Page 6 of The Edge of Never

“Me?”

“Aye.”

“Callan…”

He grinned.

“If ye think am gonnae let ye get oot of this, ye’re wrong.”

“Am no guid with people who dinnae know what they’re deaing.”

“Ye are. Ye’ve just forgotten how.”

I scowled and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Ye’re gonnae spend the rest of yer fucking life being a grumpy get if ye dinnae start living again, Thane. Am no gonnae let ye keep pushing everything and everyone away. It’s no healthy.”

If I argued with Callan, it wouldn’t do me any good. He had been there for me in the wake of Jenna’s death. Had seen how far I’d fallen. And was willing to help me pick myself up, even if it meant pushing me harder than anyone else had the guts to. My family walked around me on eggshells, not to mention Jenna’s parents and brother barely talked to me any longer. It was my fault, of course, and it made me feel like shite. They were a reminder of what I’d lost. It was too painful to be around them. It was Callan or nothing at this point. No matter how hard my grief had hit me and fucked up my relationship with my family, I wasn’t inclined to destroy the only friendship I had left.

“Am no a get, Callan.”

I wouldn’t dispute the grumpy part. Even I could admit my disposition had become a hell of a lot surlier since Jenna passed.

“Ye sure act like one.”

“Fuck ye.”

He slapped me on the back and winked before helping Ruairí get ready for tomorrow’s excursion.

“Ye can thank me later,” he called over his shoulder.

“Aye, thank ye for being a cunt,” I muttered under my breath as I grabbed my bag and walked out of the room.

Tomorrow would be interesting, and I didn’t think it would be in a good way.

Fucking Callan. If this goes to shite, then I’m blaming you entirely.

Three

Kit

The moment I walked into the room where we were assembling to go out for the day, one of the instructors came over and stood beside me. I looked up at him with a frown, wondering what he wanted.

When we met yesterday, I had been a little embarrassed about falling on my arse in the snow. While he hadn’t outright said I was an idiot, I had seen it in his dark green eyes. The judgment for my clumsiness. I couldn’t help that. Sometimes my coordination would go out the window. The only time I didn’t have an issue with it was when I was working. Everything else faded away when it was me and the tattoo gun creating art on skin.

“Morning,” I said when he didn’t make any move to acknowledge me.

“Ye’re with me today,” was the curt response I received.

What does that mean?

“Okay?”

Thane gave me a nod and turned his attention back to his fellow instructors as if I didn’t need further explanation.

I didn’t have time to ask what he meant because Callan started talking about today’s plans. I tried to listen, but my attention was firmly on Thane. The scowl on his face said he would rather be anywhere else but here. I didn’t know what his problem was since he’d been perfectly polite to me yesterday.

My eyes roamed over his face. It was covered in light brown freckles, at least the parts that weren’t obscured by his thick, dark auburn beard. His hair was long and the same colour as his beard, with streaks of a lighter colour running through it. He had braids on the sides of his head above his undercut. They met in the centre where it fell in one long braid down the back of his head. He was tall, broad as fuck, and quite frankly, intimidating. Apparently, I liked intimidating people, judging by my history with Sienna, but I wasn’t here to think about her. No, I was here to get away from that shit. Only, being next to this man had my skin feeling hot and I didn’t know what to do with that.

---