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“I know.”

I close my eyes. “Of course ya know. You know everything except how to tell me you’re not marrying my best friend.”

“Come outside, Sera.”

I straighten on the stool and glance over my shoulder at the pub door.

“You’re here?”

“I am.”

The call ends.

I stare at the screen before sliding from the stool, my heart racing and mouth dry. The floor tilts a little beneath me, and I catch the bar with one hand.

The barman reaches for my glass. “You having another?”

“Not tonight.” I pull a few twenties out of my jacket pocket and slide them across the bar. “See ya around.”

I push through the door, and the bite of the late afternoon air mixes with the rum and sends a shiver across my shoulders.

Across the road, Fionn’s black Land Rover waits at the edge of the car park, its engine running and rain silvering the bonnet. Fionn gets out from behind the wheel before I reach the first row of cars.

He walks around the front, opens the passenger door, and waits for me.

His knee length dark coat is unbuttoned, the collar raised around his neck. He says nothing as he stands beside the open passenger door, his attention traveling over my face, my open jacket and the uncertain placement of my feet.

I stop a pace away from him and swallow against the rapid pulse thrumming in my throat.

His hair is damp from the rain, and there’s a healing cut near his temple. He looks tired beneath the gray sky, although his posture is strong and self-assured as always.

Everything hits me at once, and my lower lip trembles. I press my lips together, hating how my emotions are all over the place tonight, but the movement betrays me anyway.

“Fuck,” I whisper, dragging both hands over my face because I can't hold everything together for another second.

The crunch of gravel reaches me before he does.

By the time my hands fall away, Fionn is before me. One arm slides around my back while his other hand settles against the nape of my neck, steady rather than demanding, and I don't think about whether I should lean into him. My forehead simply comes to rest against his shirt, the cotton warm beneath my skin.

“She’s gone,” I whisper into the rough wool of his coat. “Art traded her to someone else.”

His hand spreads wider between my shoulder blades and for a few seconds neither of us says anything. The only sound is the rain hitting the Land Rover.

“I’m such a bitch.”

His fingers press firmer against my head.

I let out a humorless laugh that catches on a sob. “She’s my best friend, and all I can think about is the fact I’m relieved you’re not marrying her.”

“I’m not sorry I ended it, Sera.”

The certainty in his voice leaves no room to question whether he'd make the same choice again.

I swallow hard. "She'd have been safe with you."

“She would have been lonely.” Fionn holds me tighter.

I turn my face deeper into his chest, tears soaking into the fabric. “Art sent her away, and I’ve got a really bad feeling he’s forced her to marry a man who won’t treat her right.”