Page 74 of Burn for You

“It’ll be closed,” Heath says, coming to stand beside me. As soon as he’s there my body involuntarily leans in his direction. He puts his hands out to steady me. “How many drinks did you have?” he chuckles.

I just shrug.

“Put this on.” he drapes my jacket over my shoulders.Oh, there it is.

“We’ll sneak