Page 30 of Cold as Ice

Chapter 5

After Sunday’s game—a frustratinglyclose one-zero loss—Elliott finished dressing in the locker room, then looked around for Mal. Assuming they’d walk over to Sammy’s together.

But Mal, who Elliott swore he’d only seen a few minutes ago, was gone, the space in front of his spotless locker empty.

“He took off already,” Brody said when he saw Elliott looking around in confusion. “Said he’d meet you there.”

“Ugh,” Elliott groaned. “Why can’t he be normal?”

Brody grinned at him. “Who’s even normal, anyway? Besides, normal is overrated, Ell. You know that.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think he was so eager to avoid me he’d ditch me to walk therealone,” Elliott grumbled.

“His dad called and I think he wanted to call him back,” Finn offered from the other side of the locker room.

“Oh, alright,” Elliott said. Of course Malcolm had a father. He hadn’t sprung to life, fully formed, explicitly designed to torment Elliott.

He’d just never heard Malcolm say anything about his dad before, not the way all the rest of them offhandedly mentioned their families in the middle of practices and workouts and crammed together in booths at Jimmy’s.

But then Mal was more serious, and a lot more focused than most of them, too, so maybe that made sense.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted the sister chat on his way to the little tucked away sub and smoothie shop.

Going to my second tutoring appointment,he sent.

The sister chat was practically never quiet. The moment anyone popped up in it, it was like the freaking bat-signal for the rest of them to appear.

Like it was freaking magic.

Nina texted:You’re going to pass that test, Ell. I’ve got faith in you.

Macey chimed in next, as always, true to her middle-child self.God, Nina, you sound like a Tony Robbins seminar.

But she did love Elliott, and clearly, despite her comment to Nina, agreed with her, because the next text she sent read:But you DO have this, Ell.Accompanied by that gif meme of the kid in the audience pointing and shouting, “You can do it!”

Elliott chuckled under his breath. He hearted Macey’s gif work, then coming in last was his youngest sister, Constance.

You still being tutored by the super hot guy? You’d enjoy that.

He and Connie were the closest, and she’d told him more than once, swearing him to secrecy, that she sometimes felt closer to him than to their two older sisters.

Connie—don’t encourage him.That was predictably from Nina, but to Elliott’s surprise, Macey hearted that comment.

It wasn’t often the two of them actually agreed on anything.

A second later Connie sent a text just to him.Don’t listen to them. He’s super hot. You can get him, I know you can!

Elliott laughed again. He loved his sisters so goddamn much. Even when they, in their collective, tried to mom him.

Aren’t you supposed to be encouraging me to pass my stats test?

Ah, you got that, we both know you do. Especially with Malcolm on the case. But the real question is if you’re ever going to get into his pants?

Ramsey thinks I should seduce him.

Well, by all means, listen to Ramsey.

I’m going to tell Nina you were being a bad influence again.

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