"No, but I'm not a six-footer, either. And you're more than six feet."
"Six two, but that makes me the shrimp in the family. Bill's six five."
"That's unnecessarily tall," Briana breathed, and then as the music changed to something faster, she stepped back, obviously having no intention of continuing to dance. "We good?"
For a minute there, Laurie had hoped they werebetterthan good, but it appeared that a short conversation hadn't beenenough to sweep her off her feet and into his arms. He hesitated, momentarily looking for a way to extend the conversation, to try to do whatever little thing it was that would win her heart. She did not look like a woman who wanted to be won over, though, so after that hesitation he nodded. "We're good."
"Good. Glad we got that cleared up. See you later," Briana said in a tone that suggested she'd rather not, and without further fanfare, left him standing alone on the dance floor.
Chapter 5
Briana's wretched fated matesmelledgood, even after a day under the sun at the faire. Even after he'd probably been at the lists, fighting, because swordplay was one of the things the Torben brothers were known for: sword fighting, wenching, and beer.She, on the other hand, was fully aware that she didnotsmell good, because Dahlia had helpfully pointed that out earlier in the day, and Briana hadn't had a chance to shower, or even spit-bathe, since.
So what had Laurie asked? For a dance. Aslowdance. A dance in which her arms should be up, subjecting everyone to the failures of Briana's deodorant. For God's sake.
Everything smells,her goat said, and despite being on a good solid roll about the embarrassment and awkwardness of it all, Briana's thoughts were interrupted and she laughed.
Yeah, but humans try not to.
Humans go into water too much.
Given that the goat had double-coated fur, Briana could understand its feelings on the matter. That under-wool really soaked through, and took forever to dry, which was not a goodthing for an animal built to live in temperatures down to fifty below.Maybe so, but it's still how we are.
She was on her way out of the fairgrounds by then, all too aware that going back to the smithy table at the tavern would be opening herself up for teasing about dancing with Laurie Torben. It wasn't that she mindedthatso much as she thought Laurie himself might take her continuing presence as an invitation to chat her up again, and she didn't think she could handle it right then.
Although in his defense, he hadn't really chatted her up. They'd chatted, yes, and it had been…
Briana took a deep breath and stopped at the edge of the fairgrounds, turning her gaze up to the stars. There was mist or grit in the air, making the tiny points of light sparkle madly against the black shadows of the mountains that the fairgrounds ran up against. It had cooled off several degrees since sunset, making the temperature much more bearable despite the continued humidity, and Briana took another deep breath before sighing it out.
Talking to Laurie had not beenentirelyunbearable. She could admit that, if grudgingly. The most surprising part was that he hadn't tried arguing with her about not wanting to pursue their mate bond. He hadn't even flirted, really. Briana had genuinely not believed that was possible, so she supposed it was a point in his favor.
Not that she was trying to find things in his favor. She just wanted to be able to get on with her life without the ridiculousmatingnonsense interfering, and now she could. So it had been worth talking to him. And now that was over and she could go home and go to sleep andnotthink about how Laurie had actually been quite polite and that if she was honest with herself, they'd really had a nice little conversation.
And that he'd smelled really good.
Which was not the same as him being good long-term relationship material, no matter what fate said. Sure,someday, maybe, but like she'd told Doll, Briana had no time or interest in teaching a man-boy how to be worthy of her.
Let's go climb a mountain and forget about that silly kid,her goat suggested, and Briana chuckled.
"Tell you what," she said as she found her bike to head back to town on. "I'll pack up the Jeep tomorrow and drive to the faire, and go camping tomorrow night. We can stay out all week, if you want."
Her goat gave a happy buck and bounce in her head, and Briana, smiling, called it a day.
Sunrise remindedBriana of theotherreason she didn't stay out late at the tavern anymore: at some point, she'd become the kind of person who liked getting up really early, and for some reason, dawn didn't care when she went to bed. The sun rose whether she'd had five hours of sleep or nine, and Briana, for some stupid reason, felt compelled to get out of bed along with it.
At least it was easier to do that in the summer than the winter. Sunrise was early enough in Renaissance, even in December, that shecouldjust barely make it to work if she kept to the sun's clock instead of her own, but mostly she tried to split the difference between the earliest summer sunrise and the latest winter one. It was only a couple of hours either way, so nottooawful, but she did tend to get up at five in the summer and not usually before six in the winter.
Or maybe six thirty, she admitted to herself as she packed up her Jeep. Her housemates, who were nice people she had little in common with, would be happy to find a note saying she'd begone for the week. They'd probably be a little surprised if she was back by the end of the week, in fact: Briana often spent most of the summer on the mountains, rock-climbing and camping except when she had to show up for work.
She was on the road half an hour later, and at her favorite, extremely inaccessible campsite an hour after that. True humans almost literally couldn't follow her there, and there weren't many goat shifters, so she had the side of the mountain to herself, just the way she liked it. By eight she had her site set up to come 'home' to that night, and was back to the fairgrounds in time to get the forge heated before the faire doors opened at eleven.
"That conversation with Laurie must have gone well," Dahlia said when she arrived to find Briana already bustling around. "I haven't seen you looking this cheerful in weeks."
"I'm going camping," Bree said happily, but then bobbled her head in agreement. "But no, you're right, I guess it kind of did. We cleared the air, we'll stay out of each other's ways and not make it weird, it's pretty much all good."
"Really?" Doll stopped in the middle of laying out horseshoes and letter-openers and a bunch of other little forged or cast-metal trinkets and turned to blink at Briana, who was prepping chunks of iron for easy access later in the day. "He was chill?"
"To my immense surprise, yeah."
