“You’ll get better with that, though you’re already far more powerful than your papa was at your age. He could only explode a single houseplant when we would make out.”
“You don’t have to talk about it. Trust me, Papa talks far too much about it. I don’t remember him being this forthcoming,” Rhys admitted. “I know we had talks about how to control my powers, but they did not include stories of how he has to control them around you and Dad.”
I felt my jaw drop. “He does not.”
“And he gives examples.”
“Well, he’s Fae. I happen to know his mother is very open about her sexuality. Including hitting on your dad once.”
Rhys winced. “Are you serious?”
I nodded. “And I will talk to your papa. He needs to know where your boundaries are.”
If we’d been here all along, would those boundaries be as tight as they seemed to be now?
“Anyway, Shy and I have a nice friendship,” he continued. “It’s good we didn’t confuse things.”
I’d seen the way Shy looked at my son, the way her eyes followed him anywhere he went. “You never tried again? You haven’t talked to her about how you feel?”
“I told you how I feel,” Rhys replied, his expression shuttering. “It would have been complicated. Besides, she doesn’t want that kind of relationship.”
“That’s not what she said. At least that’s not how you said it,” I replied.
Rhys shrugged. “She didn’t say anything at all. Granddad did.”
“I suspect your grandfather was protecting Shy. Not from you. He said she wasn’t ready. That doesn’t mean she’ll never be ready. You said yourself that Shy’s been through a lot. How early was this in your relationship with her?” I asked.
“A few weeks after she showed up in Frelsi.”
“And you haven’t talked to her about it since?” I thought he might be too timid around her.
“I respected her wishes,” Rhys said firmly.
“What are her wishes now?”
“She seems happy with the way things are.” Rhys sighed and stood up. “We should go. We’re losing what little daylight we have. I’m beginning to suspect Ingrid and Halle have moved on. We’ll check deeper into the countryside tomorrow. I can send out someone to find them and then we don’t have to repeat this.”
I had pushed him too far. I suspected Rhys was the one who was truly satisfied with not having to deepen the relationship. He’d tried and gotten shot down and wouldn’t try again. My son was locked in routine, and that could be hard to get out of. “I don’t mean to pry.”
A brow arched over his emerald eyes, an expression I’d seen many times on his father’s face. “Really?”
“Okay, maybe I do, but I’m your mother.”
“Well, I’ve done okay without you for years. I don’t need you to tell me what to do.” He stopped and took a long breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
I forced myself to stay steady when emotion rushed through me. “But you did mean what you said.”
“I should have been more politic,” my son allowed.
I needed to make him see the truth. “Rhys, I didn’t mean to leave you. I never meant to leave you.”
“I understand that.”
“On a logical level you do, but there’s still a little boy inside you who wonders why I lied. Who wonders why I would have promised him I would see him in the morning and then disappear. I can understand why it might be easier to be angry with me.”
“I am not angry with you.” He stood and slid his gloves on again.
It was so plain to me that he was angry. “Baby, I can’t even start to deal with the problem if you don’t acknowledge that it’s real.”
He leaned over and waved a hand over our fire, the eternal flame going out like he’d hit a switch. “Let’s talk about it in the car if you insist on pushing the subject. I believe we have a storm coming in. I want to avoid it if I can.”
I was what he wanted to avoid, but then I was getting the suspicion that Rhys avoided anything vaguely emotional. “Not talking to me won’t help the problem.”
He placed the eternal flame back in his pack. “I’m talking to you. I wouldn’t dream of not talking to you. That would be impolite.”
He stood and bit back a growl. He was so much like his fathers. He had all of Dev’s courtly ways of letting me know he was upset, combined with Danny’s stubborn will to not acknowledge there was a problem at all.
The wind rushed back in, and I felt the cold again. I was standing in that patch of spring Rhys had made, but there was no doubt it was wintertime again. Rhys stalked off toward the car and I stood there, watching him walk away from me.