Oh My, I Messed Up the Story

Blaise wanted to throttle that idiot Kel for embarrassing him and Abby but she had seemed so grateful when he jumped in with an explanation on her behalf that he couldn't regret his own mortification completely.

And she did genuinely enjoy the music box. She showed it to all of the women who came with her as they walked away at the end of lunch with bright eyes and a happy smile.

Alamar shot him a wink and mouthed "you're welcome" over his shoulder as he left with his arm linked through his wife's. Blaise's face burned once again, especially once Kel gave him a knowing grin.

"I saw that. You like her and somehow convinced the clan leader to bring her here. How did you manage to pull that off?" he asked with a laugh. "Not that I am complaining. Mitzi was lovely company and I owe meeting her to you."

"If you breathe a word of this to anyone else…" Blaise trailed off threateningly. contemporary romance

Kel held his hands up in surrender. "I have no intention of getting my backside handed to me, thank you very much. I have seen you thrash Warriors two ranks above you during sparring practice and do not wish to be a practice dummy.

"But if it means anything, I think she likes you back. My intuition about these things is never wrong. If you decide to marry her you could always stay here and be a commander. That sounds like a great life to me."

One simple interaction with Abby and it sounded more and more appealing. Did she really like him though? Blaise took his words with a grain of salt since he was prone to exaggeration and teasing.

He had missed her so much during his travels that it honestly might be better to stay in one place if it meant having her by his side. He had already gotten a taste of the world around him since meeting her and that had been what he used to dream of when he was younger.

If he put aside his desire to avoid settling down, that still wasn't the only potential issue. Abby was from another world and far brighter than even he, who respected her deeply, had given her credit for based on what she had accomplished here already.

Would he be able to keep a woman who shone as brightly as her satisfied? Somehow Alamar de Kanta, that overly casual joker, had managed to satisfy his wife who came from the same place and was equally innovative.

It was obvious to anyone how much she loved him. They had been married for about four years and had two children yet they acted like newlyweds at times.

Blaise might benefit from asking him how he had done it if he thought the man would give him a serious answer. As it was, he was more likely to be teased terribly for it.

He didn't know what he could possibly offer Abby other than his heart but now that he was here he realized he had to try. It had been stupid to ever believe he could walk away from her forever.

She had been the most interesting person of his acquaintance ever since they met. Not being able to talk to her while they were apart had been the hardest part because he wanted her input on everything new he was seeing.

Even if it meant tying himself to a single place for the rest of his life, he would exchange the freedom to go anywhere in order to talk with her every day.

Blaise wanted to know everything he could about her and her world. Maybe he could help her come up with additional ways to make the Kanta Mountains seem more like home since that seemed to be what she was attempting to do.

He hoped the restriction on going into town would be lifted soon. If he was going to try and court Abby for real, he would need more opportunities to see her.

===

Abby spent the next week listening to her music box every night as she got ready for bed. It helped relax her. She had always enjoyed having background music on as she did things back at home. The relative silence here had been difficult to get used to.

Sure, she and Katie could sing songs they knew from home but it wasn't the same as being able to listen to them. Sometimes songs she half-knew from the radio got stuck in her head too and she couldn't even look up the lyrics to try and fix the problem.

"What's that song called that goes something like 'who's gonna walk you through the dark side of the morning, who's gonna rock you when the sun won't let you sleep?'" she asked desperately over breakfast one morning.

Katie frowned and tapped her spoon against her bowl of porridge as she thought about it. "Not a clue but I think it's by Selena Gomez. I don't know any more of the words than you do. But thanks for getting the tune stuck in my head!"

Abby shot her sister a sheepish expression and she simply huffed in response. This was how their relationship had always been. She knew Katie was only pretending to be annoyed with her.

"I miss music. Isn't there anything we can do about trying to recreate songs we know?"

She shrugged. "You're the one who took piano lessons for eight years, not me. I quit after two because I sucked at it too much. If anyone can do it, you can. But you would need an instrument and I doubt we can get an entire piano up this mountain."

That was a fair point. Pianos did exist in this world but they were massive compared to the smaller electric based ones that existed for casual piano players to buy back home. These ones were more like the kind you found in concert halls.

done.co