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Stepping past him, I entered the room, immediately noticing how it smelled like him. Warm and masculine and clean, they were the smells of comfort, the smells I still associated with safety and caring and all the things he made me feel that first day in Texas. Settling down on one end of the plush couch, I curled my legs under myself and tried to look calm, which was next to impossible, I thought, because I felt like I was being electrocuted. There were tingles all over my skin as Silas set the mugs down on the low wooden table in front of us and switched on the lamp, bathing the room in a warm glow.
Needing something to do with my hands, I reached for my tea, smiling when I noticed Silas had wrapped the string from the tea bag around the handle so it wouldn’t be hard to remove. Bringing the mug to my face, I inhaled the earthy scent and smiled.
“This was a good idea,” I said, trying to start a conversation.
“I tend to drink at least one a night before bed,” he responded, taking a big gulp. I watched as his face scrunched up, looking like he’d swallowed broken glass. “Careful,” he wheezed. “It’s still really hot.”
Nodding, I blew gently on the tea in my hands. “I’m glad you’re here,” I said in between breaths, then looked up quickly at what those words may have implied. “For Stone, I mean.” Silas was looking at me, his face revealing nothing, so I pressed on. In for a penny, in for a pound.
“I just think it’s good for him to have someone here who has his back all the time, you know?” Again, he said nothing. “It’s nice when you know there is someone in your corner.” I finished with a shrug before taking a tentative sip.
It was delicious.
Neither of us said much of anything as we drank our tea, staring out of the large window that framed the Strip in the distance. I was halfway done when Silas spoke again.
“Who’s in your corner, Daphne?”
The question startled me; how had he known to ask me that? The one thing that had always bothered me, and of course Silas hit the nail square on the head.
Because the answer was that no one was in my corner, and they never had been.
My father tried, but he was as busy as he was clueless. My mother only interacted with me when she felt like she could benefit from it in some way, and that usually meant me doing something that was the exact opposite of what I would have liked. Constance only saw me as competition, for what I had no idea, but that was how she viewed everyone in her life.
And Stone, my grumpy half-brother, was so busy blaming everyone around him for his hurt feelings that he couldn’t see when someone genuinely just wanted to love him.
So, yeah, Silas’s casually asked question was like an ice pick to the chest for me, but I met his eyes when I answered him.
“I’m in my corner, Silas.”
He nodded. “Something tells me that’s all you’ve ever needed.”
I drained the last of my drink in one swallow, then stood. “You’re right,” I said, watching him watch me. “But that doesn’t mean it’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
Making my way to the door, I turned one last time to regard him, sitting there on that couch, looking like every dream I’d ever had and the one I was least likely to actually get. “Thank you for the tea, Silas.”
As I eased the door closed behind me, I heard his softly uttered, “Anytime, Princess.”
If only that were true.
