“Well, it’s ready except for the water, but if you’ll pour the water in when the kettle boils, I could help Drina carry the bags up to our room.”
“Okay,” he said agreeably.
“Thanks.” Stephanie grinned at him and rushed around the counter to Drina’s side.
“I’ll help with the bags while you boys oversee the food and drink,” Mirabeau announced, as Drina straightened and headed for the stairs. She had just started up when she heard Tiny murmur, “So you’re eating again, Harper?”
“Oh, yeah, I started a year and a half ago when I first came to Port Henry and met Jenny.”
“Your life mate?” Tiny asked.
“Yes, meeting a life mate reawakens old appetites, of course, and I guess they don’t just die if the life mate does. They’ll go away again eventually, but it will take a while I suppose.”
“But I didn’t think you’d been eating since Jenny died,” Tiny said mildly.
Drina paused on the stairs, waiting until Harper answered with, “I guess I was too depressed to be bothered, but going out with the girls today perked me up some, and my appetites are back.”
“Hmmm,” Tiny murmured, and Drina continued up the stairs just as Stephanie and Mirabeau came out of the dining room and started up the stairs behind her.
“Okay, spill,” Mirabeau said firmly as soon as they were in the room Drina and Stephanie were sharing.
“Yes, Drina, show her what you got,” Stephanie said lightly, dropping her bags and hurrying to close the door behind Mirabeau.
“I didn’t mean—” Mirabeau began.
“She knows,” Drina pointed out on a sigh. The kid seemed to know everything. There probably wasn’t a thought in this house the girl didn’t hear.
“I just wanted to close the door so the guys don’t hear,” Stephanie said in a hushed voice as she moved past Mirabeau to Drina’s bed. Sprawling on the twin bed, she smiled at Mirabeau, and said, “Marguerite picked Drina for Lucian to send just as she suggested Tiny and you bring me here.”
Mirabeau’s eyebrows rose as she recognized the significance of that. “Harper’s your life mate?”
“It would seem so,” Drina said wearily, dumping the nearest bag on the bed and beginning to sort through the clothes that spilled out.
“Christ. That means we have another distracted hunter guarding Stephanie,” Mirabeau muttered with disgust. “What was Lucian thinking sending you here if—”
“Because he doesn’t care if I’m distracted.”
“What?” Mirabeau asked with surprise.
“He planned to send someone named Bricker down here to replace me the moment Harper and I acknowledged we were life mates, but it turns out there’s been a sighting of Leonius in the States, which means you guys weren’t followed. Stephanie’s safe, and Anders and I are just—” Drina snapped her mouth closed as she realized what she was about to say, but Stephanie finished for her.
“Babysitters,” the girl said with amusement, and then reassured Drina, “It’s okay. I’m not upset.”
“Huh.” Mirabeau muttered and leaned against the dresser drawers at the foot of the bed. She was silent for a moment as she took it all in, and then glanced to Drina and asked, “So what’s all this nonsense Harper was spouting downstairs about his reawakened appetites being leftovers from Jenny?”
“He believes it,” Stephanie said simply, sitting up to help Drina sort the clothes they’d bought.
Mirabeau narrowed her eyes. “Why? Hasn’t he tried to read you?”
Drina shrugged. “Probably. But I’m older than him by quite a bit. He wouldn’t have been able to read me anyway.”
“And you’ve tried to read him?” Mirabeau asked.
“The minute I met him,” she admitted quietly. “And I can’t.”
“Why haven’t you told him?” she asked at once.
Drina took in Mirabeau’s grim face with a sigh. It looked like she had some explaining to do.
“The girls are taking a while,” Tiny commented as he helped carry the cookies and cocoa to the dining-room table.
“They’re probably oohing and ahhing over what Stephanie and Drina bought today,” Harper said with amusement. “Speaking of which, a bit of advice; if Mirabeau decides to take Stephanie shopping—just hand over the keys and let them go. You’ll save yourself some humiliation and several shocks.”
“Humiliation and shocks?” Tiny asked, a smile pulling at his lips.
“Hmm. I spent the day being considered ‘one of the girls’ and learning things I never wanted to know about women,” he said dryly.