Page 77 of The Fractured

“Oh. Yeah.” I frowned. “I’m so sorry that happened to her. And you. I can’t begin to imagine how stressful it was—”

“Kira?” Chloe’s little voice pulled my attention back to her. She held a purple glitter gel pen in my direction and smiled shyly. “Will you sign my cast, please?”

My mouth fell open in awe, and I hurried over. “Oh my gosh, I thought you’d never ask! It’d be my honor.”

Chloe giggled, and I took the pen and signed my name across her shin. I added little flowers too.

Several minutes later, I was introduced to Anita’s husband, Don. He was a hulking type of guy who wore glasses and spoke softly, and sported an apron as he came to let us know dinner was ready.

We followed him into the kitchen to lend a hand with plating, while the girls waited in the front room.

There was a large homemade salad, seasoned roast chicken that smelled like paradise on a plate, and fresh bread rolls all laid out on the counter.

“Kira,” Anita said as she sliced up an apple and plopped the pieces into a baby bowl with cartoon dogs on the side. “Mind grabbing the ginger beer from the fridge?”

“On it.” As I went to collect the drinks, I noticed a large colorful poster on the wall beside the fridge. It was a Haitian language poster.

Seb was picking up the salad bowl, closest to where I was by the fridge, when I turned to join him in walking back to the front room.

“You’re Haitian?” It was a question from genuine curiosity.

“On our grandmother’s side. Anita wants the girls to learn and embrace their heritage. Their minds are like sponges.” We stopped in the doorway separating the kitchen from the living room as Seb chuckled. “My brain, though?” He swiped his hand over the top of his head.

Anita overheard the conversation as she gave little Mia her bowl of apple slices. “He’s lazy with his Duolingo lessons.”

I laughed and nudged Seb’s arm. “We could learn together. Maybe having someone to bounce conversations off could help.”

His brows raised, and he placed a hand on his chest. “You’d do that for me?”

I shrugged. “I’ve always wanted to learn another language. It’ll be fun doing it together.”

After dinner, Seb and I wandered outside into the lush but simplistic garden at the back of the house. We stopped on the patio as I admired some of the plants growing alongside it.

For a moment, we were in silence, comfortable and content, before it drew out longer than I expected. I even had to check that Seb was still outside with me. He had gone so quiet.

When he was caught watching me, he offered a small smile and looked down, rubbing the back of his head as he hummed. “So, I have a question.”

“Okay?” I drifted closer, watching him curiously.

“What do we do after this?”

“With us?”

He nodded, sliding his hands into his pockets as if to stop himself from touching anything. “Well, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of you. But I know we’re getting things back to normal… I really like you, Kira. Like,a lot, a lot.” His kind brown eyes settled on me. They had a sort of yearning in them that made my heart skip. “I don’t think I can handle beingjustfriends with you anymore.”

A smile was quick to spread on my face as the butterflies in my stomach amped up tenfold.

He stammered and quickly backtracked. “That made it sound like I wouldn’t want to be your friend anymore if you did say noto anything more between us. Because if you did want to be just friends, I’m down with it too. It might take me a little while to get over how I feel, though—you have my heart in a chokehold.” He laughed nervously as he continued the rambling. “Or we could try friends with benefits? Honestly, I’m down for whatever you want. You say jump, I’ll sayhow high,kinda thing—let me rephrase—”

I grabbed his face in both hands, and his eyebrows shot up.

“Shut up and kiss me, Seb.”

Chapter 28

Dean

The blue and pink lights of Castello di Vetro cut through the hazy cigarette smoke that lingered in the back area of the strip club. The booths in this spot were black leather and provided a comfortable spot to sit and observe the rest of the room.