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“Oh.” I consider that, feeling sympathy for this woman I don’t know, but also irritation. “But she abandonedyouin the process too.”

Lachlan is quiet for a moment before admitting, “Aye. She did.”

A shudder racks through me before I can say more, making my whole body quake from the lingering chill. Lachlan’s arm comes around me in an instant, and I don’t know who looks more surprised by the quick action—him or me.

“Sorry,” he says quickly. “I wasn’t even thinking. I just—”

I lean into him, letting the heat of his arm seep through my still-damp clothes. “It’s fine.” I take a chance and rest my head on his shoulder, trying not to read too much into it. It’s just necessity, after all. Just to keep me warm. “Fucking freezing.”

“Far be it from me to let the princess freeze to death,” he chuckles.

“Asshole,” I grumble.

Silence falls over us once more, and to my surprise, it’s not as awkward as it should be. It’s almost…comfortable. His fingers twitch against my shoulder, like they want to move, and I am all too aware of the warmth and weight of his arm as it drapes over me. I’m dialed into the firmness of his body against mine. How long has it been since someone touched me like this? Am I so touch-starved that I would relish something so simple?

Apparently so.

“What about you?”

His question shakes me out of my errant thoughts, and I peek up at him. “Hm?”

“Your da,” he says, still studying me with those icy blue eyes that seem to see right through me. “Do you remember the last time you spoke?”

“Oh.” My gaze falls to the straw beneath us, my lips pressing together. “Yeah. I do.”

“If it’s too painful—”

“No, no,” I assure him. “It’s fine. Fair is fair.”

“Key,” he says firmly, forcing me to turn up my face and look at him again, something that is becoming harder and harder because he really is sort of beautiful, and without the distraction of, well,hatinghim—it’s hard to ignore that fact now. His fingers brush against my chin, tilting up my face even more. “There’s no quid pro quo here.You don’t owe me anything, all right? I’m just asking as…” His brow knits, like he has to ponder his next words. “As a friend?”

I can’t help the way my mouth turns up in a grin. “Wow, that must have been so hard for you.”

“Like pulling teeth,” he scoffs.

I bite the inside of my lip slightly. “Are we? Friends?”

He’s doing it again.Studyingme. I can’t help but wonder what it is that he’s thinking when he looks at me. It’s strange to think that only a week ago I considered him an enemy, and now…Now it’s like there is some insatiable urge inside me to help him. Tosavehim, if I can. One that I can’t even figure out where it comes from. It pulses inside like a seed waiting for water, one that is desperate to grow.

“Aye,” he says. “I s’pose we are.”

I feel warmth flush at my neck and chest, and I can only pray he doesn’t see it. He already thinks I’m anumpty, as he likes to say—he’d never let me live it down if he knew I was getting flustered from just this.

“R-right,” I manage, tearing my eyes from his. “Yeah. Okay.”

He doesn’t say more, seeming to sense that I need a moment to collect my thoughts. I let my memories drift to the last days with my father, choosing one as if plucking it from a box, dusting it off and letting it breathe as happiness and sadness course through me all at once.

“His last day,” I start, willing my voice not to crack. “It was strange, really. He’d been mostly out of it for the week before, and I knew he would go soon. You just…know. At the end. You can sense it. But that day…” A smile touches my lips despite everything. “That day it was like he’d come back to me, just a little. It was almost like that day he was mydadagain. Even if only for a while.”

“Maybe he knew too,” Lachlan offers. “That he was close.”

“Maybe he did.” I can feel myself resting more and more against Lachlan, the indelible warmth he gives off like a siren song that I can’t resist sinking into. “He looked at me that day and for the first time in ages, I could just…I couldtellthat he was reallyseeingme. He put his hand on my cheek”—I reach to press my own palm against my cheek, closing my eyes—“and he said my name. Said it like he hadn’t seen me in forever. Like he’d just been away for a long time, and he was finally coming home.” A choked sob gets trapped in my chest, and I force it back down. “He said he’d missed me. He asked me where I’d been.”

I can feel Lachlan’s fingers at my shoulder gripping me tighter, his thumb stroking there. “Key…”

“We talked for a bit. Not about what had happened to him or what he’d been through—just about little things. Things that made us laugh. Things that made him smile.”

“I’m glad,” Lachlan says gently. “That you have that memory.”