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“You’re happy, aren’t you?” I whispered just before he let me go.
His lip curled. “Don’t be so fucking twee.”
As goodbyes from Marius went, it was kinder than many.
Adam had been on Google maps again and was sure we could get back to Chirk if we cut through the woods. It didn’t seem like it would be a shorter route but I thought he might have been trying to give me my fairy tale. Although, in practice, what he gave me was a steep walk up a hill before the ground evened out again.
I was preoccupied with the undignified business of getting my breath back when Adam tapped me on the shoulder. He put a finger to his lips and pointed between the trees, all the way back down to the towpath.
Where Marius, frankly, appeared to have lost his mind. He had gone into the boat. Then come out of it. Run a small distance towards Chirk. Then come back again. Sat upon the roof. Busied himself in the prow. Walked off in theotherdirection. And was now standing in the middle of the path with the least convincing air ofjust happened to be herethat I had ever seen.
“Is he all right?” I spoke softly, not sure if my voice would carry.
At which point, a stranger came into view. A tall, broad shouldered, bearded man, with honey-blond hair pulled into a half ponytail. He stopped at the very particular distance Marius preferred: out of biting range he called it.
Marius pushed his glasses onto the top of his head. He seemed to be saying something. And, knowing Marius, it was something cutting.
Then Leo—for surely this had to be Leo—took a step forward.
Marius made a gesture ofdon’t you fucking dare.
“I think,” said Adam, as Marius was tossed over Leo’s shoulder and carried—barely protesting—onto the Demoiselle, “he’s all right.”
I turned away, having already seen more than Marius would have wanted me to see. “He is, isn’t he?”
“But what about you?” Adam was gazing at me, a little crease between his brows, like I was a maths puzzle. “Are you all right? Today was…”
I normally didn’t interrupt people—I knew too well how it felt—but he seemed genuinely at a loss. “I’m good.” And there went myg, slinking back into obedience. “I—really. I’m good.”
Because…I was?
As light as damselfly wings upon the wind.
“Ready to head back?” Adam asked.
I glanced around me one last time, not sure if I was saying farewell or something else. Letting go, perhaps?
“Here.” Adam had been wearing a red checked flannel shirt over his T-shirt—an item he possessed exactly one of and only wore when he thought he might run into Marius. Taking it off, he draped it over my shoulders.
And it was only when I felt its warmth that I realised I’d been shivering.
Grinning Adam tweaked one of my curls. “Look at you. Little Red Edwin Hood.”
“That makes no sense,” I protested, laughing anyway. “It doesn’t even have a hood.”
“And I’m not a Big Bad Wolf.”
Now it was my turn to look at him with intent. “Oh, but you are. W-when I want you to be.”
For what happened next, I had no explanation. But I darted past him and dashed off through the wood.
On balance, I put about forty percent effort into it.
And Adam caught me in less than a minute, pressing me against a tree, his breath hot and harsh, and his kisses, oh, just the same.
When we broke apart, though, his expression shifted. There was something naked in the way he was looking at me. A little broken. Endlessly tender.
“Edwin…”
