Page 191 of Break the Ice
It feels like the beginning of something bigger than both of us.
Something that might finally set us free.
CHAPTER 58
ELIJAH
It’s early evening when Jayden joins us at the dog park. Auguste is still talking to Finley about what Samson needs and doesn’t need. What he likes and how he likes it. If I wasn’t fond of the pup, I’d be regretting my impulse decision to invite him to stay with Finley. Then again, I need to be certain she’s not on her own. She’s had enough of that to last a lifetime.
“How was the meet-and-greet at the hospital?” I ask when Jayden drops onto the bench beside me.
His eyes go straight to our girl. When he spots her chasing Samson, he exhales like he can finally breathe again. He’s not wired anxious like me, but Jayden loves hard—so hard it steals his own air sometimes.
“Kids are always the best meet-and-greets,” he says, a soft laugh chasing the words. “There was this cocky little shit who kept roasting Matheo. What a legend.”
Despite his upbeat tone, there’s a tilt to his mouth, the kind that fights off sadness and doesn’t quite win.
“Is the kid gonna be okay?”
He shakes his head. “She needs a double-lung transplant, but she’s so sick, they keep moving her down the list. They’ve tried everything. Trials, every protocol. Now she’s too weak to survive the surgery.”
My chest knots. “That’s… shit.”
“Yeah.” His voice roughens. “Alyssa’s mom said they’ve been through hell…”
I look at him, at the taut line of his shoulders, and think of whatFinley said on the beach today—about him being part of us. About us being bigger than the weight we carry.
Jayden is a constant ache. A desperate need. Where Finley is my moon, pulling at the tides of my existence, Jayden is my sun—relentless, burning, impossible to ignore.
And I want to give him everything he gives the people he loves. Even if I don’t know how.
“Why don’t we talk to the PR office?” I say. “Get the team involved. A fundraiser, something that actually helps.”
He drags a hand over his face. “What if it’s too late?”
“For the kid? Or Dylan’s baby momma?”
“Both.” His laugh is humorless. “I called my momma three times today. When she ignored my last call, I called my mom. If I call my dads, they’re gonna think I’m losing it.”
“Nobody’s gonna think that. It just means you love her.”
His smile barely flickers before fading again. “Since her remission, I never thought about it coming back. Not really.”
I nudge his knee with mine. “That’s not a bad thing, JJ. Worrying about what might happen just steals from what is.”
That gets the faintest twitch of his lips.
“When did you start handing out existential pep talks?”
“Since you needed one,” I admit.
He huffs a laugh, shaking his head, but his eyes stay sad. And I hate it. I want him laughing the way Finley laughs when she forgets the Fellowship ever existed.
“I still believe good things happen to good people,” he says quietly. “But fuck, Eli—Paige is a good person. That twelve-year-old kid?—”
“JJ.”
“Maybe I’m wrong.”
