Page 37 of Twisted Devotion

“Anyways,” he says, jerking his thumb toward the menu on the wall behind him, “what can I get you ladies? My treat.”

I wave him off. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I insist,” he counters, grinning. “I haven’t seen you in years. Let me buy you a coffee.”

“Just let the guy pay, Kels,” Allison cuts in, then orders a vanilla hazelnut latte.

Reluctantly, I give in and order a matcha latte, watching Kyle work at the coffee bar while Allison natters on about the mediocre date she went on last night. She and Monica have been seeing each other, but neither seems ready to call it a relationship. Evidently, that means they’re both still seeing other people. We met up with Monica while traveling in search of allies against The Experiment. She was Max’s sister, and Max was Tristan’s best friend. Max died to save Aurora, and after that, Monica and Allison started spending a lot of time together.

After our drinks are ready, I thank Kyle and say, “Let me grab your number. We should get together and catch up sometime.” I’m still going to be around for a while, so there’s no harm in seeing an old friend.

“Absolutely.” He grabs a coffee cup sleeve and scribbles his number on it, holding it out to me. “I work most weekends, but I’m free some nights during the week.”

“Great,” I say. “We’ll figure something out. I’ll text you so you have my number.”

“Sounds good to me. It was really nice to see you, Kelsey. You were always my favorite.” His cheeks are tinted pink and the aura clouding around him is light and fluffy. It’s not romantic, but the affection is there, and it warms my heart.

I shoot him a wink and the moment I realize I’ve done it, the image of Jackson winking at me flashes in my mind.

Ugh.

He’s rubbing off on me.

“Right back at you,” I tell Kyle.

Allison grabs my arm the second the café door closes behind us, and my latte sloshes around in my cup. “Okay, spill. There’s definitely a story there.”

I shoot her a dry look and pull my hand away. “I told you the story. He was one of the kids in the last foster house I was in before aging out of the system,”

Her eyes narrow slightly. “There’s more, though, isn’t there?”

“I’m not sure what you mean bymore, but I’m inclined to disagree.”

“You’re telling me you didn’t have a crush on your super-cute foster bro?”

I chuckle. “Uh, not really. We were more like friends, or, you know,brother and sister.”

She waves me off. “Please. I don’t buy it.”

I shrug, taking a sip of my latte.

Damn. Guy makes a mean matcha.

“I don’t know what to tell you. The backstory you’re looking for doesn’t exist,” I say.

She huffs out a sigh. “Well, that’s disappointing.”

“Yeah, foster care wasn’t exactly rainbows and unicorns.”

Allison frowns. “Right.” She shakes her head. “Shit, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” I know she didn’t mean anything by it. Allison has been nothing but kind to me since I became part of the fae world. And with Seth not around, it’s nice to know someone has my back.

“If you ever want to talk about it. You know . . .”

I smile softly. “Yeah. Thanks, Allison.”

Aurora messages our group chat while Allison and I are on our way out of the café, inviting us for lunch and a visit, so we get into my car and head for Aurora and Tristan’s place.

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