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1
Jeneve
“How about this one?” I asked Jens of the brown blouse. It was so much fancier than anything I usually wore, but these were extreme circumstances.
“When did I become your girlfriend in all this?” Jens complained, flopping on the bed and rolling onto his back. “It looks fine. I don’t know why you care so much. It’s like, the twentieth outfit you’ve picked out. I’ll say it again: you look great.” His voice was deadpanned, which made me want to dress him in my brown blouse just to make him understand that people care if they look stupid or not.
“I want Jamie’s sister to like me. It’s important that we get along.”
“Well, what you’re wearing is fine for that. Just be yourself.”
I rolled my eyes at my light blue Transformers t-shirt that hugged me in just the right way to provide optimum comfort and non-annoyingness. “You’re such a guy.”
He threw up his hands in exasperation. “Exactly my point! May I be excused from girl time? You know, I have a sister in the house right down the path from our very home that you can do all this with.”
I frowned, remembering that brown washed me out a little. I threw the blouse onto the pile of discards. “Britta’s nervous enough as it is. She’s the sister-in-law now. This is the big conversation day, and I don’t want to add to the things Jeneve’s upset about.”
Jens sat up, slapping his left hand atop his opposite palm every fifth worth to punctuate his point. “Look, tonight’s going to be fine. We already sent word that Jamie and Britt eloped. They already know. Jeneve’s just invited us to come to hang out. Sure, she’ll be a high-maintenance pill, but so what? She affects our lives zero when she’s not here. The whole of Undraland affects us zero. It’s one dinner, and then it’s over. Wear jeans and a t-shirt, like me. It doesn’t matter if you get along with Jamie’s sister. Jamie doesn’t get along with his own sister. Just be there for Britta after the fact, and you’re golden.”
“Oh, I have every intention of making Britta look like the gem she is so Jeneve can report back to King Johannes that his son is getting along just swimmingly on our side. I just don’t want to give Jeneve more ammo to hate me. Last time we were there…”
Jens stood and moved over to the large window of our bedroom, looking in the distance to Jamie and Britta’s colonial that rested on the furthest edges of our shared property. Jamie and I had established quite the tether to our psychic laplanding bond, allowing us a whole mile of space before the headache started.
The best part about killing the bear at the same time Jamie did was that, well, we didn’t get eaten by a bear. The worst part was the laplanding nonsense. If there was ever a person who could make the whole business not as terrible as it could have been, it’s Jamie.
We’d had many conversations about how best to give each other space, and had even built up the door between us and stretched it to a whole hallway that we could walk down to hang out with each other or not. Sure, when emotions got intense, they seeped under the door, but Jamie had gotten married and been having sex with Britta. While I could feel the swing of his emotions (and admittedly, heard some of the thoughts and seen a few images I’d not care to discuss), we were handling it.
Jens shoved his hands in his back pockets, pressing his tailbone and stretching his spine as he spoke. “Jeneve hates me for turning down the offer her dad made me to marry her. She doesn’t want me; she just wants what she can’t have. Plus, you’re a queen, and she’s only a princess. Big time jealousy there. She’s never going to braid your hair, Loos. My sister will, though, so that’s the horse you should bet on.”
I guffawed. “Here’s a tip on women from me to you: don’t refer to my best friend as a horse. How about this one?” I asked, pulling out a plain white blouse from the back of the closet. I didn’t dress up often, so those clothes were really just ornamental.
Jens groaned. “I’m gonna die in this room. This is it. This will be the thing that kills me slowly. Give me back the farlig fisk. I’d fight that beautiful sea monster all over again with my hands tied behind my back if it’d get me out of this.”
“If this is you being helpful, you’re not.”
Jens whined like a petulant two-year-old being told to wait while mommy stood in the lengthy return line at the boutique. “I’m not trying to be helpful. I’m trying to get this to end!” He rolled his shoulders back. “She’s here. That’s Stina’s Porsche.”
“How did they even become friends?” That little tidbit still astonished me. Undrans feared the Other Side (otherwise known as my side, where somehow I’d convinced them I was the queen of this universe) because Huldras roamed free. Their mind-controlling whistle got them kicked out of Undraland. It surprised me to no end that Jeneve had only been to the gate that led to our side one other time, and her first friend had been with the vindictive Huldra who hated me and wanted Jens. Actually, come to think about it, they had a lot in common.
“Stina hangs out by the gate sometimes and catches Undrans as they come out to the Other Side. Even though Jeneve’s too scared to cross all the way over, they got to chatting it up across the gate, apparently.” He walked over to me, picking up my hand and kissing my knuckles. “Wear exactly this. Jeans and a t-shirt. It’s you, and it’s what I want. That’s what they’ll hate. That you don’t have to dress up, and you’re still a queen.” He sucked on my lower lip like I was a piece of delicious candy. “I’m wrapped around your cotton-blend sleeve. Let Stina keep her heels and short skirts. Let Jeneve have her fancy court dresses. You own me.”
I don’t know how he could get me to blush time and time again like a little schoolgirl, but Jens was a master at making me do the inner hair-twirl. I tossed the blouse into the pile and stood up on my toes to kiss him. “I stinking love you. You know that, right?”
“You’d better.” He nipped at my lower lip, his hands squeezing my waist, making me feel dainty and treasured. “I just sat through an hour of dress-up Barbie for you. You owe me, Mox.”
I lost my witty response in his kiss, my fingers reaching under the hem of his black t-shirt and tracing my favorite ripple on his sculpted abdomen. The third one on the right side. It was divine and a little ticklish, so I got to seduce him, seduce myself and torture him in the process. It was a solid win all around.
“Let’s go.” I pulled away from him, grinning at his whine of frustration that I’d started up the engine only to kill it mid-motor.
“That was cold, Loos.”
I made my way out of our spacious lavender-painted bedroom and down the hall, attached to his hand. We always came as a pair, stuck in some way like magnets, or the really good kind of Velcro that never gets crap in it when you wash it too much. Jens was permanent, and that fact gave me much solace in our quaint little white picket fence life together.
He squeezed my hand as we neared Jamie and Britta’s home that was laid out the same as ours. Finished basement, big kitchen with a dining room off to the side and a big living room with a fireplace right when you opened the front door. Three bedrooms upstairs, and a whole lot of love filling each crevice and corner.
Britta greeted us at the door we usually just walked right inside with a courtesy don’t-be-naked-please knock and a shout through the house. Her grin was wide and cracked with distress and unhappiness. Her mouth said, “Come on in, guys,” but her eyes said, “What took you so long?” She wore an ankle-length brown maxi skirt, a cream blouse and her signature two brown braids on either side of her head. She was adorable, as always.
I wrapped my arms around her. “Backup’s here, babe. Show me to the ex, and then take me to the sister.”
Britta hugged me tight and held on for four seconds before letting go. “I’m never more grateful for our friendship than when we have to go see Jeneve. I love you. You know that, right?”
I grinned, relaxing at the knowledge that the most important thing in all of this was getting Br
itta to like me, which she did. “I love you, too. Jamie totally married up. Lucky guy, if you ask me.”
She kissed my cheek and smiled up at her brother, who did his best not to be insensitive. “You look nice, Britt.” His grin turned devious. He always grew in attractiveness to me when evil prank Jens appeared. “Let’s go mess with Jamie.”
His grin died when Stina came around the corner, her short skirt revealing her very long legs that matched her cat-like smile. “Hey, baby. Good to see you again.” She ignored Britta and me, attaching her lips to Jens’s cheek. Then she made it her business to stand in between us, lording her six-and-a-half feet over my five-foot-seven.
“You ready to go?” Jens asked, not bothering to return Stina’s greeting.
“Sure. Thanks for delivering this to Jeneve. I’m just swamped all weekend, so I don’t have time to wait for her to come to the gate.”
“Yeah. What is it?” Jens took the clothing store bag from her and peeked inside. His eyes widened and then narrowed at Stina, and he shut the bag quickly.
Stina laughed. “It’s just some stuff from our side that she might like. The few times we’ve talked across the gate, she seemed cool, so I thought I’d send over some lacy thongs, good bras and things she can’t get in Undraland.” She put her hand on Jens’s bicep. “Oh, Jens. You’ve seen my thongs before. You can’t be that embarrassed.”
By nature, I’m not a violent person. I had to keep reminding myself of that fact every time Stina opened her lipsticked mouth. I wasn’t sure why or how we’d become friends with her again. The last time I’d seen her, I’d gotten into a fist-fight with her smug smile. A few apologies to the group, a few times helping us with her Huldra whistle, and Stina was back in our lives. Yay.
“Fine. Whatever. Jamie can give them to her.” Jens shouted through the house. “Jamie, you ready?”
I answered for my laplanded buddy. “He’s trying to find his garden gnome hat.” I shouted up the stairs. “I saw you put it in your second from the top drawer last time. It’s probably buried under your socks.”
“Thanks! Found it,” Jamie reported, and then stumbled down the stairs a few seconds later. He was in full Undraland mode, wearing beige pants, a white shirt and his red garden gnome hat. He’d even shaved with a razor that morning. I knew because he’d nicked himself, and by proxy, nicked me. Have I mentioned how much I love being laplanded to my boyfriend’s best friend? That’s probably because I don’t love it. I threw up my wall so I could have a mini freak-out when I felt the small slice. Then I stopped the tiny prick of blood and shoved the image of the sparkle from my mind before Jamie caught wind of it.
Pesta, the evil siren, had put her arv on me, which meant that I now had siren blood running through me, mixing with my genetics and making me, in part, her daughter. The thought was horrifying, so I made it a point never to think about it. No one knew, and I hoped to keep it that way for as long as I lived. That’s realistic, right?
Jamie and Britta slid into the backseat after loading a couple bags in the trunk, while Jens pried Stina’s red painted claws off of him and shut himself into the driver’s seat.
I was in the front passenger’s seat, belted in place with a demure smile on my face. “So, how’s your girlfriend?” I asked in a sugary sweet voice.
Jens palmed my face as he shuddered. “I’ve never called her that before, so don’t you start. Jamie, if I haven’t said it before, Jeneve’s got terrible taste in friends.” Then he looked in the mirror to his sister, who was twiddling her thumbs nervously. “So if Jeneve doesn’t shine to you this time around, it only means you’re doing it right.”
Britta nodded, and Jamie placed his hand on hers to stay her nerves.
I loved watching them be sweet to each other. When Jens removed his hand from my face and started up the car after Stina drove away, he knocked the outside of his fist to mine. It wasn’t quite the same as hand-holding, but it was Jens, and I would take it.
Read Lucy at Peace,
the next book in the series.
An Undraland: Blood Novel
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Other books by Mary E. Twomey
The Saga of the Spheres
The Silence of Lir
Secrets
The Sword
Sacrifice
The Volumes of the Vemreaux
The Way
The Truth
The Lie
Jack and Yani Love Harry Potter
Undraland
Undraland
Nøkken
Fossegrim
Elvage
The Other Side
Undraland: Blood Novels
Lucy at Peace
Lucy at War
Lucy at Last
Linus at Large
Terraway
Taste
Tremble
Torture
Tempt
Treat
Temper
Tease
Trap
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The Other Side: A Fantasy Adventure (Undraland Book 5) Page 21