He waits

As much as he wanted to storm up to the cottage and let Red know that nothing had or would happen between him and Cindy, Brenan realized that there were a few compelling reasons as to why he should wait by the skiff.

The first and most important one was that he doubted that much good would come from him interfering with Cindy’s and Red’s conversation to blurt out a whole lot of what accounted to little more than confused gibberish.

The second was that he should have some faith in Cindy. Brenan wasn’t exactly sure of why it was like that, but he felt that it was vital that he should allow the young blonde every opportunity to act like an adult.

Still, that didn’t mean that the wait was an easy one, particularly not once he’d finished up his work on the skiff. Eager to continue to keep himself occupied, Brenan pulled the skiff up onto the runners and prepared to push it back up to where it had been when he had first seen it. Starting out by unbuckling his sword belt and pulling his sword up far enough to ensure that it wasn’t showing any rust, Brenan then placed his sheathed weapon in the skiff and undid the strap of his shoulder holster, pulling it off him and holding the holster itself in his left hand while he used his right hand to draw his Defender pistol. Breaking it open to see that there was a dry cartridge in all four chambers, Brenan slid the one gun which he hadn’t given to Davy in payment for the schooner back into its holster and then placed it too in the skiff.

Satisfied with his routine check on his weapon, Brenan felt equally satisfied that none of the women were around to ask him about the scars on his chest and back as he undid his shirt and draped it over his gun and sword.

As he leaned down and wrapped his hands around the side of the small vessel, the thought occurred in Brenan’s head that maybe there was some deeper reason as to why Red had given Cindy the impression that she was in love with him and for her behaviour after they had returned, but he rejected that as pie-in-the-sky thinking and began the task of pushing the skiff up the beach, feeling grateful for the opportunity to carry out some much needed physical labour.

Just as Brenan got the skiff up to the end of the runners, his straightened up his back and threw a glance over towards the cottage to see that Red was once more out on the beach and moving towards him, the sight of her walking across the loose sand triggering a strange sensation within him.

“Hey,” Brenan offered as a weak greeting as Red came closer to him, the beautiful redhead sporting an expression that he found impossible to decrypt.

“Cindy told me about what happened,” Red began, doing her best not to look directly at Brenan.

“Oh,” Brenan hoped that his trust in Cindy had been well-founded and that she had told Red the truth.

“She told me that she offered herself to you,” there was an obvious tremor in Red’s voice as she said this, although Brenan couldn’t comprehend the reason for it, “but that you turned her down with all the dignity of a gentleman.”

“I don’t know about that…” Brenan tried a smile, but Red ignored him, apparently there were still things that she needed to say.

“She also claims that you’re as much in love with me as I’m with you,” Red’s cheeks suddenly flared up, and she gave every impression of struggling to keep from going quiet, “and that the two of us deserve each other.”

“Oh,” Brenan let out, his heart beating faster as he rushed to add an “I can explain.”

“Yes?” Red looked away again and dug one of her feet into the sand whilst folding her arms across her stomach, unknowingly causing Brenan’s attention to be directed towards the generous swell of her breasts.

“I needed to tell her something,” Brenan offered as an explanation, “and it was the first thing that came up that seemed like it could work.”

“Right,” Red still looked awfully embarrassed.

“You’ve done a fine job raising her, Red,” Brenan said of Cindy, “and without you she’d probably be dead or better off dead by now.”

“But…?” Red could hear that Brenan had more to say.

“But I believe that she still thinks somewhere deep inside that the only way in which she can be of value to a man is by offering her body to him,” Brenan struggled to choose his words carefully, “and I can’t battle that on my own.”

“Cindy still needs you Red,” Brenan said after a brief silence, “… I need you.”

“You do?” Again, Brenan found it impossible to read Red’s expression.
“Yeah, well, because of Cindy…”

“You know that this doesn’t change the fact that we’ve both lied to her, me by not discouraging her beliefs about us and you by encouraging them,” Red finally managed to look straight at him, “and I don’t think we can tell her the truth just yet. I don’t think that she could handle that we’ve both lied, even if we thought that we did it for the right reasons.”

“So?” Brenan asked, hoping that Red would have a solution ready to be used.