Page 62 of Crack the Ice

* honey

* Markus, is that you?

* Cecilia Samuels, you have some explaining to do

* I need you to be nice to them

* Markus took the head off my doll

TWENTY-TWO

MAVERICK

“Do you want to come over? I’d like—” I look at the kids standing outside the car door. “We’d like to show you something.”

She smiles, angling her head toward the ground and using her hair as a shield as she pushes a piece of gravel around with her foot. “I didn’t drive here. Mom picked me up earlier, so if you don’t mind taking me home later, then sure. Just let me take the Palmeras out of the oven, and then I’ll be right back. Okay?”

I nod, hitting the unlock button on the key fob and climbing in the driver’s seat. Cade hops in the front, and I don’t think much about it, that is, until she comes back out and walks straight for the door. She freezes for a second before smiling.

I unroll the window. “Get in. He’ll get in the back.”

“No, it’s okay, I’ll sit by Lily.”

“It wasn’t a question, Cecy. Get in the front.”

A blush covers her cheeks as she bites down softly on her lip. “Okay,” she says, reaching for the door handle.

“After you, my lady,” Cade says as he hops out and offers her his hand.

She snorts out a laugh, and it’s music to my ears. Plus, it pulls a smile out of Cade, so double prizes.

“You’re quite the charmer, Cade Jackson,” she chides.

“I learned from the best,” he says, closing the door behind her.

“So,” she says, clicking her seatbelt on. “What do you have to show me?”

Lily bounces in the back seat, her hands balled into fists held up by her face. “We redid our rooms, but we might have done yours too.”

Cecilia’s silence as I pull out of the driveway makes me a bit uncomfortable. Was that an overstep? A bit presumptuous maybe? “We can change it if you don’t like it. It felt like you when I saw it.” I add cautiously.

She reaches up, wrapping a strand of hair around her finger before twirling it a few times, before she admits, “I’m sure it’s great. I’m not the best with change. Especially an unexpected change.”

I see Lily deflate in the back seat, and so does Cecy. Her hand meets the back of my headrest as her torso twists toward the backseat.

“Don’t do that, sweet girl. It has nothing to do with you.” She clears her throat, bringing Lily’s attention back to her. “Do you know what autism is?”

Lily’s head shakes, and my eyes move to Cecilia as I roll to a stop at a light. What does autism have to do with anything?

“When I came back from Spain right before I met you, I started seeing my therapist. Her name is Megan.” Cecilia’s lips twitch a bit when Lily’s head falls to the side.

“We were working through some of the things I’d started to notice while I was at my house in Marbella. Things I didn’t notice when I was here because I was always around other people.” She pauses, silently checking in with Lily to see if she’s following.

“Sometimes I hum when I’m trying to focus. I have an aversion to loud noises. Sometimes I tend to get stuck in negative thinking patterns that I can’t seem to find my way out of. Then you have the fact that I burst out in song at the most random times, and my brain can’t help it. It has to do it, or my skin starts to itch, and I get anxious.”

“Like when you sing the coconut song?” Lily asks.

The skin around Cecilia’s eyes creases with the size of this smile. “Yes, like that. I knew I had a little bit of ADHD already. But what I didn’t know was that I also have level one autism, which means I don’t need help with everyday tasks, but I do need help with invisible things.”