“If you want to get in his pants so bad, you should be the one drinking this swill.” I reach for Reid’s ale.
My hand jerks back at a blaze of heat, flames igniting at my fingertips.
“Dammit, Reid! That fucking hurt!” I shove my singed fingers into my mouth. I should’ve expected that; it’s not the first time he’s used that trick.
“What’s he doing now?” Alexis’s chipper voice says as she drops into the booth next to Reid.
“Torturing me so he can impress some guy with terrible taste in drinks,” I mutter, checking for burns. Just slightly pink.
“Oh?” She searches the room. “Which guy?”
Reid nods toward the bar.
Alexis’s eyes widen, her rings clinking as her fingers splay across the table. “No! I danced with him the last time I was here.”
“You came here without me?”
Someone taps my shoulder, and the rest of their conversation vanishes into nothing.
“You want to make some room?” Ellie asks, bringing her hand back to clutch it tightly with her other.
She’s wearing her hair in a thick braid today, twisted up behind her head. My fingers itch for the day I finally see it down and they can run through those chestnut locks.
‘The girls.’ Of course.Reid meant Ellie and Alexis.
“Yes. I mean, yeah.”
My heart’s already skipping as I scoot deeper into the booth. She sits next to me, her leg brushing against mine under the table, and smiles nervously. A warm tingle fills my chest—I adore watching her push through her vulnerability, revealing her inner strength.
“What happened to your fingers?”
The pain flares up as my attention shifts. “Reid burned them.”
“Reid.” Ellie glares at him.
“What? He tried to steal my drink.”
Ellie rolls her eyes, then turns back to me. “Let me see.”
I give her my hand, my fingertips throbbing with my pulse. With a gentle touch, frost crystallizes over her fingers, and a soothing cold chases away the burning heat.
“Let me know if it’s too much.”
“You’re committing a crime right now, you know.” My gaze moves from her frozen fingers to her eyes.
She leans in, lowering our hands from sight. “Then I suppose we’ll have to be discreet.”
There she is, peeking out of her shell.
Despite the chill against my fingers, my chest burns with the memory of the last time we were this close. I tilt my head closer to hers, breathing in her scent, and the ruckus of the busy tavern fades away.
Her light dims as her smile flickers. “I stood you up for dinner, didn’t I? I don’t know what happened—it completely slipped my mind. I meant to meet you.”
“Don’t worry about it. I forgot, too.”
Ellie’s eyes widen. “You did?”
Shit.I probably shouldn’t have admitted that so easily, but I’m not even sure how it happened. I must’ve gotten roped into helping Mother again. “I remembernow. But I didn’t then. It’s alright, though—we’re both here.”
