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“I only made a phone call,” I promise, helping her sit on the bench. She’s wearing a dark purple dress that hits her knees with leggings underneath it. The lace of the dress covers the top of her hands and I can see she’s hesitant to trust this. “I’ll help.”

I move to kneel on the ground and untie her boots. As I pull them off, I grin as I see the skulls on her compression socks and I find myself rubbing her feet.

“Alastair…”

“I’ve always thought you have the cutest feet,” I admit, opening my duffle bag. Thank god I didn’t have to check the ice skates, or I would have been later. There weren’t very many options for flights and I was lucky to book the one I did. “I want to run something by you.”

“Mmhmm.”

Her eyes are curious as I put on her skates, making sure they fit well. I leave her to lace them because that’s based on preference and climb back up beside her.

“Ci, Draven, and I put Zayn in our wills recently. We didn’t say who he is or anything, but he’ll get everything in our estates,” I explain, putting on my skates. “I know you have everything handled in his day to day and I don’t want to insult you by offering. The only family we have is each other, so it just made sense.”

“That’s very generous of you,” she whispers, pulling a pair of fingerless gloves from her bag. “There’s no way I can be mad about something that’ll happen years down the line.”

“Good. Come skate with me.”

“You’re way too chipper about this,” she grumbles.

“And you’re beautiful. I think you’re getting the better end of this. Grab my hands and use me to stand.”

There’s an odd glint in her gaze before she takes my hands as I stand in front of her, and then she’s shuffling off to skate. I watch as she gets used to the ice, gliding along beside her.

“It doesn’t matter how long you stay away, your body remembers,” I murmur, watching as her cheeks heat. Hmm. I was talking about skating. Each push of her skate gets smoother, and her body relaxes as if she was born to do this. “I bet you were cute skating as a kid.”

“I wouldn’t know,” she murmurs, twisting to skating backward. She checks over her shoulder to make sure she’s not going to crash into anything, but she has a lot of ice to move through. I also wouldn’t let her hurt herself. Not anymore.

“Why?” I ask.

“I don’t have any photos from my childhood. The social worker didn’t think to grab anything since the house was a crime scene after the murder-suicide, and I was left with nothing. All I have is the muscle memory of skating,” she explains.

“Fuck,” I sigh. I didn’t think about what it would mean for her to be removed the way she was. “I have a hate-love relationship with the evidence of my childhood.”

“How is that?” she asks, taking her turn effortlessly before skating properly. I take a deep breath in and out, knowing she can handle herself. If she falls, she’ll get up. The idea of it bothers me much more than it once did.

“My mother divorced my dad when I was little and I don’t remember her very well. It didn’t really affect me for some reason. I spent most of my time with nannies, which is probably why. I didn’t bond well with anyone, until Ci and Draven,” I reply. “I didn’t ask my dad for much, and playing hockey is something I fell into because I was good at it. I begged my father to make sure we’d all be able to attend the same school. I was obnoxious about it, and Dad pulled some strings. I didn’t make a big deal about it and it got me what I wanted. I don’t think Ci or Draven realize that I had them rezoned.”

“Hmm.”

“When I fall for someone, it’s hard,” I mumble, shrugging. “In seventh grade, it was lust. I met my best friends that summer and I wasn’t going to allow us to slip away. Long distance is very difficult for me, Noor.”

“Noted. I’m not moving.”

“Didn’t ask you to,” I reply. “However, we will be wracking up some serious frequent flyer miles.”

Her lips twitch, but I get no other response as she leans forward and stretches as she skates. Her leg is strong and straight, and I can’t help but ghost my fingers down her sock covered leg.

I wait until both her feet are on the ice before I continue speaking. “Our track record isn’t the best. Are you scared of having sex with us?”

“I think you have a long way to go before you see me naked,” she shrugs. “I have a hard time with how intense the three of you are together. It makes me feel small, and I don’t like that.”

“Feeling small isn’t helpless,” I murmur. “I wish we’d worshipped you instead of trying to squish you like a bug. Even then… I promise to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. The money is definitely not worth it. I thought getting Ciaran away from his parents and staying together was the only prize.”

Noor’s skates slow down and I stop, my hands moving to her waist as she walks in place.

“His parents were abusing him. It doesn’t make what we did any less awful,” I sigh.

“I saw the black eye and wondered,” she says. “It didn’t fit with practices. Neither did his shaved head. You were protecting what was important to you, and I was collateral damage. Ah, you should probably know that I told my mom that your father is money laundering through her school.”