Page 20

CHAPTER

TWENTY

Jett

It’s funny that a month ago, I asked what I had to do to get a hug from the girl of my dreams, and now, I find myself asking what I have to do for someone not to interrupt me when I’m about to kiss her. Because I need to kiss her more than I need to breathe. I’m entranced by her as I sit across from her. So completely gone for her, I’m not hearing anything Jami is saying. She sits in one of the two chairs in front of my desk, while Fable sits in the other. I drink Fable in, wishing like hell we hadn’t been interrupted once again. I’m starting to think that fate is on her parents’ side and no one wants me kissing her.

Not that I care because those lips will be mine.

While her cheeks are rosy in a way that leaves no room in my pants, her lips aren’t swollen from my kisses. Not like they should be. Fuck, she’s a vision. I have to say, though, she’d look better back in my apartment. Beneath my gaze, my hand on her jaw and my lips so close, but not close enough, to hers. I almost bring my thumb to my mouth just to be comforted that my mouth is on something that was on hers.

That makes me crazy, right?

Yeah, maybe.

Fable’s leg is bouncing, her fingers threading and unthreading as she focuses intently on Jami. Fable has her people-pleasing look on her face, the one where she looks at someone’s nose and spaces out. I don’t believe for a second she’s actually listening. That may make me sound like I’m full of myself, but I know she’s fighting the urge to look at me. She gets all tense like this when she is doing something she doesn’t want to do. Unlike her, though, I don’t care if Jami deserves my attention.

Not when I want to give it all to my ice princess.

As my eyes greedily drink her in, I realize I don’t like her so far away. Especially when this impromptu meeting includes both of us. A month ago, I told her to follow my lead, and I was wrong because I don’t want her to follow behind me. I want her beside me. Where she belongs. Unable to resist, I stand up, much to everyone’s surprise. Jami looks at me, confused, while Fable’s eyes go wide when I reach for her chair and drag it with me.

She lets out a shriek, her eyes wild as she yells, “What are you doing?”

I ignore her, moving the chair behind my desk beside mine. I sit back down, and when I look over, she’s still gawking at me. “Jett? What the hell?”

I shrug, not the least bit sorry. “I felt like you need to be on this side of the desk since Jami is here for both you and me.”

Her eyes search mine and I feel Jami’s gaze on us, but I’m locked in Fable’s moss-green eyes. She looks completely flabbergasted by me, and it shouldn’t turn me on, but it does. She blinks a few times, sighs deeply, and then pulls her gaze from me. “Sorry about that. As you were saying.”

When I follow her gaze to Jami, the lawyer is wearing a sneaky little smirk before she reaches into her bag. I swear she mutters, “He was right.” But before I can ask if I heard her correctly, she holds up a white envelope. One that looks exactly like the one Phillip left for each of us. This time, though, the envelope has my name along with Fable’s written in his handwriting. We both go still at the sight, and my stomach clenches as Jami’s eyes move between the two of us, a worried look turning her lips down.

Beside me, Fable asks, “Jesus, what now?”

I can’t help the bark of laughter that leaves my lips. She looks at me, stricken, and I shrug, unsure how to feel. The last letter left me in tatters, and I have no clue what this one could say. As long as he doesn’t ask me to stay away from Fable, I can handle anything.

“Once again, I apologize,” Jami says, pulling my attention from Fable. “I was supposed to give this to you Tuesday, after you’d been here for a month, Ms. Winthrop, but I was out of town.”

Fable waves her off. “No worries. What is it?”

“Another letter from Mr. Winthrop. But unlike the others, this one is to be read by me to both of you at the same time, with no one else present.”

I feel the nervousness radiating off Fable, and when I glance over, she’s fidgeting in her seat. I reach out, hooking my pointer finger with hers. She looks down at it and then back up at me, appreciation in her eyes. God, I could get lost in her eyes, and I wouldn’t want anyone to find me but her. Jami clears her throat, drawing our attention to her. She’s already opened the letter and is holding it out before her.

“My darling Fable and my boy Jett,” she starts, and Fable’s finger tightens around mine. “By the time this letter is read, you two will have been working together for a month. I have it on good authority that things are going well, that things are moving and grooving, and that you haven’t ended up killing each other.”

I smile and Fable grins. “If only he knew it has been very touch and go.”

I chuckle. “Eh, it hasn’t been that bad.”

She flashes me a dry look that has my smile turning to a full-blown grin. I haven’t smiled this much in twenty years, and I know why. She fights back her own smile as she looks up at Jami, being the good girl she is.

Jami continues, pulling my gaze reluctantly to her. “I’m sure things have been just as easy as they were when you were first paired together. Ha-ha. I remember standing there and watching as you two sized each other up. How Fable complained that a hockey player couldn’t figure skate and that she couldn’t skate with Jett. My boy Jett proved her wrong, and she hated it. Weeks turned into months, and the arguing was my favorite part. It meant you two cared and wanted this to work. Even at a young age, you two saw something in the other that you knew you needed. Jett was the calm to your storm, my darling, and Jett, she kept you on your toes. Made you work harder and called you out when you didn’t.”

