Chapter 390 Chapter 390
“I am glad you came to see me, Konner.” She pushed off from the dock and tread the water beside it, “I have decided what I am doing with my money.” Her voice changed to a quiet serious tone.
“And what is that?”
“I want to use it to help others.” She came closer again, so she could hold his look, “even if they are not our kind.”
“Our clan funds already go towards helping all those under the Alliance...”
“You do not understand me.” She put her hand on the dock and pulled herself up, so she could rest her arms across the wood and keep the rest of her body in the water. “Everyone.” She said, enunciating it slowly, “even those that do not change into something else.” She held his look, “there are children out there, they need help.” She nodded.
“Ah.” How did he explain to her that they had enough issues helping shifters?
“Nolyn was talking to me about things like that.” She nodded, “Olanna and Nolyn talked to me a lot today...”
“I’m aware.” He cleared his throat, “they chewed my ear off over a lot of it.”
She frowned, “your ear is still there.”
Konner smiled, “it’s a saying, they didn’t really.” He blew out a quick breath, trying to find a way to explain it. “It means they were not happy with some things I didn’t tell them, so they told me,” This was harder than he’d thought, “they were a bit angry with me.”
“It is not your fault people are taken, why would they get angry with you?” She inched up higher and watched him carefully.
“They weren’t angry for that, they were upset that I hadn’t told them how bad it is, how many were taken.”
“Oh.” She let herself drop back into the water, without making a splash. “I don’t understand why sometimes things are said when that isn’t what they mean.” She watched her hands move through the water, “Nolyn told me to stay in the water if anyone came to visit me so I wouldn’t grab anyone and shake some sense into them. I asked the tablet, and it doesn’t seem like a good thing to do to someone.”
Konner wiped his hand over his face until he could get the big grin under control. “It’s hard to explain, but in Nolyn’s case, she is very aggressive.” He frowned, “uh, she says what she means, and it can be pretty blunt,” that wasn’t a good word to have her looking up, “very straightforward and honest.”
Terah was quiet for a moment. “Yes. I want to be very straightforward and honest too.”
“It’s not a bad thing, really, if more were honest there would be fewer issues in the world.” he didn’t want to explain that sometimes honesty caused problems, that was a talk for later when she knew a little more about life.
“Yes.” She came back over and looked up at him, even in the lower light her eyes seemed bright to him, the silver with the hint of that blue in there. “I want to kiss you again.”
Whatever he had planned on saying evaporated in his mind. He looked at her, and of course looked right at her lips, recalling the kiss in his room. Clearing his throat, he leaned back so he wouldn’t be tempted to lean down and kiss her. “It’s best to wait until your cycle is gone—it could only be because of that,” he motioned in the air, trying to word it, “you know, how you’re feeling...”
“How will I know this?”
He should have just checked on her and then left, he decided. Too late now. “Uh, I suppose, see if you still feel that way after your cycle has passed.” His traitorous eyes were tracing her lips as she moved them and thought about what he’d said.
“Okay,” she nodded, “I will.”
Blowing out a breath, he leaned back and looked at the darkening sky. “The stars will be out soon.” He kept his gaze on the sky above, not tempting himself by looking at her.
“Out from where?”
He smirked, “it means they will be visible when it’s darker.”
“Oh. There are so many of them up there.” He heard her put her wet hand on the dock again, “I didn’t know how many until I was at the campground.”
He nodded, glancing out of the corner of his eye to see her looking up. “There are too many lights in the city, to see them clearly.” He pointed, “when they’re out, the big dipper will be there.”
“The big dipper?”
“Mmhmm, a group of stars that look like a scoop.” It was the easiest way to explain it, “most of them have names, but I don’t know them all.”
“How do you know they have names?”
“Astronomers studied them and name them.”
“Astronomers,” she said like she was tasting the word on her tongue, “Is that a real word?”
Konner grinned and looked at her, “Yes.”
She gave him a wary look, “Paxton uses words that my tablet doesn’t know.”
Konner hid his smirk, “probably best not to say those ones then.” He’d had to have a chat with the boys about their language around her.
“I don’t use them if I don’t know what they mean.”
He searched her face for a moment, seeing that she was healthy and somewhat content, he decided he needed to make his exit, otherwise, it would be dawn and he’d still be sitting here on the dock talking to her. “I should get back.” The light in her expression faded in a not-so-subtle way and his chest felt heavy. He looked at the tablet, “would you like me to hit play on your book and you can just listen for now? While you swim?”
She smiled. “I did not think to do that.” She nodded, “yes, I can listen again later and look up the words.”
He nodded and got to one knee. “Did the girls bring you the cord for it?” He turned on the screen and looked at the battery, “you’ll have to charge it later to keep using it.”
“Yes. They brought the power cord and my robe earlier today.”
“Okay.” He waged a silent war inside his mind, as he moved back further so he wouldn’t lean down and kiss her and bid her good night. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yes.” she smiled up at him as he moved away from her.
Tapping the screen, he started the book again and then stood up and back away from the end of the dock. “Have a good night, Terah.”
She pushed away from the dock and kept her focus on him. “You get more sleep, Konner, so those lines do not come back.” She smiled. To her, he supposed, she had just bid him a good night as well.
“I will.” He spun on his heel and took long strides to move around the pond and get out of here.
He was berating himself inside his head, cursing every few feet as well, he shouldn’t have come here tonight. What possessed him to break an unwritten rule and do it, he didn’t know.