Later. I’ll deal with it all later.
That was fast becoming another mantra, but all thought was burning up in my desire for her. How she’d stood at my side tonight—even from across the table—brave in the face of my intimidating parents, to explain in succinct terms my complicated diagnosis. I’d seen grown men cower under my father’s hard stare, but Harper…
My girl is unafraid…
We were nearly at the bed when three soft knocks came at the door, followed by one harder one. The secret code.
Harper froze. “Oh shit.”
“It’s okay. It’s one of my brothers.”
I answered the door to Odin. “It’s Octavian. Come quick. Backyard.”
The look on his face was enough for me to not waste time with questions. “I have to go,” I told Harper. “It’s Tav.”
“I’ll come too…”
“No, stay here,” I said. “Stay warm and safe. Please.”
She started to argue but nodded stiffly. “Text if you need me.”
“I will.”
I ran next door to my room, grabbed my coat and galoshes, and followed Odin downstairs and outside. My heart clanged faster and heavier with every step to the immense grounds behind the house.
“I tried to get him to come back,” Odin said, “but he insists on talking to you.”
“Come back from where…?”
The word trailed away like smoke. I could just make out a dark figure in the middle of the white ice of the lake.
Oh fuck.
It was cold in Surrey, but not that cold. Not cold enough to freeze the lake all the way through.
“Tav,” I called, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. “I’m here. You can come off now.Now.”
Octavian stood with his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt, his breath like a chimney, underdressed for the cold.
“Come on, Tav, you’ve made your point,” I called while Odin pulled a long branch off one of the dead trees that surrounded the lake. “We’re all sufficiently scared shitless.”
I heard the ice crack, and the eerie, high-pitched whining sound went straight down my spine.
“I didn’t come out here to scare anyone,” Tav said. “Or maybe I did. But this feels…honest?”
He was too far away to make out his face, but I could tell he was looking at me.
“Honestly terrifying?” I called. “If you don’t come back, Odin and I will be forced to belly crawl to you, and I don’t want to get my favorite shirt wet.”
“Always with the jokes,” Tav said with a sigh and rocked on his heels as if he were waiting for a bus.
Odin dragged the branch to me, and we exchanged helplessglances.
“Come on, Tav,” I said. “I…I don’t want to lose you.”
“That’s better, thank you. I don’t want to lose you either.”
“You’re not going to lose me,” I called.
