“That they are.” And I knew he had won her over. My own mother, another one of his many admirers.

Damn and hell.

“Well,” I said, looking back at Roan now. “He is m-mad about knives.”

He frowned at me, but my mother didn’t notice. She slid the blade back into its sheath and busied herself snooping around the place.

“Are you two getting along?” she called over her shoulder, inspecting the shelves on the side wall.

Roan waited for me to answer, but that never happened. Unable to let the question hang any longer, he caved.

“Yeah, we’re just fine,” he said. His first lie? I was intrigued. “Things have been hectic with the move, but I think we’ll get to calm down and get to know each other better once we’re settled.”

Hmm, he’d tempered it.

“Good, good,” she said. “Fenli, baby, I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you. I was so busy with the kitchens, and Iver’s brother has been in such a bad way. We had a hell of a time with it all.”

I nodded.

Iver was her partner, and his brother had long been sick. I hadn’t considered the trouble it would be to move him north, but now that I thought about it, I was sure they’d had their hands full.

“I sh-should have—I should have—”

“Nonsense,” she said, turning back. “It’s nothing for you to worry yourself about.”

She looked at me from across the room and smiled. Her age was written in the lines on her face, but she was still as beautiful as ever. Her auburn hair was several shades lighter than mine, and her hazel eyeswere radiant. With her high cheekbones and peaked lips, it was no wonder she’d raised all manner of hell in her youth.

I’d heard it said that her good looks had gotten her into a lot of trouble; they’d also gotten her out of some.

“I’m going to go check out the bed, and you can’t stop me.”

“Ma!” but it was too late. She was already heading for the ladder, never one to heed me. “You could fall,” I said after her.

She only cackled at that. When she got to the top, I heard her gasp.

She stood there for many long moments before she headed back down. When her feet reached the wooden planks, she turned to Roan, her hands over her heart. “You did such a beautiful job.”

“Thank you,” Roan said, “but it’s nothing.”

“It’s a beautiful home for my baby. To me, it’s everything.”

She hugged him again, and I could have beat my head against the wall, I was so frustrated. Was that truly everything to her? That I had a nice hut?

She peeled herself from Roan and came after me. There was no fighting her. She wrapped her arms around me, and I knew the embrace wouldn’t be over until she said it was.

“I love you,” she said, drawing in a deep breath like she never wanted to forget the way I smelled. “You mean the world to me.”

And it cracked open my hard little heart to hear her say it. I knew it was true. I’d never doubted it. But I let myself get so wrapped up in my anger that sometimes I forgot to remember it. My mother loved me fiercely and always had. In that, I was lucky.

Guilt and shame wrapped their way through me. I wished to Toke I could be happy enough with what I had. Maybe I was as selfish and stupid as I knew some said. I gave in to her embrace.

It was a time before she let me go and pulled herself together. “Alright, well. I’ll leave you two to it.” She straightened and headed for the door. “Have fun in that bed of yours, children.”

“Ma!” I hissed again.

She swung around and winked at me.

Then she was gone, Roan and I floundering in her wake.