Page 75 of Secrets on Ice

Shit. I’m being a dick. It probably wasn’t just a kiss, a moment in time between us on the beach, it probably felt like so much more and not in the romantic sense. It probably solidified the end of her old life, and I don’t blame her for freaking out.

She’s one of your oldest friends. You did tell her you would always be there for her, but now you’re butt-hurt because she freaked out.

Okay. Okay. I get it. I’m being a dick.

Give her time. Her life has done a complete one eighty.

By the time the shuttle drops the five of us at the house for brunch, I've decided I'm going to be completely normal today. I don’t want to make her time any more difficult than it already is.

The back lawn has been reset from wedding to brunch, with one long table under the trees loaded with enough food for a training camp, and the whole family is already scattered around it in various states of survival. Lorraine and Claire are holding court over the coffee. Brady is running laps of the lawn with Puck. Harper is installed in a padded chair with her feet up and a plate balanced on her bump, and Bouch drops into the seat next to me looking rough.

"Never again," he announces.

"You said that at Pierre's wedding," I tease him.

"Yeah, I did, and I asked you assholes to make sure it never happened again.”

True.

The newlyweds come out to a round of applause, Fish with his arm around Collette and a grin you could see from the water, and brunch turns loud in the best way. Ember settles down the far end of the table beside Jo, laughing at the right moments, and I let her have the distance and load my plate and talk bullshit with Bouch.

I'm reaching for the bacon when I hear it, Cassidy's laugh, the real one, the cackle. She's a few seats down, shoulder to shoulder with Nelly, hunched over his phone, giggling like teenagers.

Giggling.

I put down the tongs. "Nelly." Both their heads come up. "You’d better not be flirting with my sister."

Our end of the table goes quiet. Nelly freezes and his ears go instantly, catastrophically red, and my eyes narrow, and then Cassidy rolls hers so hard I can practically hear it.

"Relax, warden." She plucks the phone out of Nelly's hand and turns it around, showing me a close-up of the cheese table from last night. "He's showing me his wedding photos. He took forty photos of the cheese."

Cheese?

"It was a good table. I wanted to show my mom," Nelly says.

The boys start giving Nelly shit about his photos.

See, purely innocent. Just because you’re the one who did something forbidden with your best friend’s sister doesn’t mean anything is happening between Cassidy and Nelly. Your sister is laughing and having fun with your friends, she deserves that. I shake my head and pull myself together.

Emmett takes the empty seat next to me with a loaded plate. "You're quiet this morning."

"Hotel pillows, slept like garbage," I lie.

“Jo was a blanket hog last night as well as too many beers." He smirks, digging into his pancakes. "Good wedding though."

"Great wedding."

“But that means summer is coming to an end and we’re back at work.” He groans.

“Are you saying we’re going to need to up the workouts, old man?” I tease.

“Fuck you, we’re the same age, asshole.” He glares at me while shoveling pancakes into his mouth. “But yeah, I think we need to up the workouts. Too many young fucks on the team gunning for us.”

“So true.”

“And with this fucking shoulder giving me grief, I’m not sure how many more seasons I’ve got,” he says quietly.

“You’re still good,” I reassure him.