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She expectednothingfrom her at all, and how was Juniper supposed to feel like anything but broken, insignificant, incapable, if that was how Mum saw her?

Mum took a sharp intake of breath, and Juniper heard Dad muttering, ‘What bloody nonsense,’ in the background.

‘Well, that’s just not true. Dear me, Juniper, you do talk some rubbish!’ Mum exclaimed.

Juniper had nothing left to say. They didn’t listen to her, or at least didn’t hear her. ‘I’m going to practice throwing before they lock up the workshop for the night. Speak soon.’

‘Fine.’ Mum’s tight-lipped glower was practically audible in the terse word. ‘N’night.’

‘Night.’

Juniper hung up, chin wobbling as she wiped her cheeks. She wished there was someone who believed in her, someone who didn’t just see her for all of her flaws.

Better yet, she wished Mum would call her back to apologise. Tell her that she was proud, that Juniper was doing a great job.

But that had never happened before, and it wouldn’t now, so Juniper threw her phone in her bag and made her way to the workshop. Shewouldbe a good potter. She’d prove to everyone that she wasn’t a joke or a failure.

She would.

Juniper’s first port of call was the drying room to check on the piece that was due to go into the kiln tomorrow. After all her experimentations with jewellery, she needed something to hold all of her earrings and necklaces in, so she’d made a stand for their hand-building task.

She allowed herself a smile when she found her shelf, glad to find the clay hadn’t collapsed. She’d surprised even herself with this one, sculpting Yggdrasil, the Norse tree of life, into curling branches that would hold earrings and necklaces,upon a smooth plate for smaller accessories. With any luck, she’d be able to glaze it to show the different mythological realms in each segment and branch.

‘You’re here late.’

A voice from behind made her jump, and she tore away from her shelf. Aiden leaned against the doorframe, that permanent smirk on his face – the one that made him look happy to see her, but only so he could torment her.

She felt her guard rise, but the heat inside her, too. Seeing him react to her in class yesterday hadn’t helped her forget about their little encounter. Though it brought her a satisfaction she’d never felt before to turn him on so visibly, it had also left her feeling restless, and no amount of orgasms alone under the covers of her single bed or in the shower of her ensuite would remedy it. Maybe she would have to invest in a toy with her next paycheck. She’d never dared to before, living with her parents, but something had to be done about all of…this. She needed to become self-sufficient, because she sure as hell wasn’t turning to Aiden for pleasure again.

‘Are you following me now?’ she accused curtly.

He pushed off the frame to join her inside the drying room. ‘No. I saw someone in here, figured I’d say hi.’

‘Hi. Bye.’ She gave him a wave, which he ignored completely in favour of bending to look at her project.

‘Shit, Hodge. Is this one yours?’

Her stomach fluttered, certain he was about to tear apart the only decent thing she’d made since getting here. She took a subconscious step back. ‘Yup. And?’

Silence ticked through the warm space as he assessed it more closely. She hadn’t noticed before, but from the side, his nose was a perfectly straight line, raised just slightly at its peak. How completely predictable that he had no bad angles to speak of.

‘Bloody hell,’ he said finally, quietly. ‘Sothisis how you got onto the course.’

When he reached to touch it, she slapped his hand away, afraid so much as a jostle could send the tree collapsing like her poor vase. He flinched back, shaking out his fingers with an, ‘Ow. Sorry. It’s just so detailed, so intricate. It almost looks real, even without glazing.’

‘I’m not bad at everything,’ she snapped. And then, with the phone call in the back of her mind: ‘Just most things.’

She hoped it sounded like a joke, something he would inevitably bounce off so that they could resume their usual jabs, but his eyes snapped to her, dark brows bunching. ‘That’s not true, Juni.’

She tried desperately to change the subject before he saw the cracks in her. ‘Why areyouhere?’

He gave half a shrug, a shadow flitting across his face for just a second. Maybe she wasn’t the only one cracked tonight, because it penetrated his usual confidence, revealing something hidden beneath, but it was gone too quickly for Juniper to decipher it.

‘I’m not getting anywhere on my sculpture. I keep changing my mind about it.’ His attention was pulled back to her piece. ‘Is it based on something, or is it just a creepy tree?’

Great. They were now in a ‘changing the subject’ tennis match. ‘It’s Yggdrasil, Norse tree of life,’ she explained, because she would never pass up the opportunity to talk about her beloved interest in mythology.Not even with him. ‘Each of the branches represent one of the nine realms. Asgard, Alfheim, Midgard…’

‘Oh, you mean like inThor. Love those movies.’