Page 34 of The Edge of Never

Thane’s mouth twitched, and he rubbed his forehead with his fingers. We had to get over the awkwardness of such personal questions. With him being injured, I had no other choice but to help him get around. That meant dealing with our normal bodily functions. Being practical about it was for the best. I’d already seen him mostly naked and felt the rest. He could see pretty much everything about me since my thermals were body-forming.

While I didn’t identify with a gender, I wasn’t going to deny I had female anatomy. After all, I’d been pregnant with Sienna and Law’s baby. My physical appearance always mattered more to other people than it did to me. I felt like my true self identifying as a person rather than a man or a woman. Maybe that didn’t make sense to other people, but it did to me.

Thane dropped his hand and let out a huff.

“Dig a hole.”

I tried not to smile at his response. The silly man needed to get over himself. I was trying to make things easier on him, not create further tension between us.

“No problem. I’ll be back in a bit.”

While I had been organising things, I’d placed the shovel and toilet paper Thane had brought near the front of the tent. I picked those up on my way out, zipping everything up so the cold air wouldn’t get in. My goal was to find a suitable spot that was accessible for someone who couldn’t put too much weight on his injured ankle. No easy feat, but I was determined to try. Thane shouldn’t have to suffer any more than he already had after last night’s ordeal.

As I walked through the trees, I noted the clouds had darkened further, leaving the landscape looking rather grey. It would be too much to ask for the weather to clear up. It would force us to stay in the tent. Well, force me, anyway. Then I would have to spend the entire day in close proximity with Thane. I didn’t know how I would cope. While we’d been on the course, I could get away from him in the evening. That option wasn’t available now.

“Maybe if he wasn’t so judgy, I wouldn’t be reluctant to be near him,” I muttered to myself as I walked, careful to avoid any fallen logs sticking out of the snow.

As I paused to look at one of them, a plan formed in my head about how I could utilise it for Thane. If I dug a hole next to it, then perhaps he could use that to hold on to.

Deciding that was the best course of action, I placed the toilet paper on the log to keep it away from the snow and set to work digging through the snow. The ground was semi-solid when I got to it, but I was able to dig down far enough to make a suitable hole.

“Right, hopefully, he’ll appreciate this.”

I wasn’t holding out any hope that he would. Thane hadn’t appreciated anything I’d done for him, including saving his life last night. I don’t even think he’d thanked me for that yet. The stubborn man probably thought I’d done a terrible job. Well, he could suck it up. He had to rely on me now. It might grate on him, but he grated on me, so it was only fair.

I stomped back to the tent, trying not to let my agitated state show. If he didn’t want to thank me, then he didn’t have to. But he could be a little less of a dick. If he was nicer to me, I would be less conflicted about finding him attractive. But I wasn’t going to hold out any hope on that score. He made his feelings about me very clear. Our dislike was mutual, despite the underlying tension between us. That part was something I refused to entertain.

Thane had got himself off the mat and was attempting to put his wet boots on over his swollen ankle when I arrived back.

“Need help with that?”

“No,” he ground out.

He pulled on his spare dry fleece when he was done, having left the laces of his boots undone.

I put a hand out to him. He let me pull him up without a fuss. His grunt of pain made me wince. I hated that he was hurting. When we were done with this, I’d give him more of my painkillers to counteract our little excursion.

Thane leaned heavily on me the entire way to the hole. It took us twice as long to get there than it had taken on my own. I said nothing as I handed him the shovel before turning my back and walking a little way off to give him some privacy. If he needed anything else, he would have to ask.

After a minute went by, I hummed tune to counteract any noises and shifted from foot to foot. I hadn’t put all my layers on, but it wasn’t too cold. Thane was in less than me, so he wouldn’t be enjoying the bracing air. We weren’t going to be out here for long, so he could deal, even though I didn’t want him getting cold. Last night scared me. I couldn’t go through that again.

“Kit.”

I spun around to find Thane was done. He had managed to stand by himself, something I wanted to give him a hard time over. If he got himself even more hurt, I wouldn’t be happy.

Making my way over, I kept a neutral expression on my face, knowing an argument wouldn’t do us any good. The dirt hole was covered over. I kicked at the snow, burying it further without looking at him. Then I picked up the toilet paper and shovel, putting them into my pockets.

“Come on, put your arm around me. I have hand sanitiser back at the tent.”

Thane did as he was told. He winced as we set off, and he had to put weight on his injured ankle again.

“Ye brought hand sanitiser but no proper food with ye.”

“I carry a small bottle at all times. I like having clean hands. So if you’re going to give me a hard time over that, then don’t.”

“I wasnae,” he muttered.

I rolled my eyes since he couldn’t see me do it. A cold, wet substance landed on my nose, making it twitch. I looked up to find it had started snowing again.

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