It sent Evan right back to memories from childhood, when they did that a lot, any time their parents were being too annoying. It was a little bit of a secret language between him and Yena.

“Well, I dunno about all that,” he said. “Last week the neighbor’s cat got stuck way up at the top of one of the big overgrown trees in the front yard. That was pretty exciting.”

Yena laughed, and Tina joined in.

Peter grunted defensively and mumbled, “I’ll do the trees this week.”

Evan and Tina both looked down and tried to suppress doubtful laughter at that.

Under the table, Yena gave Evan’s ankle a light little touch with her foot. It gave him an unexpected shiver.

He looked up at her and she mouthed, Thank you.

All he could do was smile back in response.

YENA

Tina had made all my favorite foods. It was like a big “welcome home Yena” themed feast. I hadn’t been expecting to feel so happy tonight… but the comfort of home felt so good.

But Tina kept fussing over me so much. It felt kinda nice at first, but then I really did want her to stop. Maybe if my face wasn’t always going totally red every time someone gave me a compliment, stuff like that wouldn’t bother me so much.

It was a good thing I had Evan there to bail me out.

“So what happened to the cat?” I asked him. I was genuinely curious.

Tina answered for him.

“Your brother climbed up there and rescued her!”

“No way!” I looked over at Evan. “That’s awesome!”

He was trying not to laugh while chewing a big bite of something.

Once he was able to swallow, he cleared his throat and said, “Alright, I climbed up a tree. It’s not like I’m a war hero, so let’s take it easy with all that.”

“Sounds pretty heroic to me,” I said. “Guess all that time you spent falling out of trees when we were kids, was worth the practice.”

Tina gasped. “Falling out of trees? When was this?”

“Like ten years ago, Mom, and I’m fine, okay? Never even broke a bone, otherwise you woulda known about it.”

Tina said, “Well, I guess I’m glad that I didn’t know about that at the time. Honestly, falling out of trees… so dangerous…”

Peter said, “Tina.”

“Alright alright,” Tina said, rolling her eyes. “Although last week with the cat rescue, I was a little scared you’d come falling out of that tree there. I just can’t help it, being your mother.”

“Really? Huh, you hadn’t mentioned that,” Evan said sarcastically.

“Okay, maybe I said it already, once or twice.”

“Yeah, that’s all.”

The playful bickering was much better than them all doting on me. I reached out and gave Evan’s forearm a grateful and affectionate touch.

His reaction was a little bit strange.

He looked down at my hand on his arm, and then slowly up to my face. When he met my eyes, I couldn’t figure out what his expression meant.

Evan felt so familiar, but somehow also entirely different to me now. There was maturity in his personality, as well as in his voice and his face.

Maybe he was giving me that funny look because he was thinking something similar about me. Like he both did and didn’t recognize me, anymore.

I took my hand away from him, feeling like somehow I’d made Evan uncomfortable.

As I did, I started hearing Lily’s voice.

“No… He liked your touch, maybe a little too much…”

Evan went back to his silly little argument with Tina. Peter was doing some hard work putting away a second plate full of steak and potatoes. So no one noticed when I got quiet.

“You know that this man is attracted to you, right?” Lily said to me.

Evan? Not that again…

You’re ridiculous, I told Lily.

Not sure why, but my thoughts went back to high school, and Evan being the captain of the football team. He always had some pretty girl that was chasing after him. Skinny, gorgeous, homecoming queen types.

I looked over at him. He was a really handsome guy, and I’d always felt like he looked really young, but his features were more refined now somehow, and the seriousness in his eyes made him look older too.

“Mm-hmm,” Lily said, “watch out for this wolf… he wants you…”

She laughed mischievously.

I scoffed. Lily could not be more wrong about that.

Somehow that thought comforted me. If she was wrong about Evan liking me, then she could be wrong about Nolan too, and all the annoying stuff she was always going on and on about, the prince being my fate and my making a big mistake leaving him…

Thank you, Lily, I thought to her. Thanks for helping me realize how much you’re not right about everything!

I couldn’t help it – a laugh escaped from my lips as I told Lily off in my mind.

Tina, Peter, and Evan all stopped what they were doing and looked at me.

“I’m sorry,” I said, putting a hand to my mouth. “I guess I’m getting kinda loopy. Sleep deprivation, moving and everything, it’s just all hitting me now.”

“Of course, honey!” Tina jumped up from the table like she’d just realized something important. “Of course, let’s get you settled to go get some rest!”

She insisted I take a cup of hot tea with me upstairs, and when I got in my room I was glad I did. I’d forgotten how drafty the old house could be. The heat was on, but it didn’t pump out the warmth like I was used to at the palace.

And when I finally laid down in my little, single bed, the sheets were cool to the touch and were taking forever to warm up. There were already three layers of blankets on the bed, but I had to get up and rifle through the closet for some more. I piled them up on the bottom half of the bed mostly, because my feet were the coldest.

I did start feeling lonely, but not for too long, because I was exhausted and fell asleep fast.

Then it was like I blinked my eyes, and it was morning.

Evan was knocking on my door. That’s what woke me up.

I had slept like a log under my pile of blankets. All the pillows around my head were like a fluffy nest. I wriggled out of all the covers and went to open the door.

“Morning, sleepy head.” Evan handed me a big mug of hot coffee.

It was my favorite mug… a green one with a big letter Y on it.

It was weird, how I’d forgotten about stuff like this. All my old favorite things. But now I was seeing them again, it was like I didn’t know how I got by without them.

“Oh, thank you,” I whispered, still finding my morning voice. I took the mug from him and took a sip.

“I’ll come back in ten minutes and see if you still feel like running with me. It’s not raining right now, but kinda wet and muddy out there cuz it did overnight.”

I must have made a funny face, because he laughed.

“And don’t worry about it if you wanna sleep in instead. We can go tomorrow, or day after. We’ve got all the time in the world.”