Lightning Kissed

  ***

  That night was spent debriefing each other of what we had seen, which was no more than patches of a quilt that didn’t fit together and just left more holes.

  “What did Pema tell you?” I asked Colby.

  She looked down and straightened an already perfectly placed piece of her dress—which meant she was about to lie to me. Somehow my female still thought she could lie to me and get away with it.

  Wrong.

  “She just warned me about some things.”

  “What things,” Collin interjected.

  “Things I should be aware of as—you know.” Starting with her neck, Colby’s blush invaded her skin until the tips of her ears glowed red and even her lips flushed.

  “Spit it out.” Collin rose in posture, challenging her as a joke. Colby and Collin had become rivaling siblings sometime in the past day.

  “Hey! Lay off Sasquatch!”

  Collin reared back, feigning offense. He pinged his gaze between the two of us and then blurted out, “What’s a sasquatch?”

  The glint in Colby’s eyes told me she wasn’t letting this issue go so easily but neither was Collin. It also told me that Colby had found a way out of her wriggling jam. She’d found a way out of explaining to us what she and Pema had discussed.

  Poor Collin.

  “It’s a big, hairy, Viking ape,” she spewed at him in jest.

  Collin pointed at her. “There are no legends of Viking apes.”

  “Oh yeah? I’m looking at one.”

  I could’ve stopped it at any time, but it was kind of fun to watch. Plus, Collin couldn’t ogle her if she was gutting him.

  “I am not descended from Viking people, and for that matter, I am not descended from apes either. How dare you!”

  Collin’s poker face was infallible. I couldn’t discern whether or not he was truly offended or just playing along.

  “I was just calling you a name based on your looks, you oaf.”

  “Well, if we are making assumptions based on appearance alone then you are a…” We waited for a few seconds while he formulated a name for Colby. I had the feeling Collin had never playfully or seriously insulted someone in his life. His face screwed up in over-concentration. “A wiry, boney little imp who has no manners.”

  That one shut us all up.

  That was a little more truth than joke.

  I supposed I should’ve come to Colby’s rescue, but I was in the middle of witnessing something I’d never seen. Colby Evans was speechless. Any residual blush had floated away with her loss of words. I should’ve called Ari. Even though I despised her, we could’ve shared a laugh over this scenario.

  She opened her mouth twice to take her revenge and then closed it, standing with slumped shoulders and forging to the bedroom—which was unheard of. Colby didn’t back down from a battle, especially one of wit and sarcasm.

  “I apologize, Theodore. I thought it was all in play.” Collin said to me, though his gaze was still on the hallway.

  “It’s fine. I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”