I nod, keeping my smile small so I don’t pull the stitches again. “Ah… well, I can thank the morphine for that.”
She smiles, but her expression turns a little more serious. “But you didn’t have morphine when you were on the…” She covers her mouth quickly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
She can’t finish the sentence. I can see the guilt flash across her face for bringing up the boat.
“It’s okay, Lorraine,” I say quietly. “No, I didn’t… but Ididpass out, and vomit, and cried like a baby.”
I let out a sad little laugh at the memory… the pain, the rocking boat, Finn’s psychotic grin inches from my face.
Lorraine rounds the island and wraps an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into a gentle side hug. “Oh, sweetheart… I’m so sorry.”
I shake my head and force a small smile. “No need to be.”
Just then, two women in their early thirties walk into the kitchen. They stop when they see me sitting with Lorraine.
Lorraine smiles brightly. “I don’t think you’ve ever properly been introduced.”
One of them waves it off kindly. “It’s no bother, Lorraine. We know who Christopher is.”
I look down for a beat, feeling a pang of guilt that I don’t know their names in return. How could I? For two years Soren made sure I barely interacted with anyone.
Lorraine gestures between us. “Kit, this is Summer and Scarlet.”
I offer a soft smile. “Hi.”
They must sense my hesitation because Summer speaks to me without missing a beat. “Are you any good at word puzzles?”
I blink. “Uh… what?”
Summer slides onto the stool beside me and flips open a crossword book with a dramatic sigh. “We’ve been stuck on this criss-cross fordays. It’s mocking us at this point.”
Scarlet leans in on my other side, resting her chin on her hand. “Every time we think we’ve got it, we realise we’re spelling something that doesn’t even exist.”
I glance down at the half-filled grid. The words come quietly. I tap a spot near the bottom. “That one’s ‘echo’,” I say softly.
Summer’s eyes light up. “Yes! Thank you!” She scribbles it in, grinning. “Okay, okay…this one. Nine letters, starts with ‘R’, clue is ‘bouncing back’.”
“Resilient,” I murmur.
Scarlet lets out a happy little laugh and writes it down. “You’re good at this. We’d been staring at that one for twenty minutes.”
We keep going like that, easy and unhurried. Summer reads out the next clue, I offer a suggestion when I know it, and they both cheer quietly whenever something clicks into place. There’s no showing off on my part, just quiet help.
Lorraine watches from across the island, her expression soft and fond, occasionally sipping her tea while the three of us slowly fill in the rest of the puzzle together.
For a few minutes, everything else fades. It’s just the scratch of the pen, quiet laughter, and the simple comfortof sitting between two kind people who aren’t treating me like I’m broken or dangerous.
???
I laugh softly as Scarlet does her best impression of Ray in one of his serious moods, deepening her voice and furrowing her brows in that exact grumpy way he gets when someone interrupts him.
“Listen, I don’t have time for your nonsense right now,” she says in a perfect Ray deadpan, and both Summer and I crack up.
Then I feel big, warms hand sliding around my waist from behind, followed by the press of lips against the side of my neck. My eyes go wide. I stay perfectly still, still watching Scarlet, who immediately stops mid-impression.
Soren’s deep voice rumbles against my skin. “Should I tell my good friend that you’re all impersonating him?”
Scarlet makes a tiny squeaking noise, probably praying Soren doesn’t actually do it.
