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“Me neither. I mean, I have not seen you like a sister for a long time.” Merrik’s ears were turning bright red, a sure sign of embarrassment in elves. “But I never thought…I never dared hope…”

He’d liked her too, all this time. All those years when she’d been yearning for him, he’d been yearning right back.

“We both did a great job of hiding it.” Adry grimaced and shook her head. “I never guessed…”

Merrik’s smile fell, and he pulled back from her slightly. “Our families. If this does not work out between us, any breakup would make things rather awkward for everyone.”

Exactly the reason she’d stuffed back her feelings for so long. Taking the chance of expressing them, only for him to turn her down, would have ruined things not just between the two of them but also between their families.

But that had been when she believed her feelings were one-sided.

Adry huffed a sigh, letting her hands drop from his neck. “One, you haven’t actually asked to court me yet.” She gave him a poke in the chest with her finger. “Two, let’s just agree we won’t break up. Easy enough. Three, we both know that any breakup would be my fault. Don’t deny it. In that case, everyone would be on your side. Shoot, if I hurt you by breaking your heart, I’d be on your side. So it isn’t going to risk the closeness our families have shared for so long, no matter what we do.”

Merrik’s smile returned, tipping lopsided at the corner. “You do make excellent points.”

“Although, I wouldn’t be opposed to keeping this a secret for a while.” She gestured between them. “I wouldn’t mind having some time for just us to savor this before both of our families start breathing down our necks. They’ll mean well, of course. But they’re going to be…invested.”

“My mama is bound to notice a few things.” His smile widened even more.

“True. We’ll have to swear her to secrecy if she starts asking questions.” His mama would keep this a secret if they asked, not even saying anything to Adry’s mama, tempting as it would be for her. Adry wrapped a strand of his hair around one of her fingers. “Now, are you going to make this official or not?”

Merrik laughed, his smile wide and glinting in his eyes in a way she hadn’t seen in far too long. “Yes. Just give me a second to get my thoughts together. I have imagined this moment so many times, but I never thought I would get to say the words.”

She understood the sense of unreality that filled his tone. If that kiss hadn’t been so all-consuming, then she might have doubted this was real.

“Adry.” Merrik reached out, then halted short of actually taking her hand.

She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand. Some habits were going to be hard to break.

He met her gaze, his brown eyes deep and sincere. “May I court you?”

“Yes!” She wrapped her free hand around his neck and kissed him again. Just for good measure. After all, she had decades of time to make up for.

Chapter

Twelve

Wearing only his sleep shorts, Merrik gripped the bar he’d grown near the ceiling of his room above his bed. He pulled himself up before he lowered himself once again. He repeated the exercise to strengthen his arms and his core.

Now that his legs were less than reliable, he needed his arms to pick up the slack. When his legs needed a rest, his arms were his means of transportation to push his wheelchair or use his crutches.

He’d taken to starting his mornings with pull-ups, even before he spent most of the day in the forest with Adry going through additional strength training exercises.

He’d been muscular and lean thanks to army basic training. But the past days of near constant exercise had given him muscles along his torso and arms in a way he’d never had before.

As he pulled himself up to the wooden bar again, he couldn’t help but grin.

He was courting Adriana Laesornysh, the only girl he’d ever loved.

He hadn’t meant to kiss her. But now that he had, he couldn’t regret it in the least. She loved him. She’d kissed him. She didn’t see him as a brother but, instead, she had the same feelings inside of her that he had in him.

Yet his heart still ached inside him. It was as if, after so many years of aching with longing, his heart didn’t know how to not ache. Now instead of aching with longing, it ached for her.

He lowered himself slowly, his arms aching at holding his body’s weight.

He wasn’t sure what alerted him. A creak of his floor. The whisper of a breeze. The sense of eyes on him.

But he looked down. And she was right there. Adry stood framed in the doorway to his balcony, her mouth hanging slightly open, one hand poised as if to knock on one of his balcony doors.