Belated Celta Thursday due to Sickness: End of Heart Fortune Cut

He blinked as he looked around. It was sort of like Glyssa, but different in a couple of basic aspects. A holo painting of the three friends was on the wall. All of them holding each other.
"Tiana Mugwort's office?" he guessed.
"Yes," Glyssa said. Thankfully she didn't take the chair behind the small desk, or make him lie down on the chaise lounge. Instead she took his hand and sat on the lounge, upright, of course, and tugged on his hand so he'd join her. He sat next to her, his thigh touching hers.
She closed her eyes and a long sigh compressed her chest and he focused on her pretty breasts.
"What an event!" she said. "So many people!"
"Ah, nice."
She laughed and her eyelids opened and she smiled. "I thought you'd be in your element."
"Not really," Jace said. "Hard to connect with so many strangers at one time, especially when they aren't strangers to each other."
"Yes."
Silence fell between them, like it hadn't since they'd come to Druida, like it hadn't since they'd had that walk to the lake. And suddenly he missed the camp and the forest and the lake so much it was like a physical blow.
Glyssa studied his face with more of the compassion of a friend, than the tenderness of a lover.
"They're saying you could become D'Licorice in the future, if you wanted," he said.
She shrugged.
"Do you want that?"
"I haven't given it much thought," she said. And though he was sure she told the truth, he figured she'd already come to a decision.
He took her hands, and stared into her lovely brown eyes flecked with green, and couldn't find words.
More quiet between them and it hummed with questions Jace couldn't nail down.
"What do you want, Jace?" she asked.





Chapter 32

And his thoughts sorted out and he could let them out of his mouth. "I want to return to the camp." He sucked in air. "Druida is interesting." His lips twitched up. "Especially as seen with Laev T'Hawthorn, and experiencing it as almost a noble."
He shook his head. "But I don't want to live here. I don't even want to live on this coast."
"You love the camp."
"I love that area," he corrected.
Her brows arched and her fingers went limp in his. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Is that all you want?"
He squeezed her hands, his own voice came out rougher than he liked. "You're pushing me to say?"
"Yes."
"You're pushing me to stay here?"
"I asked you first." Her hands twisted in his.
"I want you to come back to the camp with me."
She stopped trying to pull away and her smile bloomed. "All right." She took a choppy breath. "But things have changed between us here, and I want that change to be seen by the camp."
Her body might be vibrating, trembling, but he froze. "In what way?"
"We will be a couple. I want us to be seen as a couple. Not just convenient sex partners."
Simple relief. He squeezed her hands again. "Agreed. We're a couple."
"You can stay with me, or we can use your tent now and then, but we are a couple."
"Yes. The regular shuttle leaves tomorrow. I'm finished with my gifts for your Family and left them in the mainspace." He smiled. "Though I don't anticipate Enata seeing hers for a while."
"We can go tomorrow," she said.
His turn to close his eyes. "Thank you." Then, "Your Family will miss you."
"And I'll miss them, and my friends even more. But my field work isn't done, nor is our story."
More staring at each other. "My Family has accepted you."
He grunted. After a minute, he said, "They aren't bad."
Her lips quirked. "No, they aren't. Sometimes they aren't easy to live with, but they aren't bad people. We follow our own paths and standards, as do you."
Standing, he drew her up. "Right. Now let's go break the news we're leaving tomorrow. Easier in public with a big crowd."
"I suppose so."
****

More from Heart Fortune next week!
Jace in a high class social bar...by himself.