Ainsley spread his hands expansively, eyebrows shooting up. "Wait, youliterallyjust got done talking about staying in Cambric Creek, raising your family here. We all love the inclusiveness, go team. Isn’t that community as well? So, all that about the immeasurable benefits of clan living and values, that's what? Something you can do on weekends? Or is that just for other people?”
Ris felt her mouth drop open at his audacity. Across the table, Lurielle's blue eyes widened. Khash, for the first time ever, at least in the time she had spent in his presence, seemed speechless. Ris knew it was only a handful of seconds that passed, but it felt like a small, silent eternity before Khash responded.
"Thereisstrength in your clan," he recovered at last, his syrupy drawl just as sticky, although his tone possessed a coolness it hadn’t at the start of this ill-fated conversation. His words were once again careful and measured, the tone of reasoning with someone intent on being unreasonable.He’s not completely wrong for that."And that community won't turn their backs on children who happen to grow up elsewhere. You'll always be a part of the clan, connected to who you are and where you came from. So, I knowmykids will have that connection as well, no matter where they grow up. Because I’ll make sure they do. I can’t speak to anyone else’s family or their choices. So, I suppose you're right. Our kids will have to get that on the weekends, when we visit."
Beside her, Ris could tell that Ainsley was bristling. "My parents moved away from their clan for better opportunities," he began, an edge of heat still there in his voice.
"And I did the same," Khash interrupted with a note of finality. Unlike the orc beside her, Khash was visibly unperturbed.Probably shocked as shit by the turn the night took, but he hides it well.She had a feeling it was an act and that he would be giving Lurielle an earful the whole way home, but he put on appearances better than Ainsley. "We are all adults and we've made our choices with our eyes wide open. Cheers to that."
He raised the remains of his whiskey glass, and Ris quickly scooped up her wine glass to clink against his. Lurielle and Ainsley were slower to get moving, but she was relieved when allfour of them tapped glasses, the awkward moment hopefully set aside.
Lurielle was apparently not willing to leave it to chance.
"I can barely keep my eyes open," she announced, managing a pretty genuine-looking yawn as an accompaniment to her words. “And we still need to pull in the stuff that came this morning from the garden center. Well,” she went on, matching Ris’s false brightness.Leave it to the women to hold shit together. I didn’t even get to bully him about the engagement.“I hope you two have fun at the museum tomorrow! You’ll have to tell me about it on Monday.”
Ris didn't remember that they were meant to stop at her condo until they were more than halfway to Starling Heights. Ainsley had kept the radio on for the duration of their drive, just a titch too loud, making conversation virtually impossible. She couldn't tell if his unwillingness to converse with her was meant to be a silent treatment, a sign of his continued petulance, or a clue that he was, perhaps, feeling a bit foolish over how overblown the conversation had ended up being. In any case, Ris didn't mind. She was exhausted and annoyed with herself, more than anything. She'd known before they'd even left her condo the dinner was a bad idea.Next time, trust your instincts.
I’m sorry dinner turned into an episode of my orc is a bigger baby that your orc
Just can’t take him anywhere
She tapped out the text to Lurielle silently, watching the lights of houses in the distance grow further and further apart. The response came almost immediately.
??
They are literally the worst.
Babies. Big, giant babies.
Ris grinned down at her phone, relieved Lurielle wasn’t upset over the turn the evening had taken.
SO big. It’s a wonder they’re not still in diapers!
But he was in a bad mood when I picked him up, so I should have just canceled
Sorry for whatever that was
They had reached that point on the rural highway where the big, isolated houses ended and nothing but farmland began. The lights beyond the car were almost nonexistent now — nothing but the glow of Ainsley’s headlights on the pavement and the glow of her phone, lighting up once more.
It’s fine though
We’re all going to take turns, probably
And Khash only gets defensive when you strike a nerve
Salvage the rest of your weekend, don’t let him be a grump
I’ll see you Monday
She was unsurprised when he directed his car down a bucolic-looking road off the interstate, nestled amidst the rolling green hills of Greenbridge Glen.
The barriers that normally blocked access to the inner road around the lake were gone, a sign that the resort's tourist season was well and truly finished for the year. It allowed them to pull all the way through Greenbridge Glen's small downtown business district, parking on the street, just a few yards away from the Plundered Pixie's front door.Good. Who needs to walk on a night like this?
She had been back in the black bricked pub on what seemed like a hundred different occasions since meeting Ainsley, but there would never come a time when her stomach didn't clench as she stepped over the Pixie’s threshold, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end at the memory of that very first night and the peril she’d found herself in.
Rukh was behind the bar. The grizzled old orc was deep in conversation when they walked in, his eyes raising as the door groaned, announcing their entrance. He nodded in greeting, notpausing whatever he was saying to the orc before him, head bowed over the polished bar top.
Ris made a move towards the end of the sparsely populated bar, assuming they were going to sit in their usual corner, but Ainsley kept walking. Past the row of stools before the gleaming hardwood bar, past the bottle-strewn high tops, to the crowd of orcs at the back of the pub.
