2. Zero Chill

2

Zero Chill

B ridge linked her arm through mine and barrelled down the sidewalk. “I’m fucking freezing,” she complained.

“Well, it’s fucking cold,” I answered.

Swinging the door open, we clambered through.

Bridge’s entire body convulsed with her shiver as she stomped the snow off her feet. “Is this ever going to melt?”

“It’s March. We’ve got at least a month. This far north, maybe two,” Susie answered, throwing her arm around Bridge and easing her away from the door. “Come away from the cold.”

Releasing her, Susie turned to me, taking both of my cold hands in hers. “It’s good to see you, Shae darlin’.”

“It’s good to see you, too, Mama S,” I murmured. “How is Quinn?”

“Oh, you know, keeping on keeping on. Do you ever hear from her?”

I shook my head. “No, but that’s my fault. I left everyone behind when I left Sage Ridge.”

Her face fell. “That wasn’t your fault, Shae darlin.’ Only so much a soul can take.” She looked over my shoulder before turning back to me. “Um—”

“Come on,” Bridge seized my hand. “I see Max. Let’s go say ‘hi’.”

Rolling my eyes, I smiled at Susie and allowed Bridge to guide me over to Max’s table.

“Hey, Max. Introduce me to your handsome friends.”

My head snapped up, my jaw dropped, and I stood, red-faced and mute, before the one who broke my heart.

The one whose heart I broke.

Immediately, I closed my eyes to shield myself from the ache. Was there ever a greater pain than your first broken heart?

We were just kids. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t my fault. And it was a lifetime ago .

I opened my eyes to find his gaze steady on mine. My eyes skittered away to wander over his face.

Laugh lines radiated out from the corners of his startling blue eyes. His skin, tan even in the dead of winter, gave a nod to his black Irish heritage. The perimeter of his full lips had firmed with time.

Would they still feel the same if he pressed them to mine?

His midnight black hair was shorter but still as messy as ever, his temples dusted with the barest hints of gray. I could almost feel its silky strands between my fingers, grasped in my greedy fists.

That sharp, stubborn jaw jutted forward. Did he still have that same competitive streak?

Was he married? My smile dropped as my eyes flew to his left hand.

Did he have children?

It didn’t bear thinking about.

I schooled my features though my voice shook. “Hello, Gabe. It’s been a while. How are you doing?”

His black eyebrows flew up like wings, his blue eyes sharpening on my face before adopting the cocky smirk that led me into more trouble than I was willing to remember. “Fine, thank you, Shae,” he teased. “Are you well?”

My face flushed. “I am.” I wasn’t. Not at all. “Thank you for asking.”

He snorted and leaned back. Tipping his chin up, he challenged, “Don’t act like you don’t know me.”

My jaw dropped before closing with an audible snap. “Well, it’s obvious you don’t know me anymore,” I retorted, “or you’d know I don’t like surprises.”

Julian leaned forward, using his body as a temporary barricade and side-eyed Gabe. “Did we not just discuss how to treat a woman?” he joked in the deepest voice I’d ever heard in my life.

Bridge touched my elbow, her eyes tight, before addressing Max. “We’re going to go find a table. We’ll catch up later?”

“No, please,” Gabe insisted. Half rising out of his seat, his mouth twisted to the side. “I’m being an asshole. Sit. I’ll behave.”

“You don’t know the meaning of the word,” I muttered.

Bridge looked at me, her eyebrows hitting her hairline. “Do you want to sit?”

Julian turned to Gabe, his voice low, “What the fuck was that?”

Gabe shook his head. “A blast from the past I wasn’t expecting.”

Without answering Bridge, I grabbed a spare chair from the table next to us and pulled it up to the end of the booth, my eyes cast down to give myself time. The truth was, I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to.

Not yet.

Julian retorted, “So, she’s not the only one who doesn’t like surprises.”

Gabe snorted. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”

Julian chuckled as Bridge eased around me and waved Max further into the booth. “I’ll just sit here,” she said slowly, her eyes wide.

Pinning me with those eyes that used to soften only for me, Gabe demanded, “So what brings you home? I thought you left us all behind for the Big Smoke.”

There was no avoiding this confrontation. Forward as always, he wouldn’t allow it. Trying not to eat him up with my eyes, I looked through him as I answered, “I moved back to Mistlevale a year ago.”

“Yeah? You bring your husband? Fiancé? Boyfriend?”

Julian huffed. “Man, you’ve got zero chill.”

Gabe laughed, the rumble I’d missed so much for so long touching me in all the places that had long grown cold. “I never did have any chill with Shae.”

I didn’t catch what Max said to Bridge but heard Julian chuckle before joining their conversation.

In a room full of people, there was only Gabe and me, the same now as it was then.

I surrounded myself with people and never once escaped the loneliness. Back in his presence for a couple of minutes, I came alive.

Picking up his beer bottle, he tipped it up to his mouth.

I watched his lips wrap around the bottle.

My mouth went dry.

His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat.

I watched it, hungry, jealous to take the place of the bottle encased in his hand.

Tattoos peeked out from under the cuffs of his long sleeves. Those were new. But after more than twenty years, there probably wasn’t much of anything that wasn’t.

“She’s my Achilles heel.” His delayed answer was for my ears, not Julian’s.

My eyes snapped to meet his, catching the hint of a smile in his blue eyes.

There he was .

I smiled back. “Funny,” I murmured. “I always saw you as my black knight.”