I shoved my hands into my pockets, listening to the back and forth banter happening behind me. Hopefully by the time I got back—or by the time one or all of them wandered out to the forge to join me—they’d have worked through whatever ridiculousness was going on between brother and sister and apparent significant others.
I wonder what’s going to happen when Aoife realizes her cousin and Leinth are together. That had the potential for fireworks or not much at all. If she didn’t have much reaction, Phelan was likely to go ballistic.
On second thought, I don’t think I want to be around when that happens. My patience was wearing thin for the shenanigans related to the Vaughan and O’Credne siblings. They were my friends—hell, I loved them—but there were a lot of things that were starting to wear on me.
And yet, you wouldn’t have it any other way.
I sighed softly, stopping dead in my tracks and looking back over my shoulder toward those tents.
“Isn’t that the truth?” I whispered to myself. I really wouldn’t have it any other way, blood or no blood. They were family and family had always been important to me—and, like as not, always would be.
“Mar? What are you doing out here? Thought you were sticking close to home today.”
My gaze snapped toward the sound of Thom’s voice and I managed a rueful smile even in the face of his furrowed brow, meeting him halfway between where he stood near the door to the forge and where I’d been standing on what was left of the concrete walkway below the hill it stood on. “I was just coming up to see what all of you were up to, that’s all.” I slid my arms around his waist even as he wrapped his around my shoulders, tugging me tight against his chest for a moment.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” I pulled back to look at him, nose wrinkling slightly. “Why would you think that there’s something wrong?”
“We’ll go with the weird look you had,” he said, then smiled wryly. “Followed by the fact that it’s damp as hell out here and drizzly and you’d rather be under cover than wandering around. Something made you wander up here instead of staying well under cover.”
I waved a hand. “No big deal.”
Thom gave me a level look, though his brows rose slightly in question.
“What were you guys up to in there?” I asked, gesturing to the forge and hoping he’d let me off the hook.
“I’ll tell you if you tell me.”
And there I was, back to the same game I’d walked away from ten minutes before.
Well, she really should tell Thom that Aoife +1 had arrived. It’ll keep him from getting blindsided later.