Thank Christ for that.
“And here I thought I was going to find out what sort of fighter you are.” I held his gaze, waiting for the other shoe to fall.
The Travis I knew from my last trip to Red Hart had been cavalier, flighty and quick to anger. After his accident andmonths unable to work the land he loved, this version of Travis still held a decent dose of anger simmering just below the surface, but he watched me with a sense of peace that had never been present in him before.
He tipped his head to one side—and Eve gesture that he shared with his twin. “The sort that managed to pull his head out of his ass with no small amount of pushing—oof.” Travis raised his arm as a tornado of dark curls crashed into his side.
“Travis!” Eve grinned, wrapping her arms around him in a fierce hug.
I’d been on the other end of enough of those to know that it had to help Travis heal, at least a little.
“Damn, babygirl. You pack a punch.” Travis raised an eyebrow, his dark curls that matched hers, albeit shorter, flopping over his face as he hugged her back.
“Not yet,” she warned him, stepping back. “I didn’t expect to see you this year.”
Travis’ gaze shifted to hold mine. “I wasn’t sure either.”
Eve caught the look, the pain of not having her twin beside her leaking through the ether between us. She mouthedthank youto me, then returned to her brother and punched his shoulder.
Hard.
“Fuck,” Travis muttered. “I didn’t come here to be beat up, Evie,” he grumbled.
“You shouldn’t have waited for Archer to call your ass to come back and see me. I needed you.”
“Yeah?” he grinned. “Maybe that goes both ways, little sis.”
“What are you drinking?” I asked, twirling his glass between my hands.
Travis grinned. “Something terrible, from the look of what Jude’s having.”
I raised my hands in surrender. “Not my choice of station, my friend.”
Eve slipped around to my side, burrowing into my shoulder. “Thank you,” she murmured again
I concentrated on filling Travis’ glass. “For what?” Eve nudged my shoulder, and I slopped whiskey. “Dammit.”
“You know why.” She shook her head. “I can’t understand how you keep pulling miracles on me.”
“I’ll keep them up as long as you’ll have me around. And I need to talk to you about your lack of a spirits cabinet. Decent ones, anyway. Apart from this.” I held up the peat whiskey.
“So you are staying then? Really staying?” Eve’s fingers grazed over my stubble, turning my face to meet hers.
I handed Travis’ glass over without looking, uncaring if I dropped it on the floor. From the swearing at my side I might have, but I blocked it out, cupping my whiskey stained fingers to Eve’s soft cheeks.
“I’m staying. I don’t care how many times you ask, or how many times I have to say it, Eve. I’m here for you. Nothing can take me away.”
She leaned into my touch with a sigh that on any other day might have boiled my blood and have me carrying her up the stairs, but for tonight with the scent of her happiness and contentment wrapped around me, all I could do was smile.
“I love you.” I murmured, kissing her gently. When I pulled back, tears cascaded down her cheeks. I brushed them away with my thumbs. “What’s this?”
“I love you too. I won’t survive you leaving again, Rhys. I can’t.” She bit her lip, staring at me with those haunted eyes, so like her brother’s from their shared tragedies.
“I’m not leaving, Eve. I never should have in the first place and I sure as hell shouldn’t have stayed away for so damn long.”I kissed her again. “Anything that comes at you, we face it together. Not alone, right?”
“Right,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around me tight in the sort of hug that only Eve could give. The kind filled with healing, and hope. “I love you too.”
I buried my head in her curls, crushing her to my chest.
