"There's plenty," she said. "Sit."
He sat. Something in his shoulders loosened like he'd been braced for rejection.
Ash arrived without anyone quite noticing when he simply was there, at the edge of the blanket, close enough to see everything and far enough to take up no space at all, a shortbread already vanishing between his fingers before she'd even offered.
And all around, she could feel it, the way every one of them kept looking at her. Not staring, not exactly, but their eyes returning to her again and again like they couldn't quite believe it. Like they were checking she was still solid, still breathing, still upright and pink-cheeked and laughing instead of pale and still on a birthing bed with blood soaking through white sheets.
She understood it. She'd frightened them and hell, he'd frightened herself.
