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"You don't know her."
She stares out the window, jaw twitching. "No. I guess I don't."
The car parks outside of the building. I link my fingers with hers, and she doesn’t move her hand away.
Considering how she's been this last week, that's a win.
"I'm going to wait out here for twenty minutes; if you don't come down. I'm coming up." She starts to protest but then stops when she sees the look on my face. "The second to last thing I want to do is miss my brother's wedding. The last thing is leaving you here without me. And if you think that I can do that, then maybe you don't know me as well as I thought you did."
I turn to the window, wanting to give her space to make her decision. "Clock's ticking, Clarissa."
An unreadable look flashes across her face, but then she gets it under control.
"I'll come. I'll be down in ten minutes," she says, and gets out of the car.
***
We don't talk on the flight. I work and she sleeps, exhausted from her anxiety attack.
Despite the mountain of work that I need to catch up on, I glance up almost every fifteen seconds to make sure she's okay. At one point she murmurs something under her breath about choices and I wonder if that has anything to do with what triggered her. But she quietens when I tell her she's okay, and she settles in for the rest of the flight.
Kylian meets us at the small airport we fly into after we refuel in Sydney. I hadn't wanted to land the plane on the Baxter Winery property without knowing how Damien's going to react. Kylian waves, his car parked on the runway like he's some fifties movie star.
"Hey, bro!" he shouts, jumping up and down.
My heart swells at the sight of him. I still thank the stars every day that he's okay. He still sends me pictures of his injuries as if to remind him that I'm"like just soooo lucky to still have his baby brother."
That's especially true considering if he weren't here, then Damien would be the next baby brother, and that's not going so well.
"Hi, Clarissa," Kylian greets her, friendly but not overly so.
"Hi Kylian, you look well," she replies, voice a little nervous.
"Not really." He shrugs. "I'm just that good-looking."
"Oh, my god," I snort. "I see Kiara's been taking good care of that ego. I'm going to have to have a chat with her. Kiara's Kylian's girlfriend," I explain to Clarissa, although I've been talking about them all for weeks, in the hopes that come the day she has to meet them, she might feel like she knows them.
"Fiancée,"Kylian corrects me.
"Shit, I keep forgetting. All my brothers have been tied down. Poor things," I joke, but as soon as I say it, realization strikes. "Oops. I mean... being tied down is the best."
"Ooooh, you're in trouble now. Clarissa, we can drop him over the Barossa dam, what do you think?
I turn to Clarissa worried about how she's reacting but she is actually laughing. The first laugh I've heard from her in over a week. I smile and slide my arms over her shoulders and she gives me a gentle smile.
"Sure, but how about this idea - we find a church with a really big spire and drop him over that instead?" Clarissa says, ganging up on me.
Kylian laughs, his warmth infectious. "Good idea. Guess that's partly why this ugly fucker keeps you around."
She pats the back of my back as I open the car door for her. "That plus he can't drive for shit."
"Hey!" I exclaim.
In the car, I watch in the mirror as Clarissa looks out the window while we make our way to the Barossa. It's a short drive from the airport, with interesting landscape as farmland turns into miles and miles and miles of vineyards.
It's almost winter here, but it's still relatively warm, the sky clear and the scent of earthiness in the air. I love it here and I'm so jealous of Damien getting to live a short plane ride away. I'm just going to have to find a place of my own.
"Does he know we're here?" Clarissa asks after we're almost halfway there.
