Page 50 of Fire Dancer

Pippa dove right back into work, gesturing with her elbow a moment later. “I need pressure here.”

I grabbed a steel plate and held it up to the rim of her glass.

“A little more…” Pippa said.

I had to lean way in to do that. So far, my chin brushed her head.

“Closer…”

The hot shop smelled mildly of beeswax and sweat, but getting close to Pippa gave me a whiff of her lavender scent.

“Okay, now the calipers…”

I nearly hummed in pleasure. God, it was nice to have her close.

Then an elbow nudged my ribs, and Pippa spoke louder.

“Ingo — calipers.”

I straightened quickly. Oh. Right.

The glass looked perfect to me, but Pippa kept at it, checking this and that.

She’d pulled her hair back with a clip, but a lock escaped, and she blew up at it.

“Dammit…”

I caught it with a finger and smoothed it behind her ear.

“Thanks,” she murmured without so much as a glance.

I celebrated and mourned at the same time. It was nice, this quiet, together time. But Pippa was so deep in the tunnel vision of work that I doubted she noticed me.

Then I pursed my lips, because she wasn’t the only one guilty of tunnel vision sometimes.

Okay, a lot of times, in my case.

“Get ready to catch,” Pippa said a few minutes later.

I grabbed the oven mitts and held them out, holding my breath.

“Ready?” she asked, preparing to tap the decanter free of the rod. “One…two…three!”

She tapped, and the decanter dropped lightly into my hands.

I raced for the annealer and set it in carefully, then backed away for Pippa to close the door.

We stood over it, sweating bullets but grinning a mile wide.

“High five,” she announced, sticking a hand up.

The moment I smacked it, she turned back to the workbench, ready for the next piece. Three seconds later, she turned back to me, her eyes wide. “Oh my gosh. That was the last piece. We did it!”

I laughed. “You did it.”

She held her arms high like a runner crossing a finish line, then threw them around me. “I can’t believe I’m done.” When she pulled back a little, her eyes were alight with pride. “And you know what? I think they’re going to come out really well.”

“I know they will,” I assured her.