Page 65 of Carved in Ice (Made of Steel 3)

“He was laughing and holding some other girl’s hand when I visited him. They looked smitten if you ask me.”

I frowned. “What did she look like?”

“Short. Frizzy brown hair and glasses. I actually kinda thought they were dating.”

Phew. “No, that’s just Liza.”

“The other girl that lives here? You’re sure they’re not hooking up?”

“No, she’s my friend. She wouldn’t do that.” Right? “Besides, she’s madly in love with V.”

Kins laughed. “Oh, yeah, I get that. Geez, he really does look familiar though. Not his face obviously, but his build. I know I’ve seen him before without the mask. I just can’t place it. That thing that messes with his voice doesn’t help either.”

“Tell me about it. I’ve been trying to solve the mystery of V for months.”

“So that’s it? You’ve been together will Eli this whole time? That’s great. We can still go on double dates.”

“Actually I’m not really supposed to leave the apartment. And we haven’t been together this whole time. We recently decided to give it another go.”

“So…”

“So…nothing.”

“You told me you kissed V once. Back when we were still roomies. Remember that?”

“Yeah.” I shrugged. “We had a short tryst.”

Kins laughed. “Doesn’t that make things awkward?”

“A little. Speaking of relationships, how are you and Patrick doing?”

“We fight a lot. About you mostly.” She smiled. “Not that I’m blaming you. I blame him. He wouldn’t believe me when I insisted that you weren’t guilty. He’s been so annoying. All he ever wants to do is talk about it. And I didn’t want to talk about it, I was upset.”

“I’m really sorry that I left. I thought the note would…”

She laughed. “Oh, your very informative note that kept me completely in the dark but with just enough intrigue to make it impossible to forget about you? Thanks for that.”

“Intrigue? I just said goodbye and that you were my friend.”

“Best friend. You called me your best friend and asked me to forget about you. Best friends don’t forget about each other.”

I smiled. “I guess not. I noticed that Miles moved out.” The words just came out of me like vomit. I couldn’t even swallow them back down if I tried. I had been dying to ask her about it ever since she showed up in her dorm.

“He did, unfortunately.”

I was just about to tell her that Miles was the childhood friend I had talked about, but she kept going.

“The whole thing was really weird. He stopped by our room before he left actually. He wanted me to tell you something if I ever saw you again. Hold on, I wrote it down because it was so strange.” She pulled out her phone and scrolled through some notes. “Here it is. He said, ‘Seasons change but they always return.’ What on earth do you think he meant by that?”

Seasons change but they always return. Summer. Summer was a season. He was talking about me. I thought about how V always said I wasn’t Summer anymore and that I never could be. Miles was saying the exact opposite. He knew who I was. And he believed a part of Summer still existed inside of me. That had to be what he meant. “Did he say anything else?”

“Nope that was it. Like I said, it was really odd.”

“But why did he leave?”

“He said he needed time to figure out what he wanted. I guess he was having a crisis over what to major in.” She shrugged. “I miss his sexiness in the halls. Our floor isn’t the same without him. And the new R.A. is such a bitch.”

I laughed. “Why do you say that?” Miles needed to figure out what h

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