Wild Tendy (IceCats 2)

He nods. “I’ve always liked you.”

She grins as her gaze meets mine. “I won’t stop looking, but… I mean, I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s not a bad thing. It’s actually a great thing. Imagine how much you’ll be able to save now. If you think about—”

“I know, it’s a blessing,” I say dryly, and she laughs.

“Please don’t go around saying it like that. People will think you’re ungrateful.”

“I didn’t want it! I can pay my own damn bills.”

She gathers her things. “Well, you don’t have that one anymore.” She holds up the folder. “I’m taking this with me. I’ll call you as soon as I know a timeline. And if you do get a call from your fairy godmother, let her know I’m in serious need of a dude like Nico but a whole lot whiter.”

Nico scoffs. “I’m Canadian.”

“That is pretty white,” she teases with a wink, and I lean into him.

“Love you,” I tell her.

Her loving gaze meets mine. “You too.”

She goes out the door, shutting it behind her, and I sigh deeply as Nico glides his lips along my jaw. “Are you okay?”

“I am. Just a little overwhelmed.”

“I can tell.” He kisses my cheek. “Anything I can do to help?”

“I like where we are right now.”

“Me too.”

I cuddle into him, closing my eyes. “How do you feel today?”

“Fine? Why?”

“After last night—”

He quickly shakes his head, holding me closer as if to keep me from asking. “Oh no, I’m fine. Last night was nothing. Let’s forget that.”

I take in a deep breath, and the words are right there.

Tell me why you acted like that.

But I can’t right now. I don’t know if it will start a fight, and where I am right now, deep in his arms, protected from everything, is right where I want to be.

Everything else can’t matter.

Or I’ll ruin it.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Nico

Callie is highly upset.

“It’s unfair!” she complains from the back seat. “Amelia gets to go to Barcelona, and I want to go to Barcelona! She is going zip-lining, and she gets to dance in the streets. I am so very jealous.”

If I weren’t a little nervous, I would tease her. Thankfully, Aviva has it covered. “Oh no, are you? I couldn’t tell.”

“It’s not even fair, Vee! She gets to go, leaving me to train by myself while knowing she’s in the one place I want to go. She wouldn’t even have known it existed if it weren’t for me!”

“Yes, because Barcelona didn’t exist until Ed Sheeran sang about it,” she says sarcastically, and I chuckle as she strokes her thumb along my palm.

“Exactly!”

Aviva glances over at me, annoyed, and I smile. I can tell she’s nervous about meeting my family, but she has nothing to worry about. They’ll love her, and they’ll absolutely adore Callie. I’ve been worried about her since the whole thing with her dad happened, but like Jaylin said, it was handled quickly. Callie is legally Aviva’s now, and it thrills me as much as it thrills her. Callie hasn’t known it any other way, so she’s just being Callie. Which, right now, means driving us crazy about Barcelona.

“We can go. Like, with them. She said Chandler said we can go as long as we don’t talk to them. I am totally okay with that.”

I snort. “Chandler would be the main one talking to us.”

“Right?” Aviva laughs, and I bring her hand to my lips. “That’s enough, Callie. Let it go. We aren’t going yet, but maybe we can get some cool suggestions from them.”

I hear a loud and very dramatic sigh before Callie mutters, “Fine.”

“Don’t act like that in front of Nico’s family. We want them to like us.”

I give her a side-eye as Callie says, “Who cares if they don’t like us? Nico does.”

“Motherf—” Aviva mutters, and I laugh. “Calliope, don’t make me kill you.”

“I think you’re supposed to ground me before you jump to murder. I think there is, like, a stepladder with the whole parenting thing.”

Aviva turns in her seat. “Are you trying to piss me off?”

“I want to go to Barcelona!”

I look in the mirror. “Are you on your period? You’re being a whiny brat.”

Callie snaps her mouth shut, but Aviva points at me. “Yes, what he said.”

“I hate you two,” she mutters, and I reject that.

“That’s untrue. You love us. You want to hang with us and make cake and watch TV and all the other things we do. Stop acting like this, and be the joy we all love.”

She doesn’t have a response to that, but there is peace.

I glance over at Aviva to see if I said too much, but she looks content as we ride out toward the restaurant by my mom’s hotel. She was going to stay with me, but there is hardly room for everyone. When Callie and Aviva stayed over a week ago, it was tight. I didn’t realize how much crap a teenage girl needs to get ready. She basically wears a leotard and high ponytail every day, but she had more shit in my bathroom than I could fathom.