I turned my head away and his hand came with it.
So he rested his forehead against my temple and spoke in my ear.
That got to me too.
“I ken who ye were, and I ken how ye changed. When I told Mum what I did to you?—”
Shocked he spoke to his mother about us, I righted my head with a snap, which wrenched my back, and damn.
I had a feeling I might have actually hurt myself.
“She tore me a new one, hen,” he said quietly after he caught my eyes. “It was only me promising to come down and sort it with ye why she’s not down here herself, blackening my name and disowning me.”
I just stared at him.
“You two girls were alone. Ned was lost in the fuckup of picking Helena. But Mum told me that you were the focus for Helena. You bore the brunt of it. Maybe she was jealous of ye. Maybe she thought she was doing what she was supposed to. I dinnae fucking know, and I dinnae fucking care. She didnae mark you. She scarred you. And I didnae take that into account when I spoke to you. I didnae take into account ye just lost her and you were trying to understand how you felt about it. I didnae look after my woman, and if I lose ye because of it, I’ll regret it ’til my dying day.”
Damn.
That got to me too.
Because, how could it not?
He took his hands from my mouth and wrists so he could frame my face with both of them.
“It’s miraculous what ye made of yourself, darling,” he said tenderly. “You were given no foothold at all, but ye found a way to climb out of the pit she tossed you in anyway. And that’s amazing.”
“You don’t have to do this, Dair,” I said shakily. “I’ll call Kenna in a few days and tell her it’s all good. It’s for the best. You need someone who knows how to love. I don’t know how to do that.”
Now Dair was staring at me.
This went on a while.
So long, I requested, “Um, if I ask nice, will you get off me?”
“No.”
I glared again.
“Ye dinnae ken how to love?” he asked.
“Well,”—I flipped out a freed hand—“obviously.”
“Obviously?”
“Are you going to repeat everything I say?” I demanded.
“Until you start making sense, aye.”
“Dair—”
“Ye took care of everything for your sister’s wedding.”
“You should know, I had a wedding planner for mine, and I treated her like shit too.”
Dair ignored me. “You made Marlo feel welcome in your family, for her, but mostly for your dad because you adore him.”
“That wasn’t hard. She’s?—”
