She was a hawk. Like Eli. Flying felt so natural that she let out a triumphant shriek and caught the updraft, circling the house.
Then she arrowed in the direction of her heart.
* * *
First there was a red-tailed hawk, circling overhead in graceful motions, and then there was a naked woman on Eli’s porch. Not just any woman.
Iris.
He hurriedly dragged her inside without asking a single clarifying question. Her eyes rounded when she spotted Liz, currently sprawled on his couch in comfy clothes. Liz had been sleeping on the sofa, but this probably looked bad. Oh shit. What the…？ Why now?
“Uh, hello there. There’s probably an interesting explanation,” Liz said, carefully keeping her gaze on Iris’s face. “I look forward to hearing it after you get dressed.”
He pulled Iris through to his room and quickly found her a T-shirt and jogging pants. Eli turned to close the door as she put the clothes on. “It’s good to see you,” he said.
“All of me?” The laughter in her voice said she wasn’t upset.
“Okay, admittedly, this isn’t how I would’ve chosen to get you naked the first time.”
“You’ve thought about that, have you?”
“I’m not a saint,” he muttered. “Those dance lessons…”
“You can turn around. So are you crashing on your friend’s couch or what?”
He let out a breath, relieved that she didn’t think he was the kind of person who could go from kissing her to being with someone else at the drop of a hat. “That’s Liz, my lawyer friend. She got worried when I wasn’t responding to her texts.”
“Afraid of you going hawk forever on her?” Iris guessed.
Eli had to smile over how well she knew him. “Yeah, that’s exactly right. And honestly, I’ve told her so much about all of you that she was hoping to meet everyone before she heads back. She’s even talking about moving to St. Claire.”
A soft smile started in Iris’s pretty gray eyes, rounding the corners of her mouth like she was stealing a base. “That’s how awesome you made us all sound, huh?”
“Just the truth, as I saw it.”
“You must be wondering why I chose to come over this way,” she said.
“I am curious about the whole turning into a hawk thing.”
“I did that for you. To see if I could. I’d already found out that I’m fae before you left. Well, some fairly critical developments have occurred since then…”
Eli listened as she filled him in; some of this he’d gleaned from Henry Dale and Rowan’s comic, but he wanted Iris’s words too. All of her words, always, every day of his life. At some point, she curled up on the bed while she talked and he sat beside her. And then she closed the distance, ever so slightly, until he felt bold enough to put his arms around her. She let out a gusty, happy sigh, snuggling close as if she’d missed this.
Missed him.
“That’s incredible,” he said when she finished her account.
“It is. And now we should talk.”
“About us?”
Emphatic nod from Iris. He breathed her in, unable to believe how lucky he felt. He hadn’t needed the grand gesture after all. It felt good to realize he had been right—that he just needed to give her time and space to make up her mind.
“I’m sorry that I drove you away. I was hurt, and I overreacted. I didn’t want you solving my problems with money. Honestly, I was stunned that you have so much of it.”
“Everything I said and did, I meant it, love. You claimed you didn’t know the real me, but you do. You understand everything about me, better than anyone.”
“I get that, but…you can’t lie to me again. That’s not the kind of relationship I want. And if I’m ever to trust you again fully, I need a promise.”
“That I’ll always be honest? You have it. You’ll be the first person I tell when I have news, good or bad. I won’t hide anything from you anymore.” Eli paused, taking a deep breath. “This is hard to talk about, but…I’ve always been really…self-contained. I have a hard time getting the words out, especially when I’m nervous. I have a history of running away from things. Honestly, I tried five or six times when we were in school…”
“To do what?” she asked.
“To talk to you. To give back your bracelet. But every damn time, I chickened out and ran away. That’s who I was, until moving into Violet Gables. I had money, yeah. And I know it upset you, finding out as you did. But success didn’t make me happy. Living with you and everyone else? That was the first time that I felt at home.”
“You probably don’t understand how sick I felt…when I found out I’d cost you such a big deal. I just—”
“That doesn’t matter,” he cut in. “You’re the most important person in the world to me. And I have plenty of money already. I just want to be with you. If you can forgive me. “ Eli paused, gazing earnestly into her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I swear I’ll never hide anything from you ever again.”
She took a deep breath. “I believe you. And now I feel like I bring something to the table. Something you can’t get from anyone else. I can hawk with you. I mean, I’ll always let you go for a solo flight, but if you want someone in the sky with you, I’m there.”
Eli really couldn’t believe this was happening. “I’ll never want to fly alone if I have the choice. I always want you with me. I’m so sorry that I disregarded your wishes and tried to solve your problems for you. But…I don’t really understand why it’s okay that Rain and Fen did.”
Iris smiled. “This might not track for anyone else, but…their power is my power. I’m fae. So it doesn’t feel like someone else solved it. This is my heritage, and Violet Gables is my home. Does that make sense?”
He nodded. “When you put it that way, yeah.”
“We should get out there and explain everything to Liz,” Iris said.
But he noticed she didn’t sound too eager, and her gaze lingered on his mouth.
“Liz can wait. We should make up properly, now that everything has been cleared up and we agree that we belong together.”
“We agree on that, do we?” she asked in a teasing tone.
“Don’t we?”
This amazing, magical person wanted to be with him. Somehow he couldn’t wrap his head around it—didn’t make sense that he should be so lucky—that the first thing she did with her newly awoken fae powers was fly straight to his arms. As if sensing his thoughts, Iris snuggled closer, tracing a path down his left cheek with a delicate fingertip.
“Yes.” She was breathless, smiling up at him.
“I love you, you know.” He couldn’t hold the words back any longer. The warmth and joy of being able to tell her, at long last, felt like a shooting star.
“I love you too. So much.”
“Thank you for coming back to me,” he added.
“And…I still think it’s weird that you remembered me all those years, but it also makes me happy, you know? Something I did mattered. When I think about you carrying my bracelet around, I get all teary.”