“Oh, no.” Jude groaned. “Listen, we don’t have to talk about it. We don’t. Let’s just pretend Oscar never said anything.”
“Yeah, but he mentioned your grandmother’s ring? I do want to know about that.”
Jude sighed and sank onto the stool near the breakfast bar. I perched on one next to him.
“Kenzie wanted my grandmother’s ring. It’s a nice ring, big diamond in a platinum setting. But I only wanted to give that to… well… to someone special.” He cleared his throat. “After a few beers, I told Oscar I couldn’t give it to Kenzie because I realized I didn’t love her. And… well, I admitted I… liked you.”
“Like?” I protested. “I thought I was your living, breathing love thing!”
“You are.”
“Prove it,” I said and crossed my arms.
Jude exhaled. “I don’t think you’re ready. I think you’re going to freak out.” He studied me with concern.
“I’m not going to freak out.”
“You will, though.” Jude cradled his arm in a sling. “You freak out whenever anyone talks seriously about their feelings. You run for the door. Anytime anyone even so much as says ‘we,’ you have a panic attack.”
“I’m not going to this time.”
Jude still looked skeptical.
“I’m calling time-out on freaking out,” I said.
“I don’t think you can just do that.”
“Why not? I just did. Russo nearly killed you. And… the more my brother says I can’t have you, the more I want you.” But it was more than that. I remembered when I had Russo in a headlock. When I could have killed him. When I might have, too, except for Jude. “You make me want to be a better person. One who”—I couldn’t believe I was about to say this—“follows the rules. Who does the…” I wrinkled my nose because I was starting to sound very cheesy. “Right thing.”
I might be impulsive like Mateo and sometimes vengeful like Russo, but at the end of the day, the truth was, I just wanted to be more like Jude.
“Really?” Jude looked brazenly hopeful. The bright puppy-dog hope in Jude’s eyes did weird things to my stomach. “Because I’ve been in love—in like—with you forever. There’s no person on earth who knows me as well as you do, Ella, who makes me feel as seen as you do.”
I remembered all those holiday meals, Jude standing awkwardly at the edges, me mocking him, but still bringing him into the conversation. The way his eyes had lit up whenever I’d come into the room, and I thought it just meant he was excited to have someone to mock.
It had never occurred to me that it was because he was genuinely happy to see me. That he’d maybe been crushing on me all these years. That maybe when he’d made sure that Oscar could never sneak any mushrooms onto my plate, he’d done it out of love.
I could imagine exactly what it would be like to be with Jude. Relentless, varsity-level teasing, but at the same time, he’d put his body between me and any mushroom that ever crossed my path. And I’d protect him, too, from bullies, from Russo, and from anyone else.He’d been a good partner, a loyal one, and I realized that all this time, since I’d been fired fromCrime Hive, he’d been the only one to truly believe in me, the only one telling me that I was a decent detective.
I still wasn’t sure I wanted to settle down, to be in a committed relationship, but for the first time, I let myself think seriously about it.
“You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met,” Jude continued. “Not only are you a certifiable black belt badass, but you’re smarter than almost anyone. You are a unicorn of all the unicorns. A woman who knows what she wants, what she’s capable of doing, and isn’t afraid of any of the bad guys. You use your powers for good, always for good, always to help others.”
“I’m not always good,” I said, thinking about my temper. “They call me Thin Ice for a reason.”
“You are good, Ella. Always.”
That wasn’t true. I wasn’t always good. But I wanted to be good. Maybe that was enough.
“You’re the good one,” I said, putting my hand over his. “And I still don’t know about my living, breathing love thingie…”
Jude held his breath.
“But, I had a crush on you when I was twelve,” I told him. “I thought I grew out of it, but turns out, I didn’t.”
He grinned at me and I grinned back.
“That’ll do,” he said.
