Page 143 of Break the Ice
“Shoot, I forgot to tell you, we’ve been invited to the game, and one of the guys on the team is having a birthday party…”
“Is he hot?” Christina doesn’t miss a beat as she grabs her phone and searches up the Comets’ player roster. “Which one?”
“Matheo Hillier.”
“Well, I’m definitely not washing my hair tonight,” she answers my question with her eyes bulging out of her skull. “The team photos don’t do him justice.”
Holding out her phone to me, she flicks through her image search ofComets Matheo Hillier body.
“Did you really search for his body?”
“Of course, I’m a girl of simple pleasures. If I’d searched for a girlfriend, thenthatwould be a problem.”
Handing her the bag, I pull the tickets out of the envelope and offer them to her while I read the note again, admiring Jayden’s handwriting.
Today really is the best day.
I can’t contain my emotions as tears flood my eyes, and I gulp down air like it might somehow help draw them back into my ducts.
“Hello again, Pennyworth,” Christina croons, waving her fingers in the direction of the door behind me.
When I turn around, the doorman is standing there holding a white urn-like vase with the same flowers that Elijah used to pick for me when we were kids along with the lilac wisteria from my grandma’s porch and cute accents of columbines, spiraea, and fully bloomed wild roses.
It’s beautiful.
The wild garlic and chervil give the sweet, scented flowers a savory,earthy undertone that is simply divine. I can’t stop inhaling the subtle perfume, and when the breeze hits from the open balcony doors, the brine of the ocean deepens the scent, wrapping it around me.
I close the door with my heel before heading back out to the balcony with the vase cradled in my arms.
“Well, someone is trying to impress,” Christina says, taking a long sniff of the flowers when I put them down and pluck the card from the middle of the bunch.
Happy first day of work.
So proud of you, Angel.
Eli xox
I’m vibrating all over at the message. It reminds me of the times Elijah would leave me an iris under my seat or in the hymnal rack. He’s always been sweet and sentimental; a side of him I adore.
Running my fingers across the silky petals, I settle back into my chair, allowing the warmth of the sun to soak into my bones as I fall into my most treasured memory of us…
Golden speckles flicker in the muted light from the twinkle lights draped from the beams on the ceiling and the candles dotted around the corners of the shed while my grandma’s small record player crackles beside me with her favorite Elvis record, ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’. It’s been played so many times; the sound is scratchy as it murmurs around us.
This is not what I thought my evening would be when Grandma asked Mom for me to stay with her tonight to help her prepare for tomorrow’s feast day. I never imagined I’d be meeting Elijah here.
“How are you so sweet?” The question tumbles from my lips choked with emotion.
A deep flush spreads across his face in the soft golden light around us. “You were sad that you couldn’t go to the graduation prom, so I figured we could do our own.”
“That’s… ummm… thank you.” I don’t know what to say. I thought he invited me here to hang out together. Every second we get from now on really is a moment closer to losing him.
I’m a woman now, and he’s a man. Although The Elders changed their mind about Naomi from Ohio, it’s only a matter of time before they find him a wife. It won’t be long now for them to auction me to the highest bidder. Whoever will have more to offer for my hand.
Somewhere in my heart, I’m still hoping that we can be birds. We can fly away together.
“I know the church shed isn’t the same as a fancy hotel in Portland.”
“It’s perfect,” I tell him, wrapping my arms around him so tight that I feel the heated thrum of his heartbeat pulsing wildly through him.
