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Lucky took my arm and tried to lead me over t
o the wall by my dad, but I couldn’t stay.
“Please get me out of here.” My voice was shaky and foreign.
The whole room was too hot, too much.
People were everywhere, and it felt like I was standing in molasses.
Lucky laced our fingers and dragged me out into the sunshine. Into the brisk October breeze. I shivered, hugging myself as he urged me forward. Down a walkway scattered with leaves and then my heels were sinking into grass.
I stumbled into him, and he wrapped those huge arms around me.
“I just need a minute,” I said against his soft gray shirt. I buried my face in his chest and just held on. “Just a minute.”
“As long as you need, Ruby.”
Eleven
I wasn’t sure what to do with a trembling Tish Burns in my arms. She was usually all crackle and movement. In a rush to be somewhere else as if her body was too tuned up to stay stationary.
For the first time, she felt small and fragile.
Part of me wanted to roar and slash at anyone coming at her and then there was the other half of me who wanted to run. To scrape off the feelings clinging to me like mud off a boot.
But they were here to stay.
There was no doubt in my mind that her initials were carved into my chest like an old oak. I could say with complete certainty no one had ever been important enough to scratch the surface let alone scoop out bone. Especially a persnickety female who would probably skin me alive for these hugs when she got herself straight.
For now, I’d enjoy her cinnamon and coffee scent. I also appreciated that I didn’t have to bend myself in half to hug her, a true pleasure for a man nearly six and a half feet tall in work boots. But my Valkyrie, with braid included today, was perfect for me. I could barely tuck her under my chin.
Before she could get prickly on me, I took her hand again and drew her back toward the road so we could get the hell out of here. I glanced back to make sure she was with me. The silvery tracks of her tears through her makeup shredded me in ways I couldn’t fathom right now.
“I’m wearing heels, pal.”
I slowed a bit, but we still hurried across the street to the diner. I bustled her into the truck and slammed the door, then ran around to my side.
She gave me that almost smile. “When I said get me out of here, I didn’t really mean Avengers-style, Thor.”
I flushed. “Yeah, well, I don’t do well with female tears.”
She rolled her eyes. “It was a memorial.”
“For a dude you hated.”
Maybe. Jury was on the fence on that one.
She scrunched down in her seat and crossed her arms. “I don’t hate my brother.”
I chirped the wheels as I bounced over the curb to head off the traffic that was starting to come out of the firehouse. She might not hate her brother, but I’d witnessed the quick slice of pain from his indifference. I knew there was more to the story.
Guilt and sorrow what been stacked as high as my Viking princess in that room.
At least the tears had faded. I was much more comfortable with the surprise lighting her features as she grabbed her seatbelt and clipped it in place.
I gunned the engine to get out of the city traffic, turning off one of the back roads. I’d looked at maps on my phone while she got ready. It had been awhile since I’d been in Connecticut, but I’d hoped to lure her into taking a nice drive after the memorial.
Now it looked like we were going for a full-fledged escape. And I was here for it.
