Tor put his arm around Olive. “I appreciate you wanting to defend me, sweetie, but I promise you, Neve is one of the good ones.”
“For a jackal?”
Neve snorted. “Out of the mouths of babes.”
“Guess the apple doesn’t fall all that far from the tree.” Tor planted a kiss on top of his daughter’s head.
“You both have loyalty in common. And that’s to be commended. But I do hope you’ll forgive me, Olive, and we can move on.”
“I need to think about it,” she said gravely.
“That’s all I can ask.”
“And we’re here,” Tor said as the gondola came to a stop.
Stepping outside was like leaving a cocoon for a wind tunnel. This high on the mountain, the wind blew without mercy. They bustled toward Solitude, the restaurant hosting the event. As much as Neve was relieved to at least start to smooth things over with Olive, she couldn’t help but be acutely aware of her shoe situation.
Maybe it was shallow, but for once, just a night, she wanted to feel like a beautiful swan.
And here she was, the duck in sneakers. As they got their coats checked, it seemed as if every woman in the world was wearing impossibly thin and elegant heels, teetering about like graceful gazelles.
They found seats and soon events were unfolding in the usual way. There was the wedding march. The bridesmaids. The bride.
Neve had never been to the wedding of an ex to her date and she didn’t know what to make of it. Maddy wasn’t competition. What she and Tor had was ancient history, water under the bridge. Maddy was getting married and Tor was holdingherhand.
So why did she have this feeling inside her, slithering, cold and venomous?
Look at Maddy’s hair, so pretty. Yours would never do that.
She can pull off that dress. You’d look like an adolescent who hasn’t hit puberty.
She is all style, composure, glitter and gold. She is worthy of love and happiness. You onlyhave tolook at her to know.
You are nothing.
She hated that voice with a red-hot passion. Hated it for how it spoiled what should be a happy moment. Hated that it made her jealous and resentful of another woman, practically a stranger, who’d done nothing to deserve it. Hated that it diminished herself, left her bruised and hurting.
And yet the voice didn’t care.
It kept pressing on all the places that hurt.
Not enough.
Not enough.
She squeezed Tor’s hand. His answering grip felt like an anchor.
That voice could take a long jump off a short pier.
“I’m so happy I came here with you,” she whispered. Her words were arrows unleashed, flinging straight and true into that Doubt Monster.Take that, sucker.
“Likewise.”
And that was when she decided. Scott could screw himself. She wasn’t going to push Tor for an interview just to appease her boss. No way. She was a good reporter. Her track record was solid and reputation sterling. He’d be crazy to let her go. There was no way.
And there was no way she was going to jeopardize the flicker of hope inside her, the one she saw reflected in Tor’s gaze.
She leaned in and put her lips against his ear. “Do you feel sad at all, watching this ceremony?”
