Page 83 of A Touch of Frost
Exhaling deeply, I cleared my throat and set my beer on the glass table.
“How are you guys doing?”
“We’re okay.” I replied. “She’s still a little wary around me.”
“Wary?”
“Maybe that’s not the word I should use.” I told him. “I don’t think she’s used to me yet.”
“Give it time.”
I nodded and after another swallow from my beer, I leveled my eyes on him. “You did love her, right? I think it would mean the world to her if you were in love with her.”
Mozart smiled. “I did. We were young and I was too caught up with what other people would think. It wasn’t anything she did or didn’t do. Then add my demons, to hers and things just wouldn’t have ended well.”
“Do you regret it?”
“I regret not giving us a chance.” Mozart told me truthfully. “But after all these years, I know we made the right decision.”
Silence.
“Look, Jesse.” Mozart put his bottle down and dragged his chair so he could face me. “You do realize Frost and I are over? We weren’t on long enough to be a thing. And besides, she only has eyes for you.”
I wasn’t sure how long we sat there after Mozart said all that. But it made me feel much better.
Eventually, he headed out and I was left to the silence of the house.
The next day, Frost left me to head into the shop. I spent the day catching up on clients, designing and contemplating design changes to my studio. On top of all that, I needed new pictures for ads and the like.
I worked closely with my assistant via video conferencing and got plenty done but I stopped working about an hour before Frost was due to get home.
Since I was home, I started working on dinner.
The sky grew dark, and it began raining just as the roar of Frost’s hellcat echoed around us. She ran into the house, soaked from the short run from the car to the front door.
I greeted her with a kiss before insisting on her going up the stairs to change from her wet clothes before doing anything else.
When she descended the stairs again, I handed her a crystal class with a shot of whiskey.
Frost smiled. “You’re spoiling me.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
She kissed me. “No. Not at all. How was your day?”
“Good.” I replied, bringing out plates for dinner. “I got a lot of work done.”
We talked about our days throughout dinner. While I filled the dishwasher, she helped me by handing me plates and other things to put in.
“I spoke with Wolf today,” Frost said. “They want me to testify at Striker’s team’s court-martial.”
That caught my attention immediately. “Okay—how do you feel about that?”
“Well.” She drained her glass and handed it to me to load into the dishwasher. “I don’t want to betray them, but I also don’t want them to walk away to do this mess to someone else.”
“First, you have to understand you don’t owe this team any loyalty.” I told her. “You owe them nothing. If it was up to them, you’d be dead. Who you do owe something to, are the new soldiers, or soldiers who aren’t aware of their bullshit being paired with them and having their lives be put in danger. Think about them.”
“Can we talk about something else?” Frost asked me. “Like how you’re feeling about what Tex found out about your father. What are you going to do?”
