Page 90 of Melting the Ice

Fuck.

I sucked in a breath.

Micah: She’s fine. And pretty busy, so I don’t see her a lot.

Dig. Dig. Dig.

Micah: Harper’s great. She’s a bit like Josie. Two peas in a pod.

Ray: Great. You know Josie’s going to be Josie. Not surprised things didn’t work out with that idiot. I’m sure it won’t be long until she’s moved on and is out of your hair.

My chest clenched. That was the last fucking thing I wanted. I knew that Ray didn’t know what was going on and that I was dating his sister, but it was still a punch to the gut.

Micah: She’s not too bad.

Ray: I love my sister dearly, but she marches to her own drum.

I chuckled softly. It was one of the things I’d grown to love about her.

I hated this secret, hated lying to my best friend, but Josie was setting the pace.

Was this going to blow up in my face?

JOSIE

“What’s so funny?” I asked, trying to keep the edge out of my voice. The edge I’d been on since picking up my brother because I was afraid I was going to spill all my secrets.

Freaking hell, I was being so ridiculous about the entire situation. I was a grown-up. So was Micah. But I knew my brother and his concerns about my dating history, my flightiness, and his stable best friend. Micah was an only child and his parents had worked a lot. He’d always been at our house, and he was like a brother to Ray. Yeah, I was his actual sister, but considering both of our relationship track records, Ray would side with Micah, and I hated that idea.

“Josie?” he asked.

I glanced at him. “Yeah?”

“You okay?”

“Yep. So, what’s funny?”

Ray held up his phone. “Just texting Micah, and he warned me to stay out of his puzzle room. Shit, he’s protective of it. Did you know about it? Don’t give him shit over it.”

Yup. It burned.

I waved my hand. “Oh yeah. I know all about his puzzling. He’s very protective of it and has it all wrapped into his pregame ritual. One time, I messed up a pile, and I swore he was going to blow his top.”

Ray chuckled. “Not surprised. So, you spending a lot of time at Micah’s?”

I swallowed hard. “Um, no. Just stopped in a few times to be neighborly. It’s so weird that Harper ended up living in the same building. I mean, she’s dating Connor, of course, but how random.”

That sounded nonchalant, right?

“I’m glad that he’s there if you need him.”

“Ray, I’m a big girl.” I bristled and took a bite of my sandwich. We’d stopped by the condo to drop off Ray’s stuff, and I tried not to think about how I’d been living there and snuggled in bed with Micah only hours before. Then hunger got the best of my brother, so we were currently at the sandwich shop Harper had introduced me to. I did not order the Gobbler this time.

My body heated just thinking about it. I was going to miss Micah gobbling me for the next few days.

I snorted.

Ray eyed me, probably wondering why I was all over the place—not that he wouldn’t consider that typical. I paused, needing to stop this train of thought. My brother really wasn’t that big of an asshole, and he wasn’t nearly as bad as our mother, but I was letting assumptions get to me, and that was not how I usually rolled.

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