Page 111 of Cold As Ice

“One whisky won’t hurt.” She smiled. “Besides, it looks like it did a great job of improving your mood.” Her eyes rolled, and I chuckled.

“Touché, Sis. Tou-fucking-ché.”

“For what it’s worth, I am sorry I made you come with me.”

“You didn’t make me do anything. I came because you shouldn’t have to deal with her alone. And yeah, maybe part of me wondered…” I trapped the words, inhaling deeply through my nose.

“You wanted to see if she’d changed.”

I shrugged, draining the rest of my drink. The server arrived then, and I snatched the new glass up, forcing myself to sip instead of down the thing in one.

Fucking hell, I was a mess.

Rory didn’t push. She sipped her whisky in silence, making a disgusted little sound after every mouthful.

“You can get something else,” I said.

“No, we’re doing this.”

“This?” I gave her a sideways glance, arching a brow.

“Yeah. Drinking away our issues. Drowning our sorrows at the bottom of a bottle of whisky. Getting ass over skates drunk.”

“You sound like Connor.”

“I’m glad he worked things out with Ella,” she mused.

“Yeah.” My blood heated, the liquor already working its way into my system. “Can I ask you something?”

“Always.” Rory smiled.

“How did you know Noah was the one?”

“Somebody hold the phone. Are you finally admitting you know that he’s—”

“Don’tpush it,” I warned, but I was smiling, too.

It was probably the whisky and not the fact that I was happy for them.

Nope. Not that one bit.

“Because he made me happy.” She shrugged, running her thumb around the rim of her glass.

“Happy?”

“Yeah. It sounds silly, but I spent so long hating myself, Austin. Wondering what was so wrong with me that people continually hurt me… It was so easy with Noah. He loves me. And he helped me to love myself again.”

“He’s a good guy.”

“He is. The best.” She nudged my arm. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.”

“Wouldn’t have anything to do with this mysteryfriendyou’ve been hanging out with, would it?”

“Yeah, that’s over.” I swirled the amber liquid in my glass, staring at nothing. Mentally recounting all the reasons why cooling things with Madison was a good idea—theonlyfucking idea.

“What? Why?”

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