Page 62 of Sky’s Edge

She kept speaking.

“He’ll give you whatever you need, so you can be happy, as long as being that happy is with him.”

“I’m not sure those two things fit,” I told her. “He can’t leave where he’s from and what he has to do there, and I really can’t see leaving what I have where I am.”

“If you give it time, do you see a path to finding a way to make a fit?”

“Not really.”

“Then it’s good Tan is not only decisive, but clever, so he can find that way for you both.” She patted my knee again. “Just…give him time to do that.”

I didn’t reply, because what was now filling my head was…

Was he giving me time to get used to him before he made any physical overtures?

That was absolutely not part of a normal compatibility trial. Sex was on the menu. No one was fooling anyone either, when they went on about the history of that tradition. Sex was the reason the menu was created.

And now that I admitted to myself I wanted to have sex with Tanyn Firefierce, I didn’t want to have it with him, because I suspected it’d be good, if not great, if not absolutely mind-blowing, and then where would that put me?

“Would you like me to make some excuses so you can stay up here for a bit?” Zyra offered. “Or are you ready for dinner?”

“I’m ready for a martini.”

She smiled, broadly again, and got out of the window seat before offering her hand to me.

“Then let’s go get you a drink.”

I tossed the throw aside, put my feet on the floor and my hand in hers, and together, after she tucked my hand affectionately to the side of her chest, we walked to the kitchen.

“Oh, Beelzebub, that time we sliced open the belly of that cod, the look on you two females’ faces,” Manny recounted through laughter, cherry tears of mirth in his eyes.

He turned to me, who was grimacing at the mere thought of gutting a fish, more so because Manny was sharing how he’d taught Tanyn how to do it when he was only seven years old.

“Both Dary and Zyr went off fish for months after that,” he said to me.

“I wasn’t even there, and I’m never eating fish again,” I replied.

Manny and Zyra burst out laughing.

Tanyn grinned a smug grin at me.

I felt his grin in my nether regions and sucked back more wine.

I was tipsy, and indeed, that tipsy was bordering on drunk.

We were at the kitchen table. The massive hearth in there was burning merrily, heating the space so it was actually cozy warm.

They’d had dinner with us there (for your information, thick pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravy, roasted sprouts and flaky biscuits, followed by steamed treacle sponge drowned in custard).

I was partially unable to move due to the amount of food in my stomach.

A further part was the level of my inebriation.

Another part was how lovely it was to sit in this kitchen with these people.

The last part was the frequency of Tanyn’s smiles and even grins.

It was easy to see he was now fully home. He’d shaken off the trauma of his mother’s loss, if just for now, and was blithely listening to reminiscing, even about her, from these people who were not blood but were family.