Page 17 of Crack the Ice

After all this time, those words should slide right off me, but they don’t. They cling to my skin like the chill of winter. I turn, my hands wrapping around the cart handle, jaw working overtime to keep from unleashing a tirade that’ll get us both in trouble. It’s always ‘just his sister,’ not Cecilia Samuels, successful bakery owner and entrepreneur. It’s exhausting.

If I weren’t already shaken from the little interaction with Mav and the kids earlier, this would have been the thing that completed the spiral that started at the rink.

I’m trying my hardest not to be mad. I told him to go. I always tell him to go. But just once, I’d like him to tell me no.

He shows up for Cade and Lily, as he should, and I feel like such a colossal bitch for being resentful of that. They deserve every good thing this life has to offer, and he’s a good man. It just sucks that his goodness often comes at my expense.

Markus picks up on my frustration, because he catches everything and pushes through the crowd, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and guiding both me and the cart to the checkout. “Sorry, Cecy. I know you hate that.”

“It’s fine.” It’s not fine, but it’s also not his fault. “Did you get everything you needed?”

He nods, handing his card over to the older lady behind the register. “Except paint, but I can get that later.” Taking back his card, he slides it into his wallet before picking up all the bags at once. “Want to go have dinner?” His brows dance across his face as he waits for my answer.

I sigh. I have so much to do, but I’m already out of whack. If I go home or to the bakery, I’m going to be paralyzed with all the things I didn’t get done, and not know where to start. Then I’ll be even more frustrated because I’m aware of all that needs to be done, but my brain can’t catch up. Cue tears and probably more than one ice cream sandwich. My brain is such a fun place to be sometimes.

“Come on, Cecy,” he whines. “It’s been such a long time since we’ve hung out just the two of us.”

My lips tick up at the corner. “Okay, fine.” I pause for a second, trying to figure out what I’m in the mood for. “Ramen?”

His conspiring smile is all I need to know. We’re getting ramen, and then we’re going to wreak havoc on our parents afterward. The first time we had ramen as kids, our uncle told us it gave us ninja superpowers. So every time, and I do mean every time, we had ramen after that, we turned into ninjas for hours. My mom hated it. Dad loved it, but he loves everything, and he played along, which made it even more fun.

Huh, maybe this is exactly what I needed today.

SIX

MAVERICK

“Get outta here, Monroe. Your wife is waiting for you to call her.” I yell as I grab my bag and head out the side door, away from the main hallway.

We had a shutout tonight, and damn, did it feel good this late in the season. I pull out my phone expecting some texts from the kids as I walk to the bus, but when my phone is uncharacteristically void of anything, my skin grows clammy.

I drop my bag outside the bus and run to the back, putting my headphones in and FaceTiming Cade. I need to see that they’re okay.

“Hi, Reed.” His face comes into view, and the giant smile on it has the tension bleeding right out of me. But then my eyes narrow, and I realize they aren’t at my house, or Kelsey’s.

“Where are you?” I ask. “Did you guys even watch the game?”

He chuckles and turns the phone around so I can see the room. My jaw falls open when I see Cecilia braiding Lily’s hair, Kait on the other side painting her nails, and Kelsey and Lana sitting on the loveseat on the other side of the room.

“We hung out at Cecy’s. Apparently it was kidless night, and Kait and Cecy watched it here instead of with the Wilders and Lettie.”

“That’s not what happened, well, not fully,” Cecy says.

Cade chuckles again, and it’s like he’s a completely different kid than he is with me. He looks happy. Like genuinely happy. “The Wilder babies are sick. Lettie didn’t want Cam and Mia around it, so she stayed home, and we came here. We had pizza and french fries. Cecy made it all. It was so good.” He finishes and smiles over at Cecilia.

She smiles back and nods when she sees my face before turning back to Lily and tying off her hair. “Alright, all done,” Cecy says, patting her shoulders.

Kait lowers Lily’s hand and echoes her sister-in-law.

“They look great!” Lily’s excited little voice carries across the room. “Look, Reed!” She turns and puts her arms over the backs of the couch. Her brother gets closer and helps to show off her navy and white nails.

“Hawks colors, what a good combo, Lils.”

“Thanks! Kelsey’s going to take us to get milkshakes now, right?”

My sister’s laugh drifts through the room before her face slides in next to Lily’s. “You didn’t have enough to eat tonight? Cecilia made enough food to last you a week.”

“Yeah, but she did that on purpose because she loves us. She used to make food for our mom, too.”