“Yup!” Brooke kicks her legs around, almost hitting me. “And she laughs then. So I go tell Uncle Grey, and Uncle Grey always gets mad with Daddy. Also, when Daddy says no to a new Barbie, I tell Uncle Grey and he gets me a new one. Like today! I gotfivenew princesses, Luan.Five.”
…What? She couldn’t decide on just two, so I got her all five.
As her uncle of some sorts, I have a duty to spoil that kid, okay? I am supposed to be the single, rich uncle who spends his days on yachts after I retire in a few years because my limbs are stupidly unusable. And as said Uncle, I am obligated to buy my friend’s kids anything their parents won’t. It’s the law.
I pull tightly on the skate laces, making Luan gasp one more time.
“Grey Davis, that’s rudely tight. I feel like it’s cutting off the blood circulation to my feet,” he complains. I ignore him and move over to the other foot. “I get it. You want my feet to fall off so that you can make sure I cannot run after anyone else as you want me all to yourself.”Of course.“It’s adorable, really. I feel honored, and although I can admit, I’d love for you to be head over heels for me, I think we should take it a little slower. Maybe go on a date first, you feel me? You ghosted me for almost a year, so I think it’s only fair you give me a second to weigh my options first. After I decide on you, you may cut off my feet.”
Almost a year. It’s beenthree months.
I look up to meet his eyes. My mouth opens but no words pass my lips, and so I close my mouth again.
This guy is definitely… something.
“So, I take it you can still feel your feet then?”
Luan nods. “A little.” And so I pull the strings a little tighter. He wheezes in response. “A little tighter and I swear my feet will fall off. Should that happen, you can explain to my parents why their only child now no longer has feet because I sure won’t tell them this story.”
“You’ll find a day to tell that story, don’t worry.”
“That wasn’t my concern—”
I pull onto the strings once more. “Still feel your feet?”
“Nope.”
“Perfect.”
Chapter 4
“my devil is the devil that’s inside”—Shadow Of Mine by Alec Benjamin
June 2023
“When I was six,my best friend’s parents took us to a skate park because they believed me when I said I knew how to handle a skateboard. I couldn’t, in fact, I barely knew how tostandon that board without falling right off. Anyway, fast forward a hot second and I stand on that ramp, ready to skate that thing down when Charlie yelled stop. He startled me so much that Ifelldown that ramp. Well, I slid down, kind of. I was lucky to not have broken a bone, though that would’ve been cool at least to six-year-old me.”
Is this my long and bad way of saying that I amnotready to step on the ice? Yes.
Does Grey understand a single word of those I just uttered? I don’t think so because that man doesn’t even react. He steps on the ice like that’s the most normal thing to him ever. It probably is.
But it’s not for me.
During a normal summer day in Malibu, I fear slipping on the fucking pathway, so imagine my fear right now.
I only agreed to come here because… honestly, I don’t know why. I was mad at Grey for ignoring my presence up until he stood there right in front of me. Somehow, the second our eyes locked, all of my madness left me with my breath. When he stood there in all his sexy glory, a perfectly fine reasoning to hold a grudge evaporated into thin air. Poof. Gone and left no crumbs.
So when he asked, sort of anyway, my brain couldn’t think of a reason as to why I shouldn’t go to a stupid ice rink with him, when I know for a fact that I cannot skate.
I am confident, more than what’s good for me, but standing an inch away from slippery ice with atoddlerskating like she’s been a professional figure skater for fifty years has my goddamn ego crumbling bit by bit.
I will not be able to skate that effortlessly, let alonestandon this ice without almost slipping while Grey stands there, holding out his hand for me, knowing fully well that the slickness of the ice isn’t an enemy to him and that he will not fall on his face and break his beautiful somewhat pointy nose.
I am just about to get my shit together and take his hand when Grey voices a question that has my entire body freeze to a more solid ice than the one beneath his feet. “So, where’s Charlie now?”
Where’s Charlie now… That’s a very good question.
Instead of answering, I smirk at Grey. “Is that a personal question, Grey Davis?” If I recall correctly, I am not allowed to ask him personal questions. Well, I can ask, I just won’t get an answer, and him showing interest in my life is about as rare as his text replies. Or any responses, really.