Chapter 27: Catch Me Before I Catch Feelings

"It means you’re blocking the light," Dove told him, despite the fact that he was nowhere near the lamp. Thorne looked up at it, then back at her, and had the decency to keep his answer to himself.

He left at closing as agreed. She spent several irritating minutes remembering that almost-smile before checking her gate and going to bed. The sugar stayed in its paper packet inside her tin. She had not decided whether saving it made her sensible or sentimental, and she refused to ask Sprout for a ruling.

Day Ten offered three pairs of bootlaces, with a ten-normal-coin reward for selling two. Five fresh Favor Coins would unlock a fifteen-normal-coin mirror. Her balances stayed at nineteen normal and four Favor when she accepted the consignment; any unsold pair still had to be settled at closing.

"A mirror would be useful," she admitted. "I could finally confirm whether I look as tired as I feel."

"Your current appearance has received favorable attention."

"So has free parking. Neither of us should have to hear this much about it."

She washed with pool water behind the closed tarp, bringing the basin out while her body stayed seated. The daily strengthening was worth the bother, even if her supplier had attached a male-attention problem. Her tail dried glossy, and she needed her gloves later than yesterday. She still put them on before approaching the draft.

The salvage keeper brought the narrow shelf and a low wooden step. He checked the step on the dry floor, told her to mark the height while he fetched his drill, and left the shelf lying flat across his own bench. Dove cleared the counter, stored her stock, and put her pencil between her fingers.

Thorne arrived as she stepped up. He was carrying a bundle of empty sacks toward household stores, his coat open at the throat. Bare skin showed above his shirt, and the pale scar at his jaw caught the lamp while his golden eyes followed her hand.

"You could ask someone taller," he said.

"I did. He went to get a drill. This is the exciting middle part where I draw a line."

The corner of his mouth lifted. She turned back to the wall before that tiny movement could become another completely unreasonable distraction.

She marked the first end of the shelf, shifted her weight to reach the second, and heard the step crack beneath her heel. Her stomach dropped before she understood that the floor had moved away. She reached for the counter, missed its edge, and struck nothing but air.

Thorne dropped the sacks and caught her around the back and beneath her knees before her shoulder hit the corner. The breath she had meant to use for swearing came out against his collar instead.

For a second, Dove could only feel the size of him. His arm supported her knees without effort, his chest solid beneath her hand, his face close enough that she could see the fine silver curls near his temple. Her tail hung over his wrist like it had decided to be helpful by making everything more embarrassing.

"I’ve got you," he said, checking her face. "Did you hit anything?"

"Just the end of my career in construction."

He did not laugh until she moved her shoulder and told him it felt fine. Then the tension eased around his mouth, leaving something gentler that she was entirely unprepared to look at from this distance.

She could have let go of his shirt. Her hand seemed committed to conducting additional research. Beneath her palm, his heartbeat was fast enough that she noticed it before remembering her own had become a public emergency.

"You can put me down," she said, with considerably less authority than she wanted.

"On your feet?"

"Ideally. I realize I’ve just damaged my reputation in that department."

He lowered her slowly, waiting until both slippers were flat before taking his hands away. Dove missed the warmth immediately and resented every part of that sentence. She checked the hem of her new wool dress instead of looking at him.

Sprout recorded five Favor Coins from Thorne’s relief, bringing that purse to nine and unlocking the mirror. Her normal balance remained nineteen. She could afford the mirror, but a brush for the enormous tail currently humiliating her seemed more urgent.

Thorne took one careful breath, and his expression changed in a way the coins could not explain. His gaze moved from her pink cheeks to the hand she had finally removed from his shirt.

"Don’t," she warned.

"I didn’t say anything."

"Your face is being loud."

A low chuff escaped him, warm and pleased. It was not a laugh she had heard before, and it did something deeply inconvenient beneath her ribs.

"I can smell the difference," he said quietly, so the men near stores could not hear. "That doesn’t tell me what you’re going to choose."

Dove swallowed, grateful and furious that he had left her an answer she could actually give. "Then keep those two things separate. I fell off a stool, not into a mating contract."

"I can do that."

The salvage keeper returned, saw the split step, and cursed before checking the broken joint. A hidden crack had opened along the wood. He apologized and took it away, saying he would bring a metal step from maintenance instead. Dove paid nothing yet because the shelf was not fitted.

Two men at the neighboring bench were still looking at Thorne. One had stopped halfway through folding a sack, while the other stared openly at Dove’s flushed face.

"Never seen him hold anything that carefully," the second man muttered.

"I’ve never seen anyone that pretty turn that red," the first answered, then discovered urgent work when Thorne looked toward him.

Dove picked up her pencil and pointed it at the panther. "You have sacks to deliver."

He collected them, still wearing the smallest possible smile. When she walked to the keeper’s bench to inspect the shelf, he followed until the route split, close enough that she heard another quiet chuff behind her.

"This isn’t funny," she said without turning.

"I know," he answered, and somehow that made it worse.

At the clinic doorway, Ash stood beside Kael with his burned arm uncovered for a dressing change. His eyes moved from Dove’s cheeks to Thorne’s mouth, then stopped on the gloves she had left on the counter.

"How long," Ash asked, "has he been giving you things?"