Page 69 of Break the Ice
Finley is different with Jayden. Her smile is brighter and her laugh is breathier, like it is being pulled from all the deepest parts of her. So maybe it is.
Anything is possible with Jayden. That’s why we’ve become close; because he makes it easy to co-exist. To forget all the fucking awful shit that’s ever happened. He’s normal and happy and?—
“Everything okay?” He asks me cautiously.
No. Yes. I don’t know.
So I settle for, “Yeah. Sure, everything is good. I’m coming up.”
My feet carry me straight to the elevator. Thankfully it’s still on our floor and it takes me all of five seconds to make it up to the rooftop garden.
Every time I come here, I’m blown away by how beautiful it is. And each time, I tell myself that it’s a perfect place to get away from the world outside. Except that the silence makes it impossible not to think too much, too hard.
The view of the city opens up all around me as I take up the steps tothe pool area. Low music greets me from the small speaker on either side of the balustrade before I lay eyes on Finley and Jayden sitting on the sun bed farthest from the water while Auguste is braced on the edge of the pool. Every time he yells out a random letter, Jayden makes losing buzzer sounds.
“Dude, you might as well give up,” Jayden calls while Finley announces, “You have two more guesses before you’re hung.”
Seeing her like this, with Jayden and Auguste, eases the noose that’s been strangling me since Ryker skated out onto the ice. She looks happy and at ease...
A knot forms in my chest. Guilt that I haven’t given that to her. It should be me making her smile like that. I should be the one brightening up her day.
“Eli,” Auguste calls, bringing my focus to him momentarily, “help a brother out.”
Finley chuckles, all too aware that I suck at Hangman. Numbers have always been my forte. Something we always laughed about as balance between us.
“Okay,” I say, blowing out the pent-up breath that’s left in my lungs.
I’ve always been safe with Jayden and Finley. Although Auguste and I aren’t close, he’s cool.
Jayden likes him.
So there’s nothing for me to worry about here. Nothing that will hurt me.
Perching on the edge of the sun bed, beside Finley, I look over the page she’s scribbling on. Her writing is so neat and easy to read, nothing like my awful scrawl.
“There’s no way you’re going to get it. There’s one guess left,” Jayden tells me with a cocky grin that has my mouth tugging up into a smile.
“We’ll see,” I muse while I take the page in. When I glance up at Finley, she gives me a big smirk. “No vowels…”
There’s nothing like the confidence glowing in her eyes to remind me of why it’s important for me to make sure she’s never dragged back to Havenview.
I can’t lose her again.
“Want a clue?” Finley bats her lashes up at me.
“No, thank you, ma’am.”
“Are you sure?” She sing-songs with a sassy nip to her lip.
Good God, she’s gorgeous.
My mouth is watering as I lean sideways, into her, and my pulse kicks back against the squeeze of my chest when I inhale her sweet scent as deep as I can. Before my intrusive thoughts ruin the moment for me, I press my lips to her cheek.
It feels like the first time I did it. The same longing twists in my bones and warms through me while my hand falls to her smooth thigh.
“I’m sure,” I whisper into her ear with another light peck to her cheek.
The tremor of her shiver rolls through me in a wave of unprecedented contentment. The kind that has every thought and worry fading to nothing. All that’s left is light and sunshine.
