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Melly winced. “Grannie.”
“My granddaughter is lonely,” Rose said. “She spends too much time working or sitting alone in her apartment. She needs to get out. Have fun.”
Melly pinched her eyes shut and curled her shoulders forward. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
I cleared my throat, hard enough it was going to ache if I kept doing it. “I was engaged, but it’s over.”
“Are you on the rebar?” Grannie asked.
Melly and I frowned.
Grannie tittered. “Oh, my mistake. Rebound’s the term.Rebound, not rebar.”
“Grannie,” Melly shouted. “Stop! I’m here to explain your case to Elrik. Nothing else.”
“There’s no harm in asking him if he’d like to attend a function with you. The church offers plenty of—”
“I’m ending the call, Grannie,” Melly said sharply. “I’ll tell you everything when I get home.” She gouged her finger against her phone, cutting off her grandmother’s protest. “I’m terribly sorry.”
“I’m not. Tell me something.” My voice suddenly came out fluid. Confident, for whatever reason. I leaned back in my chair. “Would you ever consider dating an ice lord?”
3
MELLY
Yes, yes, please, I wanted to shout. From the moment I met Elrik at Tuvid and Angie’s wedding, he was all I could think about. I even asked Angie to give him my number, and she said she did, but when he didn’t call, I assumed he wasn’t interested.
“Didn’t you say you just ended a relationship?” I asked. Maybe hewason the rebound. Everyone said rebound relationships didn’t work out, and the last thing I needed to do was get tangled up in something like that.
“My ex-girlfriend is marrying my brother,” he said, dragging his fingers across the back of his neck.
No wonder he hadn’t called me. He was pining over the woman he loved who was marrying his brother.
He smiled, but even I could tell it was fake. “We all grew up together. I’ve known Brittney pretty much from the day she was born.”
“Is she an ice . . . lady?”
“Yes, that’s the term, and yes, her family is the samespecies as mine. There aren’t many of us left. From the time I was thirteen or so, I had a crush on her. We started dating about a year ago, but when I returned from my latest search-and-rescue mission, she told me she was marrying my brother.”
I gulped. “Marrying?”
“Yeah,” he said with a twist of his lips.
“That sucks.”
He grunted. “It does. She said they fell in love. They’re getting married. My heart . . .”
“Your heart what?”
“I’m going to be alright.” He frowned, and while I admired his medium blue skin, he raked both of his hands across his thick black hair. His shockingly—no, icy—blue eyes met mine. “I’m doing my best to move on.”
“When did you two break up?”
“Three months ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Some things work out, some don’t.” His fake smile rose again before quickly disappearing. “It’s for the best.”
