith and Asher. That gossip spreading to Tess overnight was hardly record-speed in Norseton.
Mallory gave her a long blink. “Who could that possibly benefit?”
“In theory, all of you,” Nadia said.
“In what way?”
“Don’t be coy,” Tess said. “You didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. You know how complicated connections become when there’s magic in play.”
Mallory tossed the newspaper to the stoop and turned back to the Vikings on the path.
In moments like that, she was always in awe of the fact that she belonged in that place with them. She was so different, but at the same time, like them, supposedly.
“And you think there’s some sort of complicated connection between me and those men?” Mallory asked.
“Yes,” they said in unison.
“I doubt that.”
“Why?” Tess asked.
“Keith tolerates me. That’s not romance.”
“Keith has an ego with no boundaries,” Tess said. “It’s hard to know when he’s feeling vulnerable, but I have my suspicions that he behaves the way he does because he doesn’t want to feel like that third wheel.”
Nadia nodded. “Think about it. He sees you and Asher developing this fondness for each other, and he’s on the outside of it. He’s probably wondering where he fits in now, or if he even does.”
“Well, that’s silly. Of course he does,” Mallory said, indignant.
The cousins smirked knowingly at her.
Mallory let out a quiet groan and ground her weary eyes with her fists. “Why,” she whispered, “does everything in my life have to be complicated? Even with my father being in Norseton, I thought things would become less sticky for me once I moved into the community. I thought things would be easier if I didn’t have to pretend all the time not to be the weirdo I am.”
“And maybe they’ll be less complicated in time,” Tess said, “but this is something you have to deal with now. If you want to, I mean.”
“Do you want to?” Nadia asked.
“No. I’ve got three kids who are either in or close to puberty who notice too much and ask too many smart questions.”
“So did Ollie,” Tess said. “Matt was seventeen when he and Lyman moved here. They adapted.”
“Matt and Lyman are part fae. Of course they adapted. They’re biologically wired to adapt to whatever the magic needs to do. But me? I’m just half-whatever. There’s nothing interesting about me, and my kids might not ever grow into any magic of their own.”
“But your magic is enough,” Tess said emphatically. The smirk she’d been wearing had fallen off. Her expression was all seriousness. “Whatever you have is enough to have made Keith a certain kind of uncomfortable. Don’t you want to know what that means?”
Of course Mallory wanted to know.
Every little girl grew up thinking she could marry a prince. Some of the little girls might have even come from the “wrong” families or had magic that wasn’t quite like everyone else’s in the realm. But in none of those prince reckonings was it likely that there was a second party vying for the prince’s affections…and who happened to be a man.
“It’s messy,” Tess admitted. “Listen. I get it. But I’ve found that things get surprisingly less complicated when you don’t try to smoosh them into containers they don’t fit in.”
“Is this your way of telling me to loosen up, Queenie?”
Tess shrugged. “I’m telling you that you should figure out if the fates are nudging the three of you into a unit. The question from there wouldn’t be why, but what are you going to do about it?”
“How do you suggest I figure that out?”
“Obviously, you need to be in a space with both of them at the same time,” Nadia said. “No distractions. No interruptions.”
“It’ll be a war,” Mallory said.
Both cousins grunted.
“This doesn’t sound productive. Especially not with all the business happening right now with my father and my brother being here and—”
“Let us worry about that,” Nadia said. “One night won’t break anything. I just got word. We’re in a holding pattern tonight, waiting on your father to take the bait.”
“Yeah. Adam called me about Ellen a few minutes ago. He thought Marty and I should know what was happening so we could be prepared.” She hadn’t even told her mother yet. Mallory shifted her weight, suddenly weary. Shit was hitting the fan from too many directions all at once. She was having a tough time compartmentalizing everything, and she’d always been good at that.
There was Dan to be concerned about. And sweet Elliott. Also, her too-curious children.
And those two frustrating men.
Mallory gave her head a clearing shake. The motion didn’t help.
“Do it so you don’t have to wonder,” Tess said. “Trust me. I was plenty worried when I thought I had to pick between Ollie and Harvey. I was relieved that didn’t have to.”
The sort of relief Tess hinted at was something Mallory craved. She was tired of things being unnecessarily complicated. Tired of having to sort things into strict categories. Tired of having to choose just one thing when, in truth, one wasn’t enough.
“Just drop by the mansion in the morning,” Tess said.
“Keith will probably be around and I’m sure Asher will be there,” Nadia added. “It’s just a matter of coordination. What do you say?”
It sounded like a recipe for disaster.
It sounded like Mallory was already standing in the long line for a thrill ride and though she was terrified, she was too nervous to step out of the queue because she’d been waiting for an experience just like that for far too long.
Why not see what could happen? Why not see if you have to choose at all?
If things didn’t work out, at least she would know to move on. She’d have a resolution—a closure on at least one thing.
She looked down at her feet and nodded.
She would never be able to explain the situation to Marty or her mother.
Why do you think they’d care? a little voice inside her said. They would want you to be happy again, just like you wanted them to be.
Mallory had never been one to argue with her conscience. Her world was so loud and chaotic that she could rarely hear it speaking.
“All right, then,” Tess said cheerily. “Let’s see if magic happens.”