“Out emotionally.”
He grinned.
Isa’s cheeks went pink, but she didn’t look away from any of them.
That killed me a little.
The girl who had frozen while her mother called me a prize had crossed half the country, stood in snow, said she loved me in front of a family of strangers, handed me a ring, and then survived Jace’s circus without hiding.
She was trying.
For me.
For us.
And I was still mad.
I was.
I was still hurt in places I didn’t know how to bandage.
But under all that was something bigger, louder, stronger.
I wanted her.
Not the way I’d wanted her before. This was worse.
This was want with the door unlocked.
Want with her heart finally in her hands.
Want with the word love alive between us and no fake rules left to hide behind.
Jace’s mom must have seen something on my face because she suddenly clapped her hands.
“All right, everyone. Give them space.”
Jace opened his mouth.
His mother pointed at him. “Especially you.”
“I’m supportive.”
“You’re nosy.”
“I can be both.”
Isa laughed.
The sound went right through me.
Jace’s mom turned to us with a soft smile. “Guest room at the end of the hall is yours. Extra blankets in the trunk. Towels in the bathroom. And if anyone bothers you, tell me.”
Jace’s cousin whispered, “Don’t bother them, they’re about to?—”
Jace slapped a hand over his mouth.
Isa’s eyes went wide.
