“If you promise to tell me about what happened today that has you so stressed out.”
And I realized that I did want to tell him about my day. Just as much as I wanted to ease his suffering with a massive sliver in his hand. Was he really just going to walk around in pain? Why hadn’t he been wearing his gloves?
“Aye, I’ll tell you. But first, tell me why you don’t care what Loren Brae thinks anymore.” This was the third time we’d circled around to this conversation, and I dug in the first aid kit for the needles I kept there. Taking one out and wiping it with alcohol, I picked his hand back up and made quick work of pulling the sliver forward enough to switch out the needle for tweezers. I tugged, twice, and then I had the small chunk out. Holding it up to his face, I glared at him. “You were going to let that sit in your hand?”
“I would have taken it out eventually.” Torin shrugged and took a sip of his Guinness. “And to answer your question, I realized that I don’t care what Loren Brae thinks about me and Avery because I know the truth. And anybody who knows me, or cares about me, will know the truth as well. Nothing else matters, not really. You ken?”
I still held Torin’s hand in mine, but my eyes were glued to his. He was so steady. So certain of who he was and what he cared about.
“How can you do that? Just brush aside what people think?” It seemed like I’d been ruled by what other people thought for most of my life.
“It doesn’t much make a difference. Does it? Not really.” Torin curled his hand so his fingers held mine. “Not when I’m out with the trees all day. Did you know they talk to each other?”
“The trees?” I asked, faintly, my eyes fixated on his.
“Aye, the trees. They work together. As a community. If you look up into a canopy? You can see the lines of where they make room for each other. So everybody can get some light. And I was thinking about that, today, when I was worried about the gossip coming back and people thinking I was a cheater. I just realized it doesn’t matter. My community? My people? They talk to me. They make room for me. They let me have light.”
Holy shite, but this man was taking my breath away. My heart trembled at his words. I had no idea Torin could be so thoughtful, but he meant every word of it. He had to. He was under a truth spell.
“And me?” I asked, softly. “Am I a part of your trees?”
“You’re newly planted.” Torin turned my hand and placed a kiss in the center of my palm. My skin tingled, his lips seeming to sear an imprint into my hand, and then the oven timer dinged. I jerked and he released my hand and stood.
“Let me just slide the lasagna in the oven and then you can tell me about your day.”
CHAPTER NINE
TORIN
It had been a hell of a day.
Week, month, year even. But that was just life. There was no use moaning about what had happened. I always found it best to crack on with what needed to be done. And what needed to be done was not fall head over heels for the impossibly beautiful Liora Webster.
It didn’t miss my attention that every time I told her she was beautiful she looked shocked. Who had she been dating that hadn’t complimented her? Eejits, probably. Stupid eejits who didn’t realize what they’d had.
Just thinking about having Liora’s lush body in my hands again was enough to make lust drive through me, and I had to take a deep breath and count to ten while I put the lasagna in the oven and pulled out the bottle of wine I’d opened yesterday. Pouring Liora a glass without asking, I busied myself with getting plates out while I thought about my reaction to her.
Particularly because I couldn’t trust myself to speak right now without blurting out every nonsense that popped into my head. Like how Liora was a freshly planted tree in my forest. What kind of ridiculous poetry had spewed out of my mouth? I could only imagine the lads taking the piss if they ever caught wind of the way I was carrying on with Liora.
But, bloody hell, I’d meant every word of it.
Last night, after we’d kissed, and after I recovered from the shock of justtakingher like I did, I’d lain awake for quite a while, drumming up the memories of Liora and Avery together. Memories of Avery were mostly unpleasant, at least once I’d unpacked our relationship in the fall-out of our breakup. We’d never really been a great fit, if I was honest. But when I thought about Liora and Avery’s friendship, I realized they’d never been particularly close friends—at least not from the way Avery had spoken about her. We only saw Liora occasionally at the pub or when she was over for a glass of wine every now and again. But of all of Avery’s friends, I’d liked Liora the most.
Avery had complained about her a time or two. Liora this and Liora that.She’s always in some sort of mess or another. Why can’t she get her life together?
Sure, from what I’d remembered, Liora had always seemed to have a problem that needed fixing, but she’d never really asked anyone for help either.
Where Avery had been Type A and well-ordered, Liora had sort of drifted at a whim, and I’d always wondered how the two had managed to stay friends. In fact, I’d kind of hoped some of Liora would rub off on Avery, who ran her life ruthlessly on a schedule, which everyone, including me, had been meant to fall in line with. Along with when I was meant to propose, give her children, and settle down.
It had all been a touch too scarily efficient for me, and when she’d flipped out over some astrological reading thatLiora had done for her, it tipped our relationship over the edge to where we’d been heading anyway. Rock bottom. Avery had manufactured the whole cheating idea, likely because it was easier than looking at her own faults, and had blasted both me and Liora with it. She’d left Loren Brae, a trail of insults and accusations behind her, and Liora had followed shortly after.
I’d only been sad to see Liora leave.
They’d both left me to clean up the mess they’d made. At the time, it had stung, largely because I prided myself on my reputation in town and didn’t want clients to think that I wasn’t trustworthy. Eventually, over time, the rumors had faded away and life had returned to normal. But now that Liora was back, I was certain the rumors would surface again.
Particularly since we were dating now—whether Liora realized it or not. Her fake dating idea was ridiculous, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t lean intoreallydating her.
I’d spent some time today after a few chaotic meetings with clients where I’d said the wrong things—like how I thought Mr. Smythe shouldn’t cut down a perfectly beautiful oak tree simply because he was too lazy to rake the leaves—decompressing among the trees. One of my jobs, among many, was trail upkeep in a national park close to Loren Brae, and I’d spent several hours trimming back branches, clearing wood, and basically, talking to my trees as I worked myself through it. What I’d landed on, after a few hours of introspection, was that I just didn’t care if people thought that I had been unfaithful to Avery.Mypeople knew that cheating and lying wasn’t in my nature. And most people I’d worked with since that time knew that I did a good job, priced my services fairly, and delivered results on schedule.