“I’m fine,” Grace said through gritted teeth when Alix opened the passenger-side truck door. “I just need a minute to recover.”
“Uh-huh,” Alix said. “Here, I’ll just carry you.”
“Don’t you dare.” Grace’s warning came too late. Alix leaned in, hooked an arm behind her knees, and swept her up in a full bridal carry with only moderate effort.
No amount of the Spice Girls screamingGirl power!at her tween heart could’ve stopped Grace from being hopelessly smitten by the ridiculous act. But even if Alix’s hold on her was incredibly steady, she still let out a sound somewhere between a shriek and a laugh. “Don’t make me use your middle name.”
“Don’t fight it,” Alix said, grinning. “Heroic rescue in progress. Also, it’s Lynn, just in case you need to know it.”
“Noted,” she replied because she didn’t trust herself not to respond in a Disney princess sigh if she said more.
The front door opened just as they hit the porch. Helen stood there in her robe, blinking against the swirl of snow. “Oh my,”she said, utterly delighted. “If I’d known it was that serious, I’d have made a wedding cake.”
Grace hid a smile behind gloved hands while Alix shook her head. “Just some boot drama.”
Helen stepped out of the way. “I won’t ask.”
Inside, the house smelled like cinnamon and pine, like warmth made tangible. Alix carried her to the couch while Grace’s face burned with embarrassment. Alix looked down at her with that easy grin, snow melting on her lashes.
“Okay, hero,” Grace said. “That was unnecessary.”
“You just called me a hero, so now I’m thinking it was entirely necessary.” Alix crouched to tug off her boots. The wet squelching sound that followed was mortifying.
“Pretty sure you called yourself a hero first,” Grace said, unable to mask her pain.
“Jesus, Grace,” Alix murmured, inspecting the damage. “You’re walking nowhere until I fix this.”
Grace tried to protest, but Alix was already gone, returning with a plastic bin labeled BOOT & BLISTER KIT.
“Don’t laugh,” Alix said. “Breaking in my first pair of Docs in high school was a blood sport.”
“I would never mock someone for footwear trauma,” Grace said, smiling faintly.
Alix knelt at her feet, tending the blisters with quiet precision. Grace’s pulse thudded in her throat. Every brush of Alix’s fingers was too gentle, too intimate. The lamplight turned her skin to gold, her short hair to dark silk. Grace could hardly breathe.
“You’re good at this,” Grace managed.
“Well, my mom didn’t approve of the Docs, so I got good at hiding the blisters and my pain,” Alix said with a smirk, but Grace saw the real scars that had nothing to do with shoes.
The moment Alix was finished and sitting next to her on the couch with hot cider, Grace asked the question that had been weighing on her. “How is it for you being back here? With your mom again?”
Alix’s thumb traced the edge of her mug. “Weird,” she admitted. “Good-weird, I guess. But it’s like walking through an old photo. My mom had a plan for me through my whole childhood — college, marriage, horses, the whole checklist. When I didn’t want it, she didn’t really know what to do with me. I guess Matt and I are similar in that way. I kind of wonder if she’s turned a bit nicer because she’s just given up on any expectation at this point.”
Grace nodded. “Expectation can be a hell of a thing. I know that one.”
Alix turned her face up toward her with a curious expression. “Yeah?”
“My mom came to Miami as a little kid totally on her own,” Grace said. “She just suddenly lived with a bunch of strange nuns. She didn’t even get to see her parents again until she was in her twenties. And when she had me, and my sperm donor was a no-show, she worked nights. She worked days. My mom did whatever she had to for me to go to private school.” Grace admitted a truth she’d known her whole life but never spoken aloud. “She never said it, but I knew I was supposed to make it worth it.” Her throat was suddenly raw and her chest sore from breathing in the cold for so long. “Every grade, every step… it had to count. Had to be the absolute best I could give. It wasn’t about me. It was about her and my grandparents’ sacrifice.”
“That’s… a lot for a kid,” Alix said, her tone as gentle as a hand on her arm.
Grace shrugged, eyes on the fire. “You get used to performing worthiness. It becomes muscle memory.”
“Yeah,” Alix murmured. “Except you actually did it. You became someone people look up to.”
Grace smiled faintly. “Maybe. But it still feels like I’m running a race I didn’t sign up for.”
Alix hesitated, then leaned over and wrapped her in a hug. Grace stiffened, then melted into it. Alix smelled like smoke and snow, and her heartbeat was a steady rhythm against Grace’s cheek.
