AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s like the worst and the weirdest and the most wonderful things all landed in my lap at the same time.”
Okay. No. We’re good. I think.I took another sip of water to dissipate the rush of adrenaline his words had triggered. Fuck, I hated when anxiety hit like that. Lowering the water bottle, I said, “I’m sorry.”
His brow furrowed. “Why are you apologizing?”
“Because I only thought about your physical recovery. I should’ve paid better attention to your emotions.”
Aithan stopped and gripped my shoulders. “Zel, these are my problems. And despite what I said, you’re not one of them. You’re that ‘most wonderful thing’ I mentioned.”
“But I want to help.”
He kissed me. “You are. By listening and not judging.”
“But—”
Aithan shook his head. “Not your worry, beautiful.Igotta get good with Drew’s gift ’cause he’s not gonna let me repay him. That problem is mine. Not yours. Not his.” We started walking again. “You wanna help?” I nodded. “Then let’s figure out how to engage him in a training program. I’ll feel a lot better when I’m giving back to him.”
“Okay. I can do that.” We slowly picked up our pace to running again.
“You know him better than I do,” Aithan remarked.
“Well, he runs pretty regularly, but you want to offer something more, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then look for something mentally challenging,” I replied. “Something he’ll see as beneficial to his writing. Like bouldering or mixed martial arts, something like that.”
Aithan grimaced, cursed, and slowed to walking again, rubbing his chest.
“Hurting?”
“You think?” he snapped. “Kurwa! I hate this.”
“Hate what?”
He bared his teeth. “Being in pain, healing so damn slowly, jumping at shadows, people making decisions for me. Everything!”
It didn’t surprise me to see him pissed off. Honestly, it was about fucking time he lost his patience.
He closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them, he looked like a dog that’d bitten its owner and realized its mistake. “I’m sorry. You don’t deserve to have your head torn off.”
I laughed and wrapped my arm around his waist. “Aithan, you’ve met my sister, so you should know that what you just did was a little love nip. That woman can behead a bitch with her tongue at twenty paces and not break a sweat. You gotta bite a lot deeper than that, if you wanna hurt my feelings, lover.”
“Oh, I can bite,” he remarked, that little lopsided smile I loved so much returning to mingle with his regret in the cutest way.
“I know that’s right.” I glanced over my shoulder as if to see my back. “Pretty sure I’ve got the hickey to prove it.”
“You do.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me along as he headed down to the paved path encircling Green Lake. “And don’t mention your sister’s tongue. I find her and her mouth totally unappealing.”
“Really? Most men think she’s beautiful.”
“She is, but beautiful doesn’t automatically mean alluring. Greer is definitely not my type. Too scrawny.”
“Scrawny?” I laughed. “Wow. I’ve never heard a man describe her that way.”
He shrugged. “You’re much more enticing.”
“You mean I’m muchmore, in general.”
