Page 96 of Crack the Ice

I’ve lost all ability to form a coherent thought as my eyes read and reread those three words over and over and over. My mind travels back to a day when we sat in my old kitchen, a day that ended similarly to this one. She’d signed a birthday card for one of her friends, and as she tied a bow on the present, she slid the card under it.

“One of these days I’m going to sign these cards. “Love, The Reeds,” and it’ll be the only way I refer to us.”

I started looking for rings right after that. It’s always been us, without a doubt.

“You’re perfect, Cess. You know that?”

She turns, wrapping her hands around the back of my neck. “I’m not, but I think we make a pretty great team, and I was thinking… You can totally tell me no if you want to.”

I press a gentle kiss to her nose, smiling down at the woman who pulled me out of the dark after wandering around lost for years with no hope of being found. “I’d never tell you no, unless it was dangerous. You want the world? I’d find a way to put it on a platter and give it to you.”

“No, I don’t want the world. I want you and these kids. And maybe, one day in the future if we can figure this parenting thing out…” She bites down on her lip, eyes falling to the floor.

I place my fingers under her chin, tilting up until she’s looking at me. “Ask me what you want to, Cecy.”

“Before I had my surgery, I froze some of my eggs,” she rushes out.

My hand falls from her face. Did I… Did she? There’s still a chance we could have our own kids.

“Right, no. I knew that was a dumb idea.” She tries to turn away from me, but I stop her with my hands on her shoulders.

“Stop,” I say, harsher than I mean to. “I wasn’t—no.” My head shakes as I take her face in my hands. “You’re telling me that we can still have kids? Our own kids, in addition to the ones we have the privilege of having now?”

She nods. “If that’s something you want, yes. I don’t know the logistics. We’d have to find a surrogate, and we’d, of course, have to test the viability of both my eggs and your sperm, but–”

I silence her with a kiss, a searing, heart-stopping, mind-numbing kiss. “I don’t care about the logistics, Cecilia. I don’t care if your answer is no down the line. You still held onto that option. You made sure there could still be a choice. If that’s something you want to explore one day, I’m on board one hundred percent. If this is the last time you ever want to talk about it, then that’s fine too. I’m happy with you. You are all I need, with or without the additional kids.”

“Smooth talker,” she mumbles under her breath as she ducks under my arm and checks on the lasagna in the oven.

I don’t know how long we sit in the backyard, eating, drinking, and talking about anything and everything like we did when we were younger, but eventually our bubble bursts when her brother walks out the back door.

“Disgusting.” His arms cross over his chest as he looks between the two of us, her sitting between my legs, her back to my chest and my arms wrapped around her waist. “I never thought I’d see the day the monk would be so loose.”

“Are you calling me uptight?”

“Are you telling me you’re not?”

“Not when she’s around.” I kiss the top of Cecilia’s head.

“Yep, I’m out. The kids are back, already in their rooms, but Lily had some things she wanted to tell you. Cade’s a little heart throb. He learned that backward hat thing from you, said you gave him “swag.” Monore and I laughed the entire way back here. Reed and swag?” He swats the air, waving at us over his shoulder. “Good night, lovebirds. Try not to scar the children.”

The door shuts behind him, and the tension in my forehead grows. “I have swag, right?” I ask her.

Her hand wraps around my shin as she stands, hips swaying as she walks toward the door. I wonder if she’d like it if I bit her ass. I’m going to try it next time. It’s extremely tempting.

“You wouldn’t know swag if it hit you in the face, Mavy.” She tosses me a wink and disappears inside, letting the door click shut behind her.

God, please don’t let this be a dream.

* shit

THIRTY-THREE

CECILIA

“Okay, so what you’re telling me is that we either have to get married for this to go any further, or Mav does it by himself now, and then I can file an amendment once we get married?” I ask the lawyer as he bites into one of the cookies I just took out of the oven.

Today is my new manager Bridgette’s first day, and she’s doing a bang-up job of getting things organized. My stress level significantly lowered when she told me we weren’t operating in the red and things hadn’t gone completely off the rails, so when Mav asked if he could stop by with the lawyer, I didn’t hesitate to say yes.