Jami pauses, taking a breath, while my thoughts run mad in my head. We were so young, but we relied on each other. We had a goal and, together, we made it happen, even when her parents wanted anyone but me to be with their daughter. I have been fighting her left and right, when really, we work the best together. I swallow past the emotion that forms in my throat. I hadn’t realized Phillip had noticed all that Fable had done for me. I am who I am today because of how hard she pushed me. I don’t back down for anyone.

Well, except her.

I look over at Fable, and her eyes are flooded with tears, her bottom lip trembling. I reach over, brushing it softly, and she sighs deeply, her tears spilling over. I catch each tear, wiping it away as our eyes stay locked in an embrace I’ve craved since the moment I saw her skating around in her little white leotard and sheer skirt.

Jami gives us a second, and I feel her gaze on us. I wonder what she sees. Two people reliving their past, brought together by a request from the grave? Fable takes a shaky breath as Jami continues, even though we aren’t looking at her. “I am proud to have watched you two grow, and my love for you, while it comes second to mine for my sweet Kitty, is all-consuming.”

Fable looks at Jami first, and I wonder if she’s feeling what I am. Our time skating together is running like a movie reel in my head, with Damien Rice’s “The Blower’s Daughter” as the theme song. Don’t ask me why, but that song has always described how I saw our relationship. My need for her was so great, but no one thought I was good enough for her. A forbidden love, I guess.

But that won’t be the case anymore.

Because there is nothing forbidden about how I feel for her now.

“Speaking of Kitty, she is the reason for my letter, not that it should surprise either of you.”

Jami’s words have my attention, and I groan inwardly. “Now what?”

“Exactly,” Fable mutters, her finger twisting around mine.

Jami grimaces but continues, “By year two, we knew you two were a force to be reckoned with. I would catch Kitty watching film of the two of you skating before she went to bed. She never missed a practice or a competition. I assumed it was because she cared for you both, but she told me once that watching you two skate settled her soul like nothing else could. Her truth made me wild with jealousy, but instead of pulling a Tonya Harding on you two, I decided to help you guys get even better so that Kitty’s soul was always at ease.”

I press my lips together to keep in the laughter. Fable looks at me, amusement dancing in her eyes. “Did my grandfather just say he wanted to take out our kneecaps?”

I nod. “Yes, which is terrifying, because I’m surprised he didn’t with how much he loved Kitty.”

She grins, her face bright and, thankfully, with no sign of tears. Jami giggles with us, but then she takes a deep breath, letting it out in a rush. She looks hard at the paper in her hands, and I notice a slight tremble along her fingers. “It was hard for Kitty when Jett went to play hockey and Fable went off to individual. She still loved watching you, my darling, but she was convinced you never smiled the way you did when you skated with Jett, and I agreed.”

That shouldn’t please me, but it does. I want to be the reason for every smile. Every laugh. Anything that makes her happy, I want it to be because of something I did.

“Now, I won’t hold anything over your heads. I just hope everything I’ve said convinces you two to honor my wish from the grave…”

I find that I’m holding my breath, and when Fable moves to the edge of her seat, her finger slips from mine. Not enough that we aren’t touching, but enough that I have to lean forward to rewrap our fingers.

“For Kitty’s birthday, I want you two to skate a short program for her. Make a huge deal of it. Decorate the rink in all the pink you can think of and then ease her soul. I know she’s hurting, I know she needs this, and if we’re all honest, you two could benefit from it too. Please, give me this one last request. Love you both, Phillip.”

Jami lays the letter on her lap, and all I can do is blink.

Beside me, Fable’s voice breaks as she says, “Kitty’s birthday is in three months.”

“I haven’t worn figure skates in twenty years.”

“I haven’t skated pairs in the same amount of time.”

Neither have I. “Would we even have enough time to make this happen?”

She’s silent for a moment as I gaze at her profile, obsessed with how her top lip turns up when she’s deep in thought. “It’s muscle memory. We could, but it won’t be easy.”

What would her parents say?

“It only matters what I think.”

Her words still have my heart beating out of its regular cadence. How did she know I needed those words? And now that I have them, I swear I feel a fire under my ass to make her mine. Phillip is right, and it took that letter to remind me of how we started.

How we thrived.

Together.

I want to give her the kind of love that Phillip gave Kitty.

She turns to me, our eyes locking as our chests rise and fall rapidly. I can see it in her eyes, her brain working overtime about how to make this happen. She wants this. The realization hits me out of nowhere, but her need to do this for her grandparents is shining in her green depths. As I get lost in them, I feel the urge to do whatever I can to make this happen.

Not for Phillip or even Kitty.

For us.