Chapter 29 Silva #6
“We’re on the same team now,” he finished quietly, not needing to be led to his answer.
He blew out a breath against her now, shoulders dropping.
“Not him, actually. Your friend.”
“Ris?”
He nodded, never lifting his face. “Went about as well as I deserve, I suppose. She gave me a good telling off. And I’ve earned that.”
Silva pfffttt’ed the response. “Yeah, well, I gave Ainsley a good telling off at the market. He’s a dick. And he definitely deserved that, so.” She shrugged, feeling the rumble of his laughter against her, going quiet after a moment. Silva sighed. Fucking Ainsley.
“She said I broke him.” Tate’s voice was a sad whisper.
“I don’t think that’s fair,” Silva murmured. “If he broke, there must have already been something cracked.”
Tate raised his head at last, craning his neck to look up at her. “I broke you.”
She pfffttt’ed him again. “Oh, please. Don’t give yourself so much credit, mister. I was already broken. You finished the job, but like I said — already cracked. And I never would have learned how to put myself back together if I hadn’t.” She shrugged again. “I think he’s a whiner.”
His shoulders shook as he dropped against her once more, pinching her ass and making her squirm.
“He’s not even friends with Shona anymore,” he went on after a moment, his laughter fading, his voice still a sad murmur.
“I thought . . . I thought they’d have each other.
But he moved away, and didn't look back.”
“Of the two of us, I’m the only one who’s actually done that and can speak to it. So again, I don’t think you’re being fair to yourself.”
“I did as well,” he corrected. “When I moved here. There was nothing left for me in Ireland. Nothing but hurt. And I didn’t look back.”
“No,” she corrected. “I’m the expert here.
I made a lot of bad decisions after you were gone, and I can admit that now.
I isolated myself. I didn’t let anyone help pull me out.
And that’s the same choice he made, only I didn’t have an awesome HR girlfriend holding my hand through it. I had a Tannar.”
“Fucking cunt. Did you book the room yet?”
Her unbinding was the following month. Her family had wanted to come with her for support, but Silva was half-convinced her father would be arrested and her mother and grandmother would wind up in hysterics. She would go alone. At least, that had been the plan until she’d shared it with Tate.
Now, Aelin would be spending the weekend with her grandparents, and Tate would be traveling with Silva to witness the dissolution of her marriage.
“I figured we’d just fly in that morning and then come home.”
“No, absolutely not. I want to know exactly where the ceremony is taking place. I want to know who is staying on site. I want to know the location of their bleedin’ rooms, so that I can ensure we have the adjoining room, so that he can listen to us put the fucking bed through the wall all night long.
” Silva erupted in laughter, but Tate wasn’t finished.
“And I want you to stand up there in front of that disinterested piece of shite excuse for a husband, dripping my cum on his fucking shoes, Silva, with his whole miserable cunt clan watching. And I don’t want to hear anything to the contrary. ”
She dissolved into giggles beneath him, unable to catch her breath for a long moment, envisioning exactly that. “I don’t think we’re supposed to do things like this for each other. We’re supposed to be making each other better.”
“Oh, fuck that. Please, Silva.” He lifted his hand, enumerating on his long fingers as she continued to laugh. “First of all, I cannot become more enlightened than I already fucking have. Yesterday, I made a quiche. I go to therapy twice a month. I have trauma in my body.”
She was hunched with laughter by then, dislodging him from her breast, in danger of gagging.
“Where the fuck is it, is what I’d like to know. Cut the little bastard right out and I’d be good as new.”
He cut himself off and rolled sideways off the bed, stepping into lounge pants the instant little feet were heard in the hallway, as Silva immediately pulled a camisole nightgown over her head.
They were appropriately dressed and back in bed well before Aelin reached the door, a well-choreographed ballet of experience by then.
And it doesn’t get more domestic than that.
Aelin climbed beneath the covers, tucking into Silva’s side, pressing her little icicle toes between Silva’s knees as she shrieked.
“I have a very important question for you, wee miss,” Tate climbed over them, on top of the duvet, curling around Aelin with his head pressed to her back as she wiggled beneath the covers. “Why did the winter lady need to yell at you to wake up? Why didn’t you want to leave your mother’s stomach?”
“Because it was so cozy,” she continued to giggle. “I didn’t want to come out!”
Silva closed her eyes, listening to the two of them chatter, luxuriating in the sound of her daughter’s unconscious laughter.
This was how it was meant to be. This was how it was always meant to be.
There is a kiss of fate upon you, I think.
Maybe so. Or, she considered, neither of them had been willing to quit until they wound up exactly where they were at that moment.