Page 48

I’d literally never been jealous over a guy before, let alone for something as small as who he smiled at.

But I was now.

Well, I would just need to put my big girl panties on and get over it, pronto. How the hell was I supposed to prepare Oaken for his next human bride when I was getting pissy about something like this?

I closed my eyes for a moment, breathing deeply.

We’re cool. We’re zen. We’re absolutely fine.

When I opened my eyes again, I almost believed it.

“What are you working on today, Oaken?”

“I shall start as I always do,” he said. “I must milk the female bracku, check on the rest of the herd, check the fencing, walk Nali…”

“Busy, busy. Well, I hope you don’t mind if I tag along.”

“You… You need a tag? That is long?” He rubbed thoughtfully at the back of his neck. “What sort of tag?”

“No. I mean, I hope you don’t mind if I come with you.”

His eyes, which had begun to turn green once more, blazed bright white.

A taut silence, and then, gruffly, “I don’t mind.”

“Great,” I said, nodding with satisfaction. “Because today we start your husband lessons.”

“My husband lessons?”

“I want to help prepare you for your next wife. Help you stand out from the other guys. So that you can easily win over whichever sexy lady catches your eye.”

“Oh.”

“You don’t seem very excited about it,” I observed, noticing the tension that entered his jaw and the shadowy emotion that passed over his face.

“I would be pleased to receive any advice you wanted to give me,” he said in a voice that did not sound pleased at all. “I just… In all honesty, I had rather forgotten about the possibility of marrying someone else after you.”

“Youforgot?”

That made no sense. According to Darcy and the others, Oaken was one of the guys who was most excited to get his human bride. I thought he was praying and pining and crossing all his big green fingers and toesies!

He’d certainly been enthusiastic about the prospect of marrying me, and that was only for two weeks!

Oh, God. Was he so unhappy with me already that I’d turned him off of all other human women? I’d bothered him so much that he’d given up on what had once been his greatest dream?

I knew I hadn’t been some starry-eyed, lovey-dovey wife or anything like that, but had he grown to dislike me that much?

“I promise, there are some amazing people out there, Oaken,” I said, panic and a surprising amount of pain rising in my throat. “And you’re such a wonderful guy. I have no doubt you’ll end up with someone lovely. You deserve it.”

He didn’t look convinced. It made my heart feel like somebody was stomping on it. Before I could stop myself, I’d grasped his hand in mine. His fingers tensed. But he didn’t pull away.

“You are very confident,” Oaken murmured, his eyes glued to our hands. “Much more confident than Tasha.”

“What do you mean?”

Tasha had seemed really nice and helpful so far. But if she had said something mean to Oaken…

We were going to have some words, she and I.