“Laney.” He turns my face toward his. “You just took the hardest step. You made the call. Everything else? You’ll figure it out as you go. And you won’t be doing it alone.”
“You’ll come with me? When I meet him?”
“If you want me there, wild horses couldn’t keep me away.”
I kiss him softly, grateful beyond words. “Merry Christmas, Ryder.”
“Merry Christmas, Sunshine.” His smile is gentle, understanding. “Your dad’s Sunshine. My Sunshine. Ours to share.”
And somehow, hearing him say it like that—acknowledging where the name came from while claiming me as his too—makes the name finally feel like mine again.
Later that evening, after the emotions have settled and we’re curled together by the fire, Ryder’s voice breaks the comfortable silence.
“I’ve been thinking about something.”
I tilt my head to look up at him. “About what?”
“About ‘Sunshine.’” He shifts slightly, his expression thoughtful. “I love calling you that. It fits you perfectly. But after today, hearing your father use it…” He pauses, searching for words. “I don’t want to step on something that belongs to yourrelationship with him. Would you want me to find a different name?”
That he’d even think of it, consider my feelings so carefully warms me from the inside out.
“I love when you call me Sunshine,” I tell him honestly. “But I understand what you mean. It’s his name for me, from before. And now it’s yours too, but maybe…” I trail off, not sure how to finish.
“In my language—the Orc tongue from An’Wa—we have a word.” His voice drops, becomes softer, almost reverent. “Solarin. It means ‘she who brings light.’ Or, more literally, ‘my light.’”
“Solarin,” I repeat, testing the word. It feels different on my tongue—exotic, intimate, his.
“You’d be my Solarin.” His amber eyes hold mine. “Not your father’s Sunshine, not anyone else’s. Just mine.”
The possessiveness in his voice sends heat through me. “I like that. I like being yours.”
“Then Solarin it is.” He presses a kiss to my temple. “Though I might slip and call you Sunshine sometimes. Old habits.”
“I don’t mind. Both can be true. I can be my father’s Sunshine and your Solarin.”
His smile is pure warmth. “My Solarin,” he murmurs, like he’s testing it out. “Yes. That’s exactly what you are.”
I shift to look up at him. “Will you teach me how to say things in Orcish?”
His smile is pure warmth and something darker, more promising. “I’d love to. Starting with the most important phrase:Tha’kar zahn, Solarin.”
“What does that mean?”
“I choose you, my light.” His hand cups my face, thumb stroking my cheekbone. “And I will keep choosing you, everyday, for as long as you’ll have me.”
Tears prick my eyes—the good kind. “Tha’kar zahn,” I repeat carefully, the unfamiliar syllables clumsy on my tongue.
“Beautiful,” he whispers, and kisses me soft and deep.
Outside, lightly falling snow continues to transform the world into something clean and new. Inside, wrapped in his arms with a new name that belongs only to us, I feel like I’m finally becoming who I was always meant to be.
His Solarin. My father’s Sunshine. And most importantly, my own person.
Chapter Eighteen
Laney
The afternoon light is fading to deep gold when Ryder’s voice breaks the peaceful silence.
