Her heartbeat picked up the pace. Helena reminded herself this was absolutely not the time to get turned on. She was here to get a fresh Band-Aid and then she was going to leave. But her body wasn’t listening to reason and was quickly growing hotter.

  Nadia looked up and saw Helena’s blushing cheeks. A knowing smirk appeared on her face. She didn’t bother hiding the laughter in her voice when she asked, “Are you okay?”

  “Fine.” Helena wished she could erase this entire humiliating day from existence. The toweling continued for another full minute. Eventually Helena couldn’t take it anymore and thrust out her ferretless hand. “I think it’s dry enough for me to put on the Band-Aid now.”

  “I don’t know,” Nadia said teasingly. “You seem so tense. I think I need to go a little further.” Warm fingers glided past Helena’s ankle and squeezed her calf.

  “I’d prefer the Band-Aid.”

  Nadia gave her a look that said “You realize I’m flirting, don’t you? Isn’t this what you wanted?”

  Helena answered with a look that translated to “Yes, I know I texted you barely two hours ago begging for this exact outcome, but I really want to go home now. Please don’t be mad.”

  Nadia huffed. “Fine. Let me see if I have one big enough…” She set aside the towels, then began rummaging through her first aid kit.

  While Nadia was distracted, Helena tried to gently pull Phantom’s head out of her sleeve. He snaked his way through her palm and deeper into the shirt, then hissed in alarm when he couldn’t back out.

  Nadia looked up and started laughing. “Phantom, what are you doing?” Before Helena could stop her, Nadia wiggled her sleeve down over the claustrophobic ferret. Once Phantom’s head was free, she peeled him off Helena’s arm and set him on the floor. He busied himself reinvestigating Helena’s soggy boot. “Sorry, did he scratch—” Nadia spotted Helena’s arm, and her expression went flat.

  Helena yanked the sleeve up. “I’m fine. Where did you put the Band-Aid?”

  Nadia gently but firmly pulled the sleeve back down. She knelt there staring for what felt like an eternity. When she finally spoke, her voice was raw. “What happened?”

  Helena answered with the obvious. “I spent my luck line.” What else was there to say?

  “Spent it on what?”

  “A platinum credit card.”

  Nadia’s gaze sharpened. “Bullshit. You said it yourself—people spend their line on what’s most important to them.” She stood up. “It was your art, wasn’t it? You were freaking out about the paintings, and you were convinced spending your luck would give you a shortcut.”

  Helena stood up as well. “I didn’t use it on my art!”

  “What else could possibly be as important? Your brother? Your job?”

  Helena gritted her teeth. There wasn’t much point avoiding the truth now. “I needed closure after our fight.”

  Nadia’s worry turned into irritation. “That’s why you came over here? To pull some masochistic power move by revealing your line?”

  “No! I wore long sleeves for a reason.”

  “Then your behavior doesn’t make any sense. Two hours ago, you were begging to talk to me, but once you returned my necklace, you were desperate to get away…” Her eyes widened with realization. “Wait. How long ago did you do this?”

  Helena bit her lip. How was she going to explain this without sounding pathetic?

  “Helena…”

  “You weren’t answering your phone!” she cried. “I was sure I could make everything better if I could talk to you, so I decided to spend an inch, one inch, and nobody would notice. But one inch wasn’t enough, so I spent more and more until the whole line was gone, and I thought I could hide it from you until I came up with a good cover story, but your stupid ferret ruined everything!” Helena stopped to catch her breath.

  Nadia stared, her mouth slightly open in shock. When she spoke, her voice was almost too soft to hear. “You burned it for me?”

  “Mm-hmm.” Helena wiped the tears out of her eyes and sniffed. She resigned herself to the fact that her dignity was lost at this point.

  To her surprise, Nadia started crying as well. She wrapped Helena in a rough hug, and her tears wetted Helena’s forehead. “You spent your line on me.”

  Helena cautiously returned the hug. “You’re not mad?”

  “Mad? I’m…” A spurt of choked laughter left Nadia’s lips. “I don’t know what I’m feeling. I’m honored you used it on me, but I’m also horrified that I’m the reason it’s gone.”

  “It’s not your fault! I chose to spend it.”

  “But I could have stopped you from hurting yourself, if only I’d answered the phone.”

  “I’m not hurt,” Helena assured her. “I won’t have all the social perks a full line offers, but…it’s not like anything’s been taken from me. I still have my job and my health. I’ll have to work a little harder to prove myself, that’s all.”

  “Still, you could have spent your line on something you wanted.”

  “But I wanted you,” she murmured into Nadia’s shoulder.

  Nadia leaned out of the hug. She stared down at Helena with simmering intensity. For a heart-clenching moment, Helena worried she’d ruined everything again by saying something thoughtless.

  But her fear was cast aside when Nadia grabbed both sides of her head and pulled their faces together for a kiss. Helena gasped, and Nadia’s bottom lip slid above her own. The citrus scent of Nadia’s lotion washed over her.

  As Helena maneuvered her hands, Nadia’s thistle pendant gently tapped her own chest. The rolling pendant, citrus perfume, and insistent lips all fought for her attention, so much so that Helena lost the focus to control what her own mouth was doing. Only when the kiss broke did she remember to release the breath pent up inside her.

  Nadia blessed her with a crooked smile. “Well, you got what you wished for. You better not regret it, okay?”

  Helena’s thoughts were still foggy from the kiss. “You’re taking me back?” she murmured. “Are you sure?”

  Her question was met with a quirked eyebrow. “Did I seem unsure just now?”

  “No, but…” The happy fog in her brain made way for more doubt. Wasn’t this too easy? “I was so cruel to you. I’m not sure spending some luck is really enough to earn your forgiveness yet.”

  Nadia let out a frustrated sigh. “Why are you so obsessed with who deserves what? Nobody ‘earns’ forgiveness. You don’t ‘earn’ the right to share art or fall in love or have a roof over your head. You just grab whatever opportunities you find and be happy about them.”

  “That’s easier said than done.”

  “Helena, I can’t keep doing this will-we-won’t-we thing.” Nadia’s hands slipped down to grab hers. “Do you think you can be happy with me or not?”

  “As long as I’m with you, sure, but…” Helena struggled to put her unease into words. What if Nadia was only taking her back out of guilt? Or what if Helena said something hurtful again? “You might change your mind.”

  “So could you. Future Helena might blame me for making you spend your luck. Or we might have a completely unrelated argument. Neither of us have luck lines anymore, so anything could happen.”

  Helena looked down to see their naked arms holding hands. The two of them had no sleeves to hide behind, no luck lines to fall back on if life got too hard. The only things keeping them connected were their own fingers.

  Helena tightened her grip. The word “anything” sounded like a threat, but it could also be a promise. She smiled up at the woman she loved and said, “Well, let’s make sure whatever happens next is good.”

  Acknowledgements

  Many thanks to Elizabeth Coldwell, who helped me add that last bit of polish the story needed.

  About Quinn Tollens

  Quinn Tollens lives in the land of corn, cows, and tornados. They started writing romance as a distraction from the doom and gloom of quarantine and forgot to stop. Quinn’s day job revolves around science, and so when they write, their imagination refuses to obey the laws of physics, biology, or common sense.

  Email

  quinntollens@gmail.com

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  Connect with NineStar Press

  Website: NineStarPress.com

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  Quinn Tollens, Luck Lines

 

 

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