“Happy birthday,” Natalia sang out. “We brought breakfast!”
Grinning, she shut off the water and quickly toweled off before throwing on her robe. “I thought we were hanging out this weekend?” She padded out into her apartment. Natalia and Jack stood in the kitchenette, spreading out crepes and takeout coffee on the counter.
“We are,” Jack answered.
“But it’s your birthday, girlie. We can’t donothing.” Natalia drew her into a tight hug and dotted her cheeks with kisses. “Come on, I got your favorite mocha.”
“That’s because you’re the best.” Lily settled onto one of the barstools tucked beside the counter and wrapped her hands around the coffee Natalia handed her. The first sip of sweet, chocolaty coffee breathed life into her lungs. She took the second sip slower, savoring it, and glanced at her friends.
Jack had cut their hair, probably in preparation for the upcoming school year, and Natalia had her camera bag slung over her shoulder. “Got a shoot today?” Lily asked.
Natalia placed two strawberry-and-Nutella crepes on a plate and passed them to Lily. “Yeah. Engagement session by the lake at eleven.”
Good for the happy couple. At least someone was lucky with love.
Once Natalia was seated beside Lily and she’d triple-checked that Jack was comfortable standing on the other side of the counter, they dug in. Though the food had cooled some intransit, it was still delicious. It was hard to find a breakfast food Lily didn’t like.
“What are you gonna do about work?” Natalia asked between bites.
A fantastic question. While she’d been certain she was making the right choice when she strode into South Side MMA and turned in her resignation letter the morning before, her bank account wasn’t quite so sure. “I met this guy at the charity dinner last week who was interested in my work. He runs the gym that’s hosting the Local Legends fight.”
During the dinner, she hadn’t been sure if Roger actually cared about her social media prowess or if he’d simply hoped to unnerve Neal and Kieran, but now that she needed a job, it was time to find out how earnest he’d been.
Jack traded their fork for their coffee cup and offered a hum of approval. “A bigger gym would mean more money.”
“And more work,” Natalia added.
“I don’t mind.” Lily shrugged and speared a loose strawberry. “I’d like to stay busy right now.”
“How are you doing, anyway?” Natalia placed a comforting hand on Lily’s shoulder. “I know it’s only been a day but like…do you wanna talk about it?”
“I just don’t know what to say.” Lily stared at her plate. She’d played the weekend over a million times in her head, trying to find the moment it all went wrong—or had it never been right? Had she misread his signals? Was she that blind? “We were never even dating. He said from the beginning he didn’t want strings so, I don’t know, maybe it’s my own fault for getting attached.”
“Or maybe it’s his fault for being a little bitch,” Natalia grumbled under her breath.
Lily hid her smile behind another sip of coffee. Leave it to her best friend to always have her back. “It just is what it is.He said he can’t put me first, and I’m grateful for the honesty, because I wanna be first. I want someone to choose me.”
“I know.” Natalia squeezed her arm. “Someday someone will. I know it.”
“I know, too.” Lily swallowed the lump in her throat. The tip of her nose was beginning to itch—a telltale sign of tears to come.Dammit.She exhaled. No more tears. She could get through this. “I just wanted it to be Kieran.”
ChapterThirty-Four
With the Local Legends fight creeping closer, Kieran’s training lightened to keep him limber but not overworked. He still sparred with his team. He still taught the self-defense class. But without Lily there, challenging him and brightening the room with her smile, work became a relentless march of days. Not even Seb’s smart-ass quips could pull more than a half-hearted smile out of him.
On Thursday, Maeve stayed for dinner. Saoirse made an impressive mashed potato snowman. He divvied up the leftovers and waved them off. With Danny sequestered in his room, Kieran took care of cleaning the dishes and the kitchen.
The house was tidier than it had ever been. Back-to-school shopping wouldn’t be until after the tournament. He already had his clothes for tomorrow laid out on his dresser, and he’d checked the batteries on the smoke detectors and the filters on the air vents. If there was another mindless task to keep him busy, he couldn’t find it.
Thunder rumbled in the distance—a low murmur running like an undercurrent beneath the patter of the rain on the windowpanes. Kieran’s gaze dropped from the little riverstrickling down the glass and settled on the black screen of his phone. His reflection frowned back. He’d checked after work if Lily had posted a new video on Hit It. There hadn’t been any updates since Maeve left, either.
God, he missed her.
Guided by muscle memory, he unlocked his phone and swiped until he found her again in his camera roll. Copying Danny’s dance moves in the bowl of a canyon. Shrieking as Alex and Ilya tossed her into shimmering, dark blue water. Gazing up at the fireworks, their colors spiraling in her eyes. Dancing in her seat after the first bite of a sugary crepe. Laughing as she outlasted fighter after fighter doing wall sits. Basking in the morning sun, the wind off the lake threading through her hair and calling her back to its waters.
He’d all but handed his selkie her seal coat. He had only himself to blame for her absence.
“Whatcha looking at?”
