on the couch. Sometimes I’d swear she was older than eight, but she’d always been mature for her age. “I know, peanut. I’m goin’ to apologize after I talk to you.”
“I don’t want to go home.”
“I know. I’m not takin’ you back there.”
“Ever?”
I swallowed, and since I needed to speak to Basil about this first, I ignored the question and said, “Basil invited us to go to Faela with him tomorrow.”
“The land of the fae?” Her eyes widened. “The pink place he told me about?”
I nodded. “Yes. That’ll be fun, right?”
She nodded and grinned. “Yes! He said they have butterflies bigger than me there, and that I can pet them!”
“Um, I’m not sure about that.”
“But he said they’re nice, like giant, flying puppies!”
“Okay…” I didn’t know what to say about that since I didn’t have a clue about giant butterflies. But that sounded gross.
“And fairies.”
“I think you’re supposed to stay away from them.”
“And pixies. And a really pretty queen that’s friends with Basil. He said some of the flowers eat people. Do you think we’ll get to see a flower eat something? Ew.” She giggled. “There’s a waterfall that’s made of flowers, but those flowers don’t eat you, you can swim in them. And pink sand! Do you think we can see the pink sand?”
I nodded and lifted a shoulder, silently wondering how my eight-year-old seemed to know more about Faela than I did.
“And kelpies!”
I scowled. Not the fuckin’ kelpies again.
As Rasha continued listing the billion things she and Basil had apparently talked about, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Basil was standing at the bottom of the steps with his shoulder leaning against the wall. He’d already changed into jammies, and even though he was pissed at me, the sight made me grin. He was wearing a pink shirt and blue pants that had pink flamingos on them. Rasha had picked them out for him when we’d gone to get her new shoes. I was pretty sure it was the only outfit he owned that wasn’t black. He kinda looked adorable in them.
Rasha noticed that I wasn’t paying attention to her chatterin’ and turned to see Basil standing there. She got up and walked over to him, asking, “You’re taking us to Faela?”
He nodded. “Yep. I missed you guys too much last time, so I asked Queen Roshia for permission to bring you and your dad.”
She started bouncing. “Can I see the butterflies?”
Bas smiled widely at her. “Of course you can. I’ll show you as much as I can this time, but hopefully you’ll get to come more than once with me.” He shot me a glance, like he was worried he’d said too much, but I nodded encouragement and shrugged. Basil refocused on Rasha and brushed her hair behind her ear, fixing the tube so it wasn’t pulling on her hair. “Do you think you can pack some clothes? Or, um, actually, can you put some outfits on your bed and some jammies so your dad can make sure you have everything you need?”
She nodded and wrapped her arms around Basil’s waist, barely giving him enough time to hug her back before rushing up the steps.
“Take it easy, Rash,” I yelled after her. The last thing we needed was having her wind up in the hospital again because she was too excited.
Once she was upstairs, Basil crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me.
I sighed and walked over to him. “I’m sorry, Bas, I wasn’t thinkin’ clearly. Obviously.”
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
Grabbing his hips, I stepped closer and pushed my nose against the side of his neck. “I know you would never let anything bad happen to either of us. It’s just a knee jerk reaction, love.”
He sighed and some of his tension left his muscles. “You’re always so difficult.”
A bark of laughter left me. “Me? Damn, Bas, you’re like an impossible fuckin’ jigsaw puzzle. Difficult? There ain’t even a word strong enough to describe you.”
“I can’t decide if that’s the worst insult I’ve ever heard or if you were trying to compliment me and doing a terrible fucking job of it.”
I chuckled. “Maybe a little of both.”
“Dickhead.”
“Yeah, I am. I’m sorry.”
He sighed. “If you’re having doubts or whatever, next time, can you please just talk to me about it?”
I nodded against him. “I’ll try.”
“Okay.”
“Are ya done hatin’ me now?”
“I’ve never hated you.”
I leaned up and lifted a brow at him. “You sure about that?”
“I didn’t like you, I thought you were