Page 342 of Chaos has a Name
“Ice cream, no, since it’s an animal product, but I’d love to sit on the d-d-e-c-c-k.”
When she saw him flush, maybe in frustration or embarrassment, she wanted to help him.
So, she dried her hands and went to the freezer to pull out some ice cream and the cabinet for cones.
He watched, and didn’t understand why she had two cones.
Then, she started reading the label.
“It’s dairy free. It’s made with coconut. I don’t see eggs in it. I’m lactose intolerant. Any milk, and we have some big problems.”
That one act of checking for him touched him. Yeah, he’d been right.
She was a good person.
And he liked her.
“Want some now?” she asked, holding up the container so he could doublecheck.
That’s when he nodded.
“Yes, please. I love ice cream. Elizabeth makes sure she gets Vegan ice cream for me. Then, she busts my ass. We have a thing about that. She eats more meat per capita than any person I’ve met—Marines included.”
She listened, and then glanced over.
“And you’re sure that the deer isn’t bothering you? I meant what I said, Caspian. It can be covered. My father had it mounted for me when I was fifteen. That’s my first deer.”
He didn’t look over at it.
If you’d seen one dead thing, you’d seen it all. That was the least disturbing thing he’d seen in his life.
Seriously.
He was honest.
“I’ve taken way too many lives to be squeamish about a deer head,” he admitted, without stuttering. “I’ve walked through the blood. It’s something I’m trying to make amends for in my life. You don’t have to make amends for me.”
It was clear to her that he wasn’t as worried about being around her. Maybe the dairy-free ice cream broke the ice.
“Okay,” she said, not able to imagine what he’d seen. Only, she knew it was probably a great deal of death. When she first met Elizabeth, she felt like she had a lot of death on her shoulders too.
Just for different reasons.
When she was done scooping, she handed him a cone, and led him to the back door.
“You’ve seen some shit, huh?”
He nodded.
That made her incredibly sympathetic.
“I don’t hunt often, if it matters. My father is damn good with a bow, and most of the time, he fills my freezer for me. I’ll go with him if he bitches and moans about how his only daughter is a disappointing Native.”
He couldn’t imagine how she was disappointing. Rayna was checking all the boxes for him.
When she took his free hand, and led him to a swing, his heart thumped in his chest. It was clear she was the kind of person who used touch as a way to connect people.
It wasn’t the first time she’d touched him.
