The Child Thief by Bella Forrest

Author:Bella Forrest [Forrest, Bella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-10T18:30:00+00:00

18

Sister Maria walked us back to our taxi before bidding us both farewell and leaving us to climb into the vehicle.

As we pulled out of the compound and began rolling back through the mountain passage toward the train station, I kept my mouth shut, knowing that anything we discussed could be overheard by the taxi driver. But then I sensed Jace looking at me. I glanced his way and met his honeycomb eyes, which were still warm and glowing with gratitude.

He cleared his throat. “I was just wondering if you had any plans for the rest of the day,” he said.

The note of hopefulness in his voice caused an unexpected sliver of pleasure to unfurl within me. I didn’t have any plans. And I wondered why he was wondering.

I shook my head slowly, then tilted it to one side. “Why?” I asked.

He leaned back in his seat with a contented sigh. “Well, a few friends invited me for drinks this afternoon, down at a little tavern called the Bullhorn, by the shore. It’s about an hour’s train ride from here. If you haven’t got anything going on, I was going to invite you to come with me. It’s a cool place, and I think you’d like it. Drinks would be on me, of course.”

I hesitated, the idea frankly sounding crazy appealing. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d let my hair down, so to speak. And certainly not with other people. It had to have been before the Sylvones kicked me out.

At the same time, I didn’t like the idea of Jace spending money on me. Not after I’d heard him basically admit he was only just scraping by and trying to save enough to support his sister.

He seemed to somehow read my expression, as he added, “The Bullhorn’s prices are nothing like the average bars in cities. And besides, I feel like our relationship has been rather one-sided so far... I owe you for that sew job.”

A surprise laugh escaped me, and then I found myself nodding, unable to resist what sounded like the perfect escape for this afternoon. “Okay, I’ll come,” I said. “Though the sewing really wasn’t a big deal. Honestly, I enjoyed it.”

I glanced down at the shirt and jeans he was wearing—the first set that I had fixed—and thought privately that it had been worth every minute and more that I put in to see him so comfortable.

“All right,” he said with a grin. “So I guess it’s a date, then.”

I smiled. “You said you already threw professionalism to the wind, right?”

He nodded. “Whatever professionalism was there in the first place.”

I snorted, and then we both settled back in our seats and spent the rest of the journey watching as the mountains swept past us, followed by the gentler, rolling plains of agricultural fields.

I was pleased with my decision to accept the invitation. Honestly, I was looking forward to spending time with this guy—I’d grown close enough to him to consider him a pretty good friend in such a short period of time.

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