Chapter 0476 When we finally made it downstairs, it was as the others were beginning to make their way toward the dining room for dinner.


    Julian spotted me first, standing at the bottom of the stair, and beganughing his head off. Veronica, beside him, noticed me a momentter, and gave me a hint of a smile, a big deal for her.


    Elva looked up at me andughed.


    ?What are you wearing, Mommy?” held open my arms and she ran into them. Then I lifted her up.


    ?1 forgot all of my clothes,” I told her, not wanting her to know about the sabotage done to our bags. I would protect Elva as much as I could as long


    as I could about the harsh cruelties of the world. } As the others walked by, Jessica followed them. She nced at me but appeared indifferent to my appearance.


    Bridget, however. Her gaze went ice cold as she inspected me from my shoulders down to my toes. She didn’t say anything, she kept on smiling. But I''felt like the air in the room dropped a few degrees.


    “Nichs,” she said. She dragged her gaze from me to him. “The dinners are supposed to be couple specific. That means you should be with me.” Thatst sentence seemed to hold more weight than the rest, and honestly seemed vaguely threatening. I remembered what Nichs said, that


    — Bridget wanted promises from him that he wasn’t ready to give her.


    [ wondered if this was just one more of her demands that he wasn’t too keen about.


    “Very well,” he said, acknowledging nothing else about what she said or how she said it. “I take it that means chairs will be ced at Julian’s table for Piper and Elva.’ “I really couldn’t say Bridget said which seemed like the polite way of saying that she just didn’t care all that much.


    “I’ll find out,” Nichs said to me. He touched my shoulder, squeezed it, and then walked passed the others to enter the dining room first Bridget should have followed the rest,


    but with Nichs’s absence, she stopped and stared at me. She stared so long that even Elva grew ? ufortable and turned her head.


    “What is it?” I asked her, when it seemed like she wasn’t going to give up any answers on her own.


    “Nothing,” she said. She twisted her smile higher. “I''m just so d you are making the most of the little time you have left.” If what she had said to Nichs before had been vaguely threatening, this was much more overt. Yet said with that bright smile of hers, I would look like the jerk for calling her out. So I just smiled harder too, so big my cheeks hurt.


    “Iam,” I said. “Thank you for saying


    so.” Our angry smilespeted against one { another, until Elva stirred again.


    “I’m hungry,” she whispered in my ear. Oh. Right. Dinner.


    “If you’ll excuse us,” I said to Bridget, and then headed for the dining room.


    Once there, I saw that the room had been arranged with three separate round tables, set for two each. Nichs was personally pulling a pair of chairs up against the one Julian and Veronica had imed. Julian was asking the wait staff for more ce settings.


    Jessica imed the farthest table as her own. There was an empty ce setting across from her. That seemed almost like a cruel joke, as if they had expected


    Joyce to arrive even up until thest minute. Maybe no one had told them he wasn’ting.


    I wondered if anyone had told them that Elva and I were.


    Bridget walked past me then and went to the middle table, where she plopped herself down contentedly and presumably waited for Nichs to join her.


    When the chairs were set at Julian''s table, Nichs waved to me to make sure I saw them, then he moved to his assigned seat with Bridget Carrying Elva, I moved to Julian''s table. I set Elva down between Veronica and me, which ced me between Elva and Julian.


    “I’m sure this seemed like a good idea


    to someone at the time they came up with it,” Veronica said, ncing across the room at the awkward seating arrangements.


    “I think this was supposed to be a romantic trip,” I remind her. “A reward for doing well in the theater event.” An event that had been rigged from the start to give Bridget an obvious advantage.


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    “I prefer the non-romantic kind,” Julian said. He smiled for us, but that smile dimmed as he nced at Bridget and Nichs alone at their table.


    Now that I more understood where Nichs and Bridget stood with each other, I didn’t feel as jealous as before.


    Yes, it still festered in the back of my heart, and I knew someday it would


    hurt even worse. But for now, I could push that aside.


    I overlooked them to watch Jessica. She had seemed alright at first, but the longer I watched her, the more lonesome she seemed.


    “We could fit one more at our table, couldn’t we?” I asked the others. Both followed the length of my gaze. €& “I don’t see why not,” Veronica said.


    “I''ll speak with the staff,” Julian said, rising.


    “I''ll go ask her if she wants to move,” I said, standing also. To Elva, I said, “Stay here, sweetheart. I''ll be right back.” “Okay, Mommy.”


    I crossed the room, walking around behind Nichs, who nced to watch me. At Jessica’s table I stopped..She looked up at me.


    “Would you like to sit with us?” I asked her.


    She smiled, relief spreading across her face. “Yes.” So Jessica joined the table with Veronica, Julian, Elva, and I. As it was only originally intended for two people, five people made it cramped.


    But it was worth it, when Jessica starteding out of her shell a little.


    I didn’t know all that much about Jessica before. I knew she was bookish, and smart, and liked Joyce a whole lot, but that was it. What I learned, speaking with her over dinner, was


    that she was headstrong and opinionated. She obviously didn’t care much for Julian, ring at him whenever he spoke. But her smile was bright and honest for the rest of us, especially Elva.


    “You have such an intelligent child,” she said to me, after Elva had told Jessica how much she enjoyed reading all kinds of books. Especially the ones about animals. Elva loved animals.


    When the topic of Joyce arose, however, her mood shifted from one of contentment to one of quiet contemtion.


    “1''m stillmitted to Prince Joyce,” Jessica said. “Everyone has a past and deserves a chance to make amends.” I nodded in agreement.


    Veronica voiced hers aloud, “You''re right.” ) julian seemed altogether distracted. I could understand why.


    At Nichs’s table, he and Bridget wereughing and talking about times gone by. It tugged at my heart too. My wolf paced inside of me, angered with jealousy.


    But I wouldn''t let the jealousy take root within me. Whatever Bridget wanted them to be, Ni hs saw her as a dear friend. And I didn’t want to take that away from him [ guessed I was feeling more confident since learning about his true feelings on the matter.


    julian, however, seemed utterly miserable.


    With a deep sigh, he pushed his chair back from the table.


    “please excuse me,” he said, “I’m not feeling well.” Then he stood and left the room, with the rest of us watching behind him.