Page 27 of Offside Angel

I can handle being followed around if it’s what Zane needs to feel confident that I’m okay, but knowing that Evan will prioritize Aiden makes it even more bearable. There isn’t much I can do to protect them.

But I can do this.

I squeeze Evan’s gigantic hand with both of mine. “Thank you.”

11

MIRA

“I want pizza!” Aiden plops down on the sofa next to me and rests his cheek on my shoulder. “And ice cream. And candy.”

“Do you want to ride a unicorn and learn to fly, too?” Zane asks from the kitchen. “‘Cause that’s just as likely.”

Aiden thinks about it for a second and then frowns up at me. “What does that mean?”

I bite back a smile. “I think that means it’s not going to happen.”

He sags lower on the couch. “No fair.”

Funny, because I’ve had the same thought all afternoon. Since the moment Aiden came home from school with a finger painting he’d made of himself, me, and Zane.

None of this is fair.

I don’t deserve a second of it.

The longer I’m here, the more danger the two people I love most in the world are in, and they don’t deserve that.

Then Aiden dragged me to his room so we could play with his action figures and Zane caught me around the waist and pinned me to the wall in the hallway, kissing me until I was weak in the knees. Leaving them is impossible when they make staying feel so damn good.

I kiss the top of Aiden’s head and he nuzzles closer.

Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door.

Without thinking, I crush Aiden to my side. My heart is racing and my body is tense. “Are you expecting anyone?”

Zane saunters in with a smile that fades the second he sees me. “Fuck, Mira. I should’ve told you—Yes, I’m expecting some people. For both of us. It’s a good thing.”

I blow out a heavy breath, but the tension lingers.

“Ow,” Aiden complains, shoving away from my ribs. “You squeezed me too much.”

I kiss the top of his head again as Zane goes to answer the door. “Sorry, buddy. I didn’t mean to.”

Several voices I’d recognize anywhere float through to us.

“The fact my girl has been home for three days and I’m just now coming over is criminal,” Taylor announces.

“Everyone should get out of the way,” Daniel warns. “She will stomp on your toes with those heels. I’m immune—well, half-immune—but the rest of your little piggies are in danger.”

Reeves laughs. “I think I can handle it. I used to skate with you, after all. You had two left feet on the ice even before you lost one of them.”

There’s a scuffling sound and I have to assume Daniel and Reeves are fighting, because it sounds like Jace is trying to break it up. But all the noise fades to the background when Taylor walks through the door.

She looks exactly the same. Which makes sense because it’s only been two weeks.

But it feels like so much longer.

Taylor flicks her blonde hair over her shoulder and jabs a manicured finger at me. “I’m going to be so mad at you later. But first…”

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