“That’s cool. I’m too busy with football to work. Not that I’m in a rush to get a job.”
“Enjoy the carefree student life,” I said. Mine wasn’t carefree, but it beat high school.
Kyle cocked his head. “Listen, maybe we could—”
The door swung open, a blast of cold air rushing in. I rubbed my bare arms. I should’ve worn more than a T-shirt. Emerport was coastal, but November carried its own bite.
Footsteps thudded behind me. Something in their rhythm made my skin prickle.
Kyle exhaled hard. A tall figure in black loomed at our table.
My gaze dropped to the boots, and my hands balled into fists. No way. No fucking way.
“Kaia.”
Slowly, I looked up.
Asher’s dark eyes burned with challenge as he pinned Kyle, then softened when they landed on me.
“You need to come with me, Kaia.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Please.”
His cologne drifted over with the motion, my stomach fluttering in betrayal. Two years gone, and he still did this to me.
Nervous laughter spilled from Kyle. “Dude. We were catching up.”
Asher barely glanced at him. “It’s a family emergency.”
A family emergency? My eyes searched his face for clues, but his expression gave nothing away. He’d always known how to lock himself down—like the day he left me.
But maybe something really had happened. Even if it had, how the hell did he know where to find me? He didn’t know where I lived. We hadn’t spoken since the wedding.
I’d imagined our reunion countless times but never pictured him storming in on a coffee date with Kyle. Apparently, that night at the nightclub years ago hadn’t been enough.
“Kaia,” Asher pressed. “Please. It’s really important.”
He begged me with his eyes, shifting his weight. I’d never seen him so nervous. I wanted him to look away, to stop pinning me with that gaze, but it stayed locked on my face, goosebumps prickling my skin. It had been so long. I’d thought he no longer cared. Yet he was looking at me like he used to—with warmth, affection, tenderness.
Why now? Why here?
Kyle cleared his throat, glancing between us like that night at the club.
I didn’t want my first conversation with Asher after all these years to happen in front of him. I stood, grabbed my jacket from the back of the chair, and gave Kyle an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, Kyle. See you on campus, yeah?”
“Sure,” he said, eyeing Asher like he’d spat in his drink. At least now Asher really was my stepbrother. But what was the emergency?
Asher set a twenty on the table. His warm hand pressed lightly to my lower back as he steered me out of the coffee shop toward a black Mercedes SUV.
His car, I realized, as the locks clicked when he hit the key fob.
He held the passenger door open. “Get in, mi niña.”
My heart stalled for a beat. Mi niña? I bit my lip. How could he still call me that?
“What happened?” I asked, sliding into the seat. “Is there really an emergency?”
“Please, seat belt,” Asher said.
My hands trembled as I buckled in.
