His chest was tacky with drying sweat, but Clio clearly didn't mind in the least, and Will's skin thrummed beneath the cool touch of her hands. His grin slanted wider. "Oh, I don't doubt it. She's got a strong head on her shoulders, does Addy."
But the joke was only funny cos they all knew he was never going to go there. And Scarlet— he'd not had to offer his hand the way he had, when Stutely had been angry-drunk and raging and spitting vitriol. Yeah, it was a dumb wager, but it wasn't about the winning or losing. It was, he was pretty sure, Scarlet's way of saying, you're still one of us and I'm with you in this. Will had needed that just then.
Scarlet had been through some hell of his own lately. He'd been knocked down a lot. It seemed a small thing, to throw a bet his way. (That didn't mean Stutely was letting up on the training, though. He still wanted to be able to claim he'd thrown it, even just in private, so he was damned well committed to conquering that bow first. Otherwise it was no different from losing. He wasn't that sainted.) "God, that bloody song! Good thing I've got a muse to inspire me, hey?"