Chapter 37
Rayna
Two days later, on the Friday of the Summer Harvest Holiday, a traditional Khaasan celebration of the state’s prosperous agriculture, Rayna and Dominic packed overnight bags to spend the long weekend event at Victor’s house—the place she’d called home from the ages of thirteen to twenty-three.
As they did every year, Victor and Declan fussed around a barbecue in the middle of the long, landscaped back garden.
Winnie lounged in a chair under an umbrellaed table, cutting summer fruits into a bowl with Dominic as Boris slept at their feet.
While in the kitchen, Rayna, Benedict, and George prepared salads, couscous, and coleslaw with the fresh produce they’d all bought from local farmers and markets in the prior days.
George and Benedict were yapping away about a rugby game in some league of some national tournament at Rayna’s back as she washed a bowl of cherry tomatoes in the sink.
But her gaze remained stuck on Dominic’s animated face through the big paned window above the silver basin as he chatted with Winnie.
“He told me he loves me.”
She didn’t fully register what she’d said until she realised George and Benedict were no longer talking. All she could hear was the rush of the tap and Winnie’s muffled giggles.
A faint blush touched her cheeks as she swallowed.
Well, that was one way to start the conversation. But then again, Rayna didn’t really know what she was doing. She wasn’t even sure why she said it. She didn’t normally talk about her feelings or what was going on in her head. Yet the words had just kind of slipped out.
Turning the water off, she braced herself and turned around.
George was at the cooker, holding a spoon over a frying pan of caramelising onions. Benedict was by the counter on her left, frozen with a knife poised against a wooden chopping board. Both were staring wide-eyed as if she’d told them she was going to murder them.
“I mean…” Benedict shifted on his feet and shrugged. “It’s been pretty obvious since the beginning that he was in love with you.”
She blinked in surprise and glanced at George for confirmation.
George grimaced and nodded. “He’s right. It’s been obvious for a while now.”
Fuck. That wasn’t good. It meant other people would’ve seen it too, but…
She bristled, feeling a little stupid. “Why didn’t I notice?”
“Ha!” Benedict slapped his knife down and rotated to face her. “Explain to me how you were going to notice something you refuse to believe exists.”
She scowled, and he smirked triumphantly.
As he straightened, he flapped his hands around and spoke in a high-pitched voice. “Love is so stupid. I’ll never fall in love. Men suck. Marriage is a waste of time. I want to be single forever.”
Rayna frowned between them as George snickered and removed the pan from the flame. “I don’t fucking sound like that, you piece of shit,” she grumbled and thrust the bowl of tomatoes towards Benedict.
He chuckled, taking the bowl. “Yeah, but you say stuff like that.”
She shot straight. “Yeah, and I always meant it too.”
They both stilled and glanced at each other, then turned their creepy grins on her.
“What?” she muttered, wanting to squirm away.
“You said ‘meant,’” Benedict said. “As in past tense.”
“Does that mean you don’t mean it anymore?” George asked.
Her lips parted on a soundless syllable before she paused and replayed her sentence in her head. Her blood ignited in embarrassment, and she clapped her lips together, quickly shaking her head. “No. No. I don’t believe in love, and marriage is a waste of time.”
“But?” George encouraged softly.
She opened her mouth, and closed it. And opened it again. And closed it with a frustrated sound.
“I don’t…” She sighed. “I don’t understand how this happened. Why does he make me feel…” She paused before realising that was the end of her sentence. “He makes me feel, and I don’t get it. I don’t understand why I got attached. I don’t get why he seems…different.”
“Maybe because he is different,” Benedict said, like it was obvious. “He’s not just different from the guys you normally go for, but he’s different from you too. He challenges what you always thought you wanted in life, the way no man ever has.”
“I hate it,” she sulked.
“No, you don’t,” George said with a chuckle. “You just never expected to meet someone who might actually succeed in proving you wrong.”
Rayna glared with puffed cheeks as if the fault lay with both of them and not the man on the other side of the window. “Why aren’t you telling me it’s impossible?”
Benedict didn’t seem to have an answer, so his blue eyes went to George who shrugged his thick shoulders. “Because if anyone can find a way to make it work, it’s you and Dominic. You’re both stubborn enough to tear down the whole POTeM project if it comes to it.”
“He wants to stay,” she emphasised quietly.
“Yeah, we got that much,” said Benedict, and she wondered if it was about time she threw something at his head.
“What do you want, though?” George asked earnestly.
What did she want?
In the two days since it felt like she’d had a small epiphany at the lab, she’d asked herself the same question every time she’d looked at Dominic.
And no matter what path her thoughts took…the end answer was always the same.
Outside, around the barbecue
Victor’s gaze drifted between the back of Rayna’s head through the window to Dominic, slowly cutting a punnet of strawberries at the garden table, while Winnie chopped up a watermelon.
He shuffled around the barbecue, so his back was to them as Declan rotated skewers of marinated chicken. “Has he said anything more to you?” he asked just above a whisper.
Victor didn’t need to elaborate. Declan knew who his younger cousin was talking about. “Other than that he told her he loves her, no. Nothing more.” Declan met his cousin’s gaze. “What about her?”
Victor gave a slight shake of his head. “I’m worried she doesn’t trust me enough to.”
Declan grunted, his barrel chest giving a slight shake. “That’s absolute bull, Vic, and you know it. She trusts you, but she’s probably scared she’s going to break that trust.”
Discomfort clawed at Victor’s chest, creating a deep crevice between his brows. “I should speak to her. I should tell her it’s okay to tell me, but I don’t know with certainty she actually wants to stay with him.”
“She’s taking her time to decide. Understandably. This is Rayna we’re talking about after all, and Dominic’s asking a lot from her after such a short amount of time. But she’ll come to you when she’s ready to. Trust that she will.”
“I know. I know.” Victor pinched his glasses off and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I just hope I get the chance to tell her the truth about what happened when it actually might benefit her and Dominic, rather than when it’s too late.”