Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

BILLIE

S teve and I were still gleefully eulogizing chairs before pushing them to their inevitable death out the upper window when the rest of our group returned. I'd had a delightful morning getting to know Steve. It was dangerously fun to shamelessly flirt with him and see if I could make him blush. I also learned a lot more about his upbringing and his tribe. He had been unhappy for a long time. I hoped that however things landed here at Fyrifírar he found the future he was looking for.

"Oy, you up there!" Joey's voice floated in through the open window. "What the fuck have you done to the front lawn?"

I poked my head out the window to see Joey and Steve's buddies had returned, along with Osif and some other orkin I recognized from Osif's workshop. They were all carrying building materials.

"Hello! We cleared out most of the attic!" I called down to them.

"That's fairly obvious," Joey called back up while gesturing at the yard full of broken furniture. It looked like a table and chair leg graveyard, with deep divots in the ground where pieces had landed.

"It was the most efficient way," I replied airily. "We've cleared out most of the attic!"

"No way!" Joey called back. "I'd never have guessed! Can you just come down here?"

"Fine, fine. We're going to need some help with the larger pieces anyway."

I headed to the staircase to find Steve had been staring at me as I leaned out the window.

"You know, if you like what you see, all you have to do is ask," I teased. Steve snorted, blushed, and then smiled in that endearing, embarrassed way he did.

I headed down the stairs and didn't hear Steve move to join me on the rickety stairs. Perhaps I'd given him something to think about. I enjoyed flirting with Steve, and he seemed to enjoy my company. I was going to have to be careful with the flirting, though. I wasn't sure where this could go yet. I rolled this over in my head as I walked out from behind the bar to the small crowd that had gathered on the front lawn. I approached Osif, as he would be in charge of the operation.

"We have managed to empty most of the living quarters, but we need help with the bed and the dining table," I told him. "They wouldn't fit out the window."

"You chose quite a unique way of emptying the attic." Osif nudged a splintered drawer with one foot. "This is impressively destroyed."

"It seemed effective," I said, unrepentant in what I still thought was an excellent plan.

"Well, excluding the dents you've made in your front lawn, it was effective." One of his workers was circling a chair that seemed to have exploded on impact.

"What have you done with Steve? You didn't chuck him out a window, too, did you?" Joey piped up.

"No, he's still upstairs. I was actually surprised he didn't come down to join me when you all arrived. Maybe he's starting to chop up the bed." I shrugged.

Joey gave me a quizzical look but said nothing.

"Alright, well, we should get all the pieces out and start on the roof if we want to get it reframed today." Osif turned to his men and the Snaerfírar. "Head up and help Steve with the last of the furniture." Then he turned to me. "Since you chose such an enthusiastic method of emptying the living space, we will need a pair of hestrs and a cart to carry off all this furniture. We can chop it up to serve as communal firewood. Why don't you—" he pointed at Joey and me "—head over to Alvis and get us a cart?"

Joey linked her arm in mine as we walked.

"Where's your head?" she asked, as if she could tell I was already a million miles away.

"I don't know. Everywhere. Can I run a bar? Is flirting with Steve dangerous? Do I want to sleep above a bar? Do I want something with Steve, or do I just want to fuck someone?" I sighed.

"Well, I can answer some of those for you quite easily," Joey said.

"Oh really? You know me that well?" I mocked.

"Yes, yes, I do. First. Yes, you want to run a bar. You hate being stuck in the back of the house and not interacting with everyone. Remember when you chatted up so many of the cooks that breakfast was half an hour late? You have so much personality it's practically spilling out of you. And yes, you want something with Steve. You also want to fuck him, but I am pretty sure you want something more. The question is if you can keep your pants on long enough to establish a foundation."

"Hey! Rude!" I elbowed her in the side as we walked.

"The only one I don't know the answer to is if you want to sleep above a bar. Depends on how loud you are when you have sex. You strike me as a screamer."

"Joey!" I gasped, in mock horror. She did have a point. I was more worried about the noise of the bar, not the noise I would make. That was a new consideration.

"Is anything I said a lie?" she asked innocently.

I rolled it around in my head. Nope. She was pretty dead on.

"I don't know how to be friends first," I whined, giving up any attempt at saving face about my feelings for Steve.

"Well. You be friends first by sharing about yourself—open up. And by learning more about him. You never stop talking, so I can't see how you'd have difficulty establishing a friendship."

