Page 86 of Ice Queen

She swats me with a towel. “No, estupido⁠*.” She busies herself making my drink. “Hannah told me yesterday.”

But of course she did. I hate that she tells people when we’re out of town, but I also know the three of them band together when either Greyson or Tate aren’t here. I just hope they swoop in and bring Kait along. I hate the thought of her being alone. Even if she is with Maggie.

“Make it two, please.”

She eyes me over her shoulder, brows dancing across her forehead. “Did you finally come to your senses?”

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

She lets out a laugh, one I know is one hundred percent aimed at me. “You’re a horrible liar, Markus. Don’t quit your day job.”

She hands me two coffees and waves me out the door. “Tell Kait I said hi.”

“Will do.” I don’t even bother denying it.

I hurriedly walk back to the car before parking in front of Tattered Pages. Grabbing the flowers and our coffees, I pull the door open, only to almost trip over my own damn dog. “Ay, Maggie. Vamos⁠*.”

“Markus?” Kaitlyn's confused voice cuts through the air. I lower the flowers so I can see her over the top of them.

“What are you doing here?” she asks, hands playing with the zipper dangling from her black leather jacket.

“Surprise,” I sing, holding the flowers and bear out to her.

Her eyes well with tears, and I curse myself for not asking if she even liked flowers. “I’m sorry, I can take them back.”

She snatches them from me, almost sending the coffees hanging in the drink carrier flying. “You will do no such thing.” She buries her face in them, then rubs her finger back and forth over the bear, just like she does with her clothes, and when she raises her eyes to meet mine, they crinkle as her smile grows.

“These are beautiful, thank you.”

“Then why are you crying?” I step toward her, cupping her cheek in my hand. She leans into it, eyes falling closed.

“I um…” She licks her lips, rubbing her cheek softly against my hand. Amber and green meet my gaze as she looks up at me, something shining through them that looks awfully similar to the way my mom looks at my dad. It’s almost enough to send me stumbling backwards. “I’m just glad you’re home.”

Home. I’ve never felt like I had a home, but with her standing in front of me, I know. Home isn’t a place, it’s her.

“Me too,” I whisper on a shaky exhale.

Here, in this moment, with my arms wrapped around the woman I willingly flayed my leg in my dreams for, I realize I am scared to death, wholly unraveled, and screwed beyond belief. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

* stupid

* go

CHAPTER 28

Kaitlyn

He showed up at the store with flowers and coffee this morning, and I’m still riding the high. He wasn’t supposed to be back until tonight. It was barely ten AM when he strolled through the doors like he didn’t buy a ticket to catch a flight to come home.

“Kait,” he says from the beanbag he’s been occupying for the last hour. “Do you like seafood?”

My nose scrunches. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s that I’m so sensitive to smells that the smell of seafood gives me such a migraine that it doesn’t even sound appealing.

He chuckles, scratching something off the post-it note he’s been writing on. “No to Paella.”

Stepping out from behind the counter, I round the beanbag and dip so I can run my hands down the front of his chest. What’s a girl gotta do to see that view again?

“What are you writing?”