Page 99 of The Ice Queen in the Corner Office

“You’ll love it there, Dad,” Willow said from the hallway. She’d spent the day with Dad, getting him ready for the move. She’d be staying at my place that night and heading back to Catalpa Creek in the morning. She seemed better, calmer, but her eyes were still haunted. She walked right in and gave Jill a hug. “I’m glad Alex talked you into stopping by.”

Jill smiled at my sister, but her gaze was wary and a bit annoyed when she looked back at me. She quickly turned her attention to my father. “I just wanted to say in person that I’m very sorry for your loss. I’m sorry I wasn’t at the funeral.”

Dad grunted. “‘S’okay. We all know you’d a been there if it weren’t for Alex dicking everything up.”

“Alright,” I said. “I’m standing right here.”

“Not anything I wouldn’t say to your face, son. You two staying for dinner? Willow’s cooking your momma’s fettuccine Alfredo.” He looked at Jill when he said that, so I knew the recipe had come from her mother. My father never mentioned my mother. He’d never admit it, but I suspected he was angry at her for leaving us the way she had.

“We’ve got reservations somewhere else,” I said. “Another time maybe.”

“Don’t mess it up this time, idiot,” Dad said.

I waved at Willow and my father and practically shoved Jill out the door. She smiled at me in the waning sunlight, the sun setting on the chilly day. “I like them.”

“That makes one of us. Come on. I’ve only got fifteen minutes left.”

She let herself into the car and I got in behind the wheel. I wished I could read her, could guess what was going on in her head, if she was any nearer to forgiving me, but she still had on that damn mask.

I started the car and, before I could pull onto the street, she looked at me and smiled and the mask slipped just enough to give me an idea of what life could be like with this woman by my side, on my team, in my corner, every day.

“You said we have dinner reservations. I’m not going to be able to finish a meal in fifteen minutes.”

“I’m hoping I can convince you to give me a bit more time.”

Her smile widened, but her mask rose firmly back into place. “I have to eat, anyway.”

I nodded, pulled into traffic, and drove down familiar streets. “That’s where I went to elementary school,” I said, pointing out the building on the right. It had seemed enormous when I was a kid, but it looked tiny now, especially with boarded windows and an overgrown playground. “I ran a lot of laps on that playground.”

“Chasing girls?”

“No, running literal laps as punishment for disrupting class.”

Her brows rose. “You were a trouble-maker?”

“Hard to believe, I know,” I said with a smirk. “But, yeah, I was a serious trouble-maker.”

I drove another couple blocks. “That’s the high school.” That building was still in use, judging by the looks of it. “Man, I hated that place. Couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there. Had a plan to get my GED and get a job working in construction, anything that didn’t require me to sit still all day.”

“Lot of girls, there?” she asked.

I grinned. “I might not know much, baby, but one thing I learned a long time ago is that talking about exes is never sexy. So, I’m going to go with no comment.”

She kept her gaze on the building like she was looking to unlock some secrets from my past. I kept driving.

I pulled up in front of a two-story brick house that had a sign hung on the front, MUSEUM OF HISTORIC ATLANTA. “And this is where I was arrested when I was fifteen.”

She stared at me, shock over all her features. She wrapped her arms tight around her middle. “What happened?”

“It was as dumb as you’d think. The museum is minuscule, filled with worthless artifacts, but there was a rumor going around that some expensive jewelry had been donated. I didn’t even bother to go during business hours and find out for myself. I just hatched a plan. I figured the place didn’t have security, so it should be simple. I’d walk in, get the jewelry and walk out. Fin was the get-away driver.”

“But you didn’t get away.”

“Nope.” I shook my head at my own stupidity. “The stuff in that building might seem worthless to a moronic kid like me, but it was worth enough to warrant a basic alarm system. A silent alarm system. Fin took off as soon as the cops showed up, and I got sent to juvie.”

“That must have been awful.” Tears glistened in her eyes.

I smiled to reassure her. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me. Juvie was misery, which convinced me crime doesn’t pay. I made a friend in one of the guards, a young guy, not much older than me. He taught a few classes there, too. He convinced me I could do more if I wanted it bad enough and went about getting it in the right way. I got my GED, got into college with the help of financial aid, and worked my ass off.”

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