She buried her face in Loki’s chest and he tightened his arms around her.
“Hey, you’re all right,” Loki told her. “No one thinks you’re a dork.”
“And you shouldn’t be calling yourself a dork,” Remy added in a low voice. His hand went behind her neck, squeezing it. Grounding her.
She turned to look at him.
“What are your feelings?” he asked.
“Valid.”
“Damn fucking right they are,” Loki added. “Um, what’s happening right now?”
She had to grin. Then she snorted. “I was repeating one of Dad’s favorite sayings and Remy overheard me. He told me that I’m allowed to feel how I feel. And not to suppress it.”
“What saying was that? No, let me guess. Hmm. Was it, ‘there’s only one winner, everyone else is a loser?’”
“Dear Lord,” Remy muttered.
“No,” she said. “That’s a good one, though.”
“What about, ‘girls don’t have the right minds for maths and science.’”
“Another winner,” she muttered. “No, it was, ‘Big girls don’t cry.’”
“Ahh yep. Another great one from dear old Dad.”
“You won’t be seeing him again,” Remy stated.
“Um.” What?
“You will not see that man again.” Remy’s voice was cold, full of command, but she heard a hint of something else.
Anger.
No, fury.
“It’s all right. I rarely see him. Just usually Thanksgiving. Sometimes Christmas.” She reached over and touched his arm. Shit. He was so tense.
“He needs you. But I haven’t forgotten the blow job conversation,” Loki whispered to her as he lifted her onto Remy’s lap.
Remy immediately drew her close. “Don’t want him near you.”
“It’s all right, I’m over all that. He doesn’t have the power to hurt me anymore.” Not quite true, but she thought that was what Remy needed to hear.
“Don’t,” he said in a stern voice. “Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear. Understand?”
“I . . . yeah. I understand.”
“She does that a lot,” Loki said. “She’ll tell you sorry for stuff that isn’t her fault because she thinks it will appease you. Because that’s what he taught her to do. That she had to change who she was to be who he wanted. But she’s fucking everything just the way she is.”
Isa sucked in a breath. She wasn’t sure she’d ever heard Loki speak like that. He sounded . . . so passionate. So fierce.
About her.
“I still have to see him. My brothers . . .”
“Are old enough to come see you,” Remy told her. “And that’s what I’ll tell them.”