I looked at my little sister, who was grinning like a conniving little gremlin. Zara had come bounding into my room as I was pulling a shirt on. I rubbed my towel over my hair, roughly drying it.
“So what?” I asked.
“You’re no fun,” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.
I grinned. “I don’t know what you’re referring to.”
“Did you take her to the place? Did she love it? Did you make sure she got the hot chocolate?”
I looked down at Zara who was staring at me and practically bouncing.
“Yes. Yes. And yes.”
“Good,” she said with a nod. “If you break her heart, I’m going to hurt you.”
I dropped the towel in the bathroom and we headed out to go eat. The door clicked shut behind us as we made our way to the elevator.
“You do know that I’m your brother, right? Your loyalty should be to me.”
“Yeah, well Aimee’s old coach Brennan agreed to take me on as a student. So, my loyalty can be bought. As it turns out, itwasbought.”
I stopped walking and pulled Zara into a swinging hug. She squealed, but her arms wrapped around my neck.
“You little shit, when were you going to tell me?” I asked.
She laughed and hugged me tighter. I flexed my arms and held her close. She rarely let me hug her anymore, so I took what I could when she let me. She would always be my little sister, but these days she was too cool for me, or I was too much of a loser for her. It depended on how she was feeling.
“I was going to tell you at dinner! I thought Mom and Dad would have called you.”
“I noticed they called while I was in the shower, but I was going to call after we ate, since I was already running late. I’m so happy for you, bean,” I said, squeezing her one more time before letting her down.
“Yeah Mom and Dad are going to come back for a few months while everything gets set up.”
The elevator doors opened, and I listened to my sister rave about Aimee, about Brennan—about all of it. Talking a mile a minute, barely taking a breath. I was thrilled she had a chance to finally pursue skating for real.
When we got to the lobby, the doors opened to a voice calling for my sister.
“Zara!”
Aimee’s voice came barreling down the hall ahead of her, and just the sound had me half hard. I so was fucking screwed. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, still slightly damp from her shower. I could smell the vanilla wafting off of her and I wanted to bury my face in the spot where her shoulder and neck met—her hair surrounding me. I wanted to wrap myself around her and never leave.
She looked ecstatic and the moment she got within reach of my sister, she squealed and hugged her.
“Brennan just told me!” Aimee said.
“Thank you! For everything,” Zara said.
“I’m so happy for you. You’re going to love Brennan. He’s the best. He won’t give up on you.”
I wasn’t sure if Zara could pick up the notes of sadness in Aimee’s voice, but I could. I knew that more than just the part of her that Asher had occupied died that day. There was a wistful note to it, and I wondered if Aimee would ever get back on the ice.
“Are you going to have dinner with us?” Zara asked.
Aimee looked up and met my gaze and gave me this tentative smile that had me melting. I didn’t know I could melt, but sometimes she looked at me and I just…would melt.
“I was actually on my way to meet up with my family, but you’re welcome to join us,” she said.
Now it was Zara’s turn to look at me—eyes wide, lashes fluttering, her small hands clasped in front of her chest. I putmy hand on her head and sighed. She squealed and spun back around to Aimee, grabbing her hand and pulling her along. I followed behind the two of them, and decided I really wouldn’t mind if the rest of my life looked like this—trailing after my little sister and the girl that had been occupying my thoughts for so long.
