“Did you get all the research you needed?”
I turned my head and looked at him, not sure what to say.
“Devina…” He sighed. “What happened between us today… It was amazing and…”
Without waiting for his “but” I cut him off. “Yeah. Frederick already gave me the lecture. We’re from different worlds and you have a tournament coming up in a year.”
He wrinkled his brow. “No. I’m not fighting.”
“You have to. It’s your only chance. Didn’t you just see Emmerson’s and Wilma’s happiness?”
Tyton’s chest rose and he gave a noisy exhalation as he turned to look straight ahead. “I’m not marrying Tamara. It wouldn’t be fair to her.”
My knees were bobbing up and down and my chest felt tight, like someone was sitting on me. Wrapping my arms around myself I fought the tears that welled up in my eyes again. “Who said anything aboutfair? It wasn’t fair when Maria died, or when Caro, Justin, Hannah, my parents, or my nana died. Why should any of this be fair?”
“But we bonded today. I can’t marry someone else when I’m bonded with you.”
“Bonded? What does that even mean?” I was half laughing and half crying.
“I should have never answered that stupid call. If my family hadn’t called us back, I would have claimed you as mine. Hell, in my mind, I did claim you.”
I shook my head and gave him an incredulous stare. “There’s no such thing as claiming another person.”
“But I told you we bonded, and you agreed.”
“Tyton, I didn’t understand what you meant. Where I’m from, we bond with our teammates in sport and with our friends. It’s not a binding or legal bond, but a way of growing closer as friends.” Throwing my hands up in the air, I sighed. “I’m not saying that what happened between us wasn’t special, but how did we even get to the point of talking about claiming and bonding? You’re an Nman and I’m a Motlander. So what if we shared an experience based on mutual curiosity?”
“It was way more than curiosity.”
“You were longing for physical contact and so was I.” Sniffling loudly, I dried my nose. “You have no idea what it’s like to lose your whole family and be the only one left in that big house full of all the memories. It’s the loneliest place in the world – and there you were, making me feel loved and cared for. For a short while you took all my worries away, and I’m grateful for it. I don’t regret what we did and I’ll use every bit of it in my book.”
Tyton reached out for me. “I hate seeing you crying.”
“Then it’s a good thing you don’t live with me. These past months I’ve cried buckets.” I sniffled again and used the backs of my hands to dry my tears away.
He looked down and spoke in an earnest tone. “I don’t want to stay away from you. Can’t we find a way to see each other? You’ve been here twice in one week. Maybe I could visit you and we could spend nights together. We can write each other. It’s not hopeless.”
“I can’t stay in that house. There’s nothing for me here, Tyton.”
“So, you’re leaving then?”
The pain in his eyes made me look out the window again. “I have to.”
“When?”
“I don’t know. It will take me some time to pack everything and there’s the book. I would still like to finish it here. It makes sense to be close to the border and…”
“And me?” He said it for me and when I nodded, he added in a soft tone, “Will you still let me read it?”
“If you want to.”
“It’s my book too. You included my writing, remember?”
My lips tugged up in a sad smile. “Yes, I haven’t forgotten, and I’m counting on you to deliver the steamy scenes in the rest of the book.”
“Steamy scenes are my specialty.”
We were moving toward safer ground and using my sleeve, I dried my eyes and gave him a small smile. “I could probably write a scene based on what happened between us today.”
