Page 68 of One Winter Knight
Carlos’ stash was all legal recreationals.
“Maybe after my set. Can we hit the afterparty? Because I will be full of adrenaline.” And crash hard.
“Sounds good.” Carlos patted my shoulder.
“Don’t forget to make the soup,” I told him.
“I’ll do it now.” He came out with me. Fiona’s door was closed.
“See you later.” I waved as Carlos went straight to the kitchen. Kace, Tyrell, and Bailey were waiting for me by the lime green sports car.
All three of them had amazing outfits. Kace and Tyrell were matching in striped furry jackets and tight pants. Bailey was in gold from her puffy boots, to her tight pants, and sleek jacket, to the pom pom hat on her head.
“Finally,” Kace grumbled. “We need to go. Want me to drive?”
“I’ll do it.” I got in the front seat and synced my playlist to the stereo.
“Are you okay?” Tyrell asked me. “You look fantastic, I knew that coat would look amazing on you.”
“I love it. You all look great. Bailey, can you hack Mrs. Johnson and make sure she gets my live feed? Or at least make it so her pages are full of me tonight,” I asked. Yeah, that would make me feel a lot better.
“If I ever meet that hag of a music teacher, I will fuck her up,” Bailey said as she got on her phone.
“She’s still teaching, you know,” Tyrell told me.
“Yeah, I sort of low-key refuse to support the music program until she leaves. It’s petty, I know.” But I still supported the theater program–Carlos did, too.
“You’re avoiding the question,” Tyrell prodded.
I sighed. “I fucked up and thought someone was interested when she wasn’t.”
Guilt at misreading things ate at me.
“Okay, so just apologize and back off. It’s not that hard,” Bailey told me. “Maybe do something nice if you really fucked up and need to still interact with her. Was it Saoirse? She’s one bad bitch, and I mean that in the best way.”
“Oh, she is. And yeah. If I should only be so lucky to get someonelike her.” I sighed.
“What? She’s totally into you. It’s probably her dealing with issues, right? Deltas always have issues,” Kace replied as we left the resort to head to the club.
Saoirse was not without her issues. While she was pretty much a brick wall when it came to personal details, I’d figured a few things out over the years.
One of the nights she’d found me, she’d confessed that her grandmother had passed, and how she felt a loss deeper than if one of her parents had died. I was lucky to have six moms who loved me with their whole hearts, but I knew plenty of people whose parents were disappointed in them, or outright didn’t love them the way they needed.
Of course, that was probably part of my problem. I thought I knew how she needed to be loved. That she needed to be loved. I started to hum under my breath.
“Even so, apologies never hurt,” Bailey added. “There are plenty of other people out there.”
“True.” Yes, I would apologize to my sassy assassin.
“You’ve got a big night. So, take a big breath, put it behind you, and deal with it later. That’s Dusty’s problem. BroKen has his shit together. He’s going to go greet his adoring fans, who are already lined up, waiting. He’s going to headline Winter-Fest. And tomorrow’s Christmas,” Tyrell hyped. “You’ve got this. BroKen has this.”
“He does,” I agreed. BroKen was out there doing the good work and helping those who needed it.
But both of us owed Saoirse an apology. I kept humming. Huh. That could be something.
Yes.
Because tomorrow was Christmas and no one should be mad on Christmas.
