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We all shrugged then. I didn’t have my memories of that stuff, and none of them had been into video games or were too old for “hip” things like streaming. I still chuckled when I thought back to the twins talking about Twitch and Kristof kept asking them what was twitching. They had died laughing and then ran when he got annoyed.
Good times.
So was the time I spent with my husbands. We had a nice dinner and joked about the stupid turkeys and even talked about other outing ideas. I really did want to try fishing again. The only downer was when Darius said he hoped to finally teach me how to swim and I told him Petre had after I’d almost drowned in the pool because I’d forgotten which was the deep end.
It was awkward, but I had asked each of them more than three times because I didn’t like not knowing with how chaotic things always were and we kept being on boats. Boats meant water. Water meant the chance of being in it.
Being in it when not knowing how to swim meant the chance of drowning.
Duh.
A bit of my heart healed when they all apologized and then asked how it was going and if he was a good teacher. That was really nice of them to handle it that way. At least they didn’t get pissy that I didn’t wait for them or something.
I was honest that he was very patient and I’d learned a lot but I still needed more work.
Wasn’t that the way of most things in life?
7
After dinner, I had a plan of having some “me” time and figuring what else I wanted in my life. That was the one thing both Nora and the doc had said I needed to figure out more when I was recovering from my breakdown.
Also, I wanted to call it a breakdown. That was what it had been. I knew people wanted me to call it whatever I wanted and not upset me or let people be mean to me about it but… Fuck it. I’d had a breakdown. Call it what it was.
People would judge me like assholes no matter what I referred to it as. Maybe it was better to be blunt and honest and it could help others to admit when times were too hard to take a break as well?
If only things could work out that well.
So yeah, I wanted some nights off to read a bit on taking better care of my mental health and maybe journal where my head was at to keep it all straight.
Instead, I found Tyson, one of my trusted knights and a lion shifter, sitting at my vacation house drinking and crying at the fire pit.
He did a double take when he saw me and stood. “I’m so sorry, Princess. I didn’t—I should have asked and—”
“Ty, it’s fine,” I forgave, hurrying over to him once I was steady from being blurred so far so fast. “I told you guys that you could use this place anytime you want.”
“Yes, but it’s yours and we—you need a place to escape more than any of us, Inez,” he whispered, hurrying to wipe his eyes.
I gestured at the huge, quiet place. “I think we can share, but I’m not concerned about that at all. What’s going on?”
He sighed and waved the bottle of whatever booze at the books I was holding. “I’m fine and you came here to handle stuff. You barely get a free moment so—”
“Yeah, I do, so don’t waste it arguing with me about what’s most important to me,” I countered, raising an eyebrow at him. “You are. So tell me what’s going on. If you don’t want to talk about it with me, that’s fine. But you’re here alone drinking and crying, and that’s not safe much less—”
He sighed again, sitting down and pulling me with him, obviously inebriated to some level. “Sisay brought me and we were just going to have a quiet night with our thoughts. So we were doing the buddy system, but then I mentioned cookies and he ran to Seattle. I swear you just missed him.”
“Okay, then I won’t beat you up.” I smiled when he chuckled. I glanced over to Petre and waved for what he had. “And I was going to have a bit of a drinking night as well, so—everyone listens to me. Seriously, tell me what’s going on and let me feel like I’m normal and not always the problem.”
I winced at the wording, but Ty waved it off, understanding what I meant and knowing my heart was in the right place.
He didn’t say anything for several minutes, letting Petre fix me a drink and then him one instead of drinking right out of that bottle. “I’ve lost Chris, Inez. I don’t think he can forgive me. And now I don’t know I could forgive him even if he does.”
I blinked at him for a whole minute and felt like making my signature brain exploding gesture with noises, but I didn’t want to mock this situation. “What the fuck happened? I didn’t hear of you guys having a fight or—”
Ty snorted. “All we did was fight after the attack. He was so furious with me after I stuck him up in your safe room that he went off on me. I couldn’t even reason with him and he—the only thing he’s right about is that we shouldn’t ever make decisions for each other. That is wrong in a partnership.”
“Then he should have made the right fucking decision himself,” Moon grumbled, shaking his head. “I like Chris, and I give him a lot of slack on this because he’s been through so much holding that whole settlement together for as long as he did, but he’s just wrong on this. Really wrong and selfish.”
Oh wow, so this was a whole thing that I had no clue about.