"Um, I'm a good listener too, thank you very much," I huffed.

"Maybe work on things together where your hands are busy so you don't accidentally grope him?" she suggested.

"Oh my God. You are the absolute worst."

"Am I? Or am I practical?" she said knowingly, tapping her temple before we both busted out in a fit of giggles. We laughed until tears were leaking out of our eyes.

I leaned against her and said, "I don't know what I'd do without you"

"Probably fuck Steve."

She was probably right.

I sighed dramatically. "Okay, I shall be friends first. It doesn't seem that hard. Just talking to him while we emptied the attic was nice. It was good to find out more about him."

"You're welcome," Joey said, flipping her hair.

"I knew you engineered that!"

"Um, duh. What kind of wing woman do you think I am?" She looked offended.

We started laughing again but were getting close to the hestr stalls and had to pull it together.

"Straight face, soldier, we have some hestrs to obtain," I said as we strode toward the stables.

STEVE

I watched as Billie and Joey walked away from the bar arm in arm, and wondered where they were headed. As much as I had wanted to follow Billie down the stairs to greet everyone, I had to sit down on the sagging bed and think of shoveling hestr shit in order to get my raging boner to subside. I couldn't help but admire the curve of Billie's backside when she leaned out the window to talk to Joey, and my cock stood up at attention almost immediately.

I took some deep breaths as I sat on the bed. I couldn't deny that I was drawn to Billie. She was so easy to talk to. I felt as if I had spent my whole life keeping secrets, and they just started pouring out of me the minute I met her. And it wasn't just because she was human. Joey and Piper were nice and fun to talk to, but they didn't make me feel like I felt about Billie. Also, Piper was mated to Agnarr so thinking of her in that way never entered my mind. Joey was funny and good-natured, but I didn't feel like there was something there like I did with Billie. She felt like a kindred spirit in trying to figure out what she wanted out of life, not just what she was handed. It didn't hurt that I was also clearly physically attracted to her.

I put my head in my hands and tried to piece together all of my fragmented thoughts. I had taken this trip in hopes of better understanding who I was and what my future held, but so far, the only person I had opened up to about it was Billie. She had extensive experience with sexual partners. I had zero. Surely she'd want someone more like Reykr, who'd fucked his fair share of the females back home. At least he'd know what he was doing and not be a fumbling virgin stuck in an attic trying to hide his erection.

I exhaled and sat up, dusting off my pants. The bed was pretty ancient and wouldn't be a great loss, that was for sure. Who knows how many generations of dust bunnies had called that thing home? Billie asked me if I would like to stay and help build the bar and find my place. We had time.

I moved toward the landing to head down but was surprised by Reykr on the stairs.

"Lost in thought again?" he asked.

"Er…" I wasn't about to tell Reykr that I'd been sitting in an empty room waiting for my cock to behave. I tried to stop the blush creeping up my cheeks.

"Would a certain mouthy female have something to do with it?"

"Hey! Don't call her mouthy," I snapped. "That's rude. She's talkative."

"Oh, oh, I see. I've hit the nail on the head there. Someone has developed a crush on little Billie."

"I just like talking to her, okay?" I huffed.

"Okay, then I shall ensure you have plenty of time to talk to her. For now, should we call the rest of the bunch and get this bed and table sorted so we can start on the new roof?"

"Yes." I waved a hand at him. "Call them all up. If we cut the rest of this into pieces, we should be able to get it out in no time."

By the time Billie and Joey returned with a cart pulled by two hestrs, we had emptied the rest of the attic and made good progress removing the old roof. It would be a several-week project, but it would go quickly with so many of us working on it. We piled all the old furniture into the cart, and Billie and Joey headed to Osif's workshop, promising to stop by the kitchens to get us food.

Soon, it was well past midday and work on the roof was hot but progressing nicely. Shingles flew onto the ground to join the dents in the lawn, and just as my stomach was beginning to rumble, Billie and Joey were back with baskets of food and a few blankets for us to sit on.

"I thought we'd have a picnic," Billie explained as she spread the blankets on the grass.

I gathered that a picnic involved eating food outside on the ground. While I would rather have a chair, I was grateful to be eating outside. There was no doubt I smelled from all the manual labor I'd been doing all morning. An outdoor picnic with Billie sounded much better than sitting in close quarters with a bunch of strangers in the longhouse. Though, given the opportunity to shower, I wouldn't mind being in close quarters with Billie again.