Page 39 of Ice Queen

“You told her I paid for a thousand dollars of her coffee?” Taking the pup cup from the counter, I put it on the ground for Maggie.

She snickers. “Well, you did, didn’t you?”

My finger points in her direction. “That’s not the point, and you know it.”

Maria sighs. “Markus, live a little, would you?” She flings a white towel over her shoulder, turning to pull a cheese pastelito from the case. “She’s a nice girl. You’d make beautiful babies.”

“Ay, Mi Madre!⁠*” My hands fly through the air, eyes rolling before I focus back on her. “Maria, really?”

She clicks her tongue, holding out the bag for me. “I may be old, but I’m not blind.”

I’m still shaking my head, something close to a real smile on my face, when the sound of glass shattering has me spinning around so fast that Maggie’s leash almost trips me.

There, across the street, is a huge hole in the window of Kait’s store. Her head peeks up from behind the counter, the look in her eye springing me into action before a coherent thought can form. That’s the same look on her face that I saw the night we met.

No, not again.

* Oh, my mother

CHAPTER 14

Kaitlyn

The glass shattered, and I ducked behind the counter faster than I could blink. One deep breath, two deep breaths, three. My hands shakily reach for the countertop, steadying me as I stand.

The hole is huge, like, there’s no way I can have that fixed today. “No,” I whisper, my eyes floating closed as I realize I now can’t stay here. There’s no way I’ll feel safe with no way to keep anyone out.

“Kaitlyn!” My name is bellowed from across the street. My head turns, and I register both Markus and Maggie running toward me. But it doesn’t feel like it’s me. I feel like I’m watching my life happen from the outside in.

Large, warm hands land softly on my face, but my eyes stay trained on the broken glass.

“Hey,” he whispers, but the way his hands tremble against my cheeks, I know he’s holding himself back.

“Are you okay?” His voice acts as a tether, drawing my eyes from the damage to him. The steel gray they normally are, now resemble dark clouds over the ocean before a storm. Angry, with a hint of violence, they trace over me like a visceral touch. Looking for damage or reassurance, I’m not sure.

“I’m fine, just sad.” Stepping out of his hold, I pick up the object that I assume broke the window from the ground. It’s a baseball, a well-used one from the looks of it. I toss it into the air a few times, contemplating throwing it right back out, but then the sounds of police sirens make me think better of it.

I place it on the counter, cross my arms, and lean my head on them. This is going to cost me a fortune, and don’t even get me started on dealing with the insurance company.

“Ugh!” I groan.

Markus’ hand runs up and down the length of my spine in long, smooth strokes. Each pass relaxes me more than I’d like to admit. I couldn’t tell you the last time I broke down in front of someone, and I was probably in high school the last time someone comforted me while I did.

“What do you need?” he asks. The sound of glass crunching underfoot fills the otherwise silent bookstore.

“I need to talk to them.” I raise my head and nod at the police behind him.

“Knight,” Markus says, holding his hand up to shake one of the officers' hands. Is this man friends with the police? Just how much trouble does he find himself in?

“This is Dex, Abby’s brother.” The officer steps around him, giving me a disarming smile. He’s blonde like his sister, but his eyes are different, a light shade of blue as opposed to her brown ones. His eyes flick to Markus a couple of times, as if he’s waiting to see if he’ll give us some room, but he doesn’t.

“Officer Knight.” He extends his hand, and I shake it. Something about Markus being here and that he knows this officer calms my nerves.

I peek at him over Officer Knight’s shoulder, and he nods, grabs Maggie’s leash, and heads to the back of the store. He doesn’t leave, but doesn’t hover, just silently lets me know he’s here if I need him.

By the time we’ve gone through everything and they’ve looked over the security footage no less than twenty times, they deem it an accident. Some kids threw it and ran when it made impact. But they promise to do a deeper dive at the station where they have the means to do so.

They asked if I wanted to press charges, property damage, and all, but I can’t be mad about it. It was clear they were playing. And an accident doesn’t deserve the kind of headache that it would cause. It does leave me in quite the pickle, though. The glass company came out quickly, but the earliest they could fix everything is Friday… Next week.