Against All Odds

Chapter 6

The world didn't function quite that way, unfortunately.

I softened my words when I saw the hurt on her face, knowing the hypothetical wounds her family had dealt her in the face of their boycotting her wedding went far deeper than I would ever understand. "The people who really matter are there," I said gently. "People who love you both for who you are."

Her smile was tentative, not quite meeting her eyes, though I half-suspected the alcohol we had both consumed was making us more emotional... than normal. "Tell me about Mongolia," she said with a shrug. "Let's talk about happy things and you always have a funny story to tell me about your travels."

"Dying by dog sled is hardly funny," I snorted, dipping lower into the water. I felt the back of my hair dampen where it lay curling against my neck, the rest of it amassed atop my crown to save it from the water.

"Why did you book the excursion then?"

"I can't remember," I mumbled, honestly. "I had been drinking with some locals the night before and... got convinced to do it, I guess. Anyway..."

"It sounds exciting. Spontaneous. I can't imagine ever doing something like that."

I grinned. "It was all of that, and it was also dangerous, and so cold, and exhausting. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world, even if I was too cold and too exhausted to do anything but pee myself rather than figure out how to remove my clothes in a blizzard."

Sadie giggled.

"I beg your pardon, what?" Sipho demanded, coming to stand behind his fiancée.

I shrugged, emboldened by the alcohol, and sipped at my glass of wine. "You heard me."

"That sounds disgusting," he rumbled. "Did you just live in pee dampened thermals then?"

"Well," I hedged, very aware that my skin was prickling with awareness again... the conversation now solely focused on me ensured that Killian's attention would be too, or so I thought. "It sorta iced over pretty quickly."

A look of horror passed over Sadie's face as she reached for Sipho, who effortlessly hauled her from the water and planted her firmly on the ground. "Just how cold was it?"

"Fucking cold," I told them.

Sadie was wrapped in a gigantic, fluffy towel, and then Sipho's equally gigantic arms. She nestled against him, a loopy smile of contentment on her face, and studying them made an errant pang of longing unfurl in my belly. When was the last time someone held me like that, as if I was so utterly coveted they couldn't stand to be without me?

I hadn't nurtured a relationship since Killian, though the odd fling here or there helped to stave off cravings for intimacy. But the affection that was displayed before me hadn't been something I actively sought and coming face-to-face with it now felt strangely... difficult to stomach.

"I've got an early start tomorrow," Sipho said, changing the course of the conversation, and Sadie swayed slightly in his arms. "I'm going to head to bed."

"I'll come with you," she said, her words slurring slightly, and I conceded that it was for the best. She waved goodnight to me clumsily before she was hauled into Sipho's arms and they ambled inside, in their wake a thick silence so tangible it settled on my exposed shoulders.

I sunk lower into the water, grappling with the glass of my wine with slippery fingers and busied myself with a sip.

Civil, I could be.

Not an embarrassing natural-born idiot? I wasn't so sure.

I couldn't help it, and turned my head around, craning my neck to catch a glimpse of the man responsible for sending every nerve-ending in my body rioting with confusion.