Remember Me

10

Oh. He wasn't expecting that. He hid the surprise from his face.

"I love her like she's my own daughter. And I've seen the way you look at her, you care about her. But I've travelled many, many miles in my life. I've heard many rumours. And I don't like a single one I've heard about you."

"Walt, I -" He stopped talking as he held out his hand.

"But being on the road with you for the past week I've seen a different side." He stepped forward, not breaking his gaze and jabbed his finger against his chest. "Now it is for you to decide who you really are and who you want to be in this life. Because only one of them deserves to be in her life. The other should stay well clear of her. Do you understand, General Vanserra."

The old man had guts, he had to admit that. Not only for speaking like that to him but touching him without permission. He admired him even more because of it. Because he was doing it for her. He was just about to reply when -

"Is everything okay?"

They both turned to see Terrin standing in the doorway, looking concerned. "Everything is fine, miss Terrin. I was just saying goodbye to the General." Walt turned once more to him. "Think about what I said. Maybe we'll see each other again."

"I hope so, Walt." He said with smile. And he meant it.

Terrin hugged Walt goodbye before stepping up next to him. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want to winnow back to the mansion? Or walk back?" Her green eyes met his.

"A walk sounds nice." He offered his arm. She glanced down at it, a calculated look on her face. Then she looped hers through, her fingers resting on his arm.

She beamed up at him. So broad and open, the dimple appeared in her cheek. Fuck, she was beautiful. "Good, there is this ice-cream parlour I want you to try out."

"Ice cream, really?" He chuckled as she started tugging him along.

"Don't tell me you don't have a sweet tooth anymore." She nudged, and with that movement she pressed closer to him.

"You were the one who stabbed me with a fork for a dessert." He said as he raised an eyebrow at her.

She tossed her head back and laughed. He wanted to pull her closer, close to his chest and savour it all. "Maybe, but you once ate an entire chocolate cake in ten minutes because you didn't want to share it with Lucien."

"How did that work?" Her smiling face turned confused. "Me and Lucien."

"I've said before, you were different back then. You and Lucien got along pretty well. It wasn't like you two hung out much without anyone else present. But you two were my best friends, so the three of us were together a lot. Your mother used to call us the Triple Menace. He was your favourite brother."

His heart clenched at the mention of his mother. At her distance behaviour she had towards him for most of his life and the time she wasn't, he couldn't even remember. "What kind of things did we do?"

"All sorts of things. When we were really little it was kids' games, like tag and hide & seek in the forest. When we got older, we started pranking your brothers." She grinned. "And you two always took the blame for me when they found out." Her fingers started playing with his sleeve, which was very distracting. "We would go out to the lake and go swimming, we would read books in the treehouse, just things like that."

"Sounds like a good childhood." He said, his heart clenching again from the loss of all those memories.

"It was the best." She said quietly.