Page 94 of Fractured Ice

"That's between you and Emma."

"Just tell me⁠—"

"It's not mine to tell." She looks at him steadily. "You need to talk to her."

He looks like someone has reached into his chest and taken something out.

"She won't talk to me," he says.

"That," Rory says, "is something you're going to have to figure out."

He stops.

He stands up.

"Knox," I start.

He walks out of the room. The front door opens and closes with a sound that isn't quite a slam but isn't gentle.

I start to follow and Jace's hand lands on my shoulder. "Give him a minute," he says quietly.

I look at the door. The room stays quiet for a long beat, and then Rory exhales and leans back against Jace's arm and looks at the ceiling.

"What happened?" Sienna asks.

Rory shakes her head. "That's between him and Emma."

I think about Knox on the couch weeks ago, saying not that girl, that Sienna wasn’t the girl for me, except he’d been talking about Emma. I think about him standing in the same spot at the Spring Fair for an hour waiting for Emma's shift to start. I think about the stack of cash on the kissing booth table and Emma flipping the closed sign and walking away.

She liked him. And something happened. And now she hates him.

I can spot a man who is head over heels for a woman when I see it. We recognize each other. But now that he knows the problem exists, can he fix it without knowing what the problem is?

I sit down and pull Sienna into my lap because I need her close right now, and she comes without argument and settles against me. I wrap an arm around her waist and feel something in my chest unknot slightly.

"You really do need to go," I say into her hair.

"I really do." She doesn't move.

"Emma's waiting."

"She is." She tips her head back against my shoulder. "One more minute."

"One more minute," I agree.

We sit like that while Rory and Jace resume their quiet conversation across the room, and the house is unusually still without Knox in it. I think about what it costs to want someone for a long time without knowing if they know, without knowing if they think you'd hurt them deliberately, and I hold Sienna a little tighter.

"Okay," she says. "I actually have to go."

"I know."

She turns in my lap and faces me, and I put both hands on her face and kiss her properly, the way she deserves to be kissed, slow and thorough. She makes a sound and kisses me back and from across the room Jace says, "For the love of—" and Rory laughs.

I ignore both of them.

When we finally stop Sienna is slightly flushed and trying to look like she isn't. I'm grinning like an idiot, and she shakes her head.

"Your girlfriend has to leave now," she says.