Best Served Cold

Marnie snorted. “Actually, he opened next to—”

“Finish that sentence, and I’m telling Mom that the weed she found in your room belongs to you and not Amber,” Chase said firmly. “She needs this on ice.”

She shrugged. “I don’t have ice.”

“Gee, Marnie. I wonder where you can find that in an ice cream shop.”

“Right. How much do you need?”

“Just bring out what you find and a towel to wrap it in.”

Dutifully, she went to the back of the store to get it. Sophie set down the steamer and followed her, leaving us alone.

I caught his gaze. “What was she going to say?”

He shook his head, crouching on one knee and putting my foot on his thigh. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Then why didn’t you let her finish?”

“It’s not important.”

“It clearly is, or you wouldn’t have stopped her.”

“Don’t you have bigger issues than what my crazy little sister was about to say?”

‘Not when it was obviously something you don’t want me knowing,’ I wanted to say.

“Thanks to you, so telling me what she was going to say is the way to apologize to me for being the reason my toe is now probably broken.”

Chase slowly shook his head. “No, it’s nothing. Just Marnie being Marnie. Do you have any painkillers here?”

“No. What was she going to say?”

“Jesus, you’re like a dog with a bone. I’m not telling you.” He glanced over his shoulder. “I’m gonna see what’s taking them so long.” He gently put my foot on the window seat, shifting me around with it, and walked back into the kitchen.

Wasn’t today just going fucking fabulously?

CHAPTER SIX – CHASE

“I can’t believe it,” Sophie said as soon as I walked into the kitchen. “Couldn’t you send her flowers or something instead?”

I glared at Marnie. “You’re fucking dead.”

She held up her hands. “She told me she’d tell Mom about the pot if I didn’t tell her what I was going to say.”

“Don’t tell her.” I met Sophie’s eyes. “Please.”

“Don’t tell her you made the stupid choice of almost ruining her just to get her to talk to you? Don’t worry—I have no intentions of doing that. You can do it yourself when you grow a pair of balls big enough.”

Marnie snatched up the towel on the top of the freezer. “I’ll take this to Rae. And no, I won’t say anything.”

She disappeared out of the kitchen, and I went to follow her.

Sophie grabbed my arm and yanked me farther away from the door. “What were you thinking?” she hissed in a low tone.

“I wasn’t, all right?” I replied just as quietly. “I wasn’t fucking thinking, Soph. I gave her time, and she didn’t talk to me even though I’d done nothing wrong.”

“Then why didn’t you close when it became obvious that she was done with you?”

I tried to speak, but nothing came out. I closed my mouth and swallowed instead, running my hand through my hair. Nothing I said would justify my actions in any way, and I deserved all the crap she and Rae could throw at me for what I did.

It was damn selfish. And I wanted to do nothing more than make it up to her.

Unfortunately for me, my silence told Sophie everything she wanted to know. She touched her fingers to her lips, blinking at me, and then whispered, “You still love her.”

Scratching my nose, I looked away. “I’m not having this conversation.”

“Oh yes, you are!” She grabbed my shirt and stood in front of me. “You’re still in love with her.”

“I thought she’d talk to me. I thought the longer I stayed, the angrier she’d be with me and that she’d talk to me. I didn’t think she’d give me the silent treatment for as long as she has.”

“Yeah, neither did I,” she muttered. “Did you know she almost had to sell?”

I shook my head. “I swear, I had no idea how bad it was. I never meant to hurt her.”

Sophie folded her arms across her chest and looked at me. “I believe you.”

“You believe me? Why?”

“I just do. I don’t believe you’d ever deliberately hurt her. I think you’re a fucking asshole for opening that store, but I don’t believe you did it to wreck her.”

I let out a long breath and leaned against the fridge. “Yeah, try telling her that.”

“Not my job. That’s yours.”

“I’ll wait until she stops threatening me with bodily harm.”

“If you’ve broken her toe at the beginning of her renovations, that might be a little while yet.”

I glanced out at the doorway where I could hear Rae and Marnie laughing together. Marnie had always loved her—having three brothers wasn’t easy. To her, Rae was the sister she’d always wanted.

“Does that steamer still work?” I asked Sophie.

She nodded. “I just turned it off for a bit. Why?”

“Grab it. Let’s finish the wallpaper.”

“What?”

“What?”

Sophie frowned at me. “You’re going to finish the job with me?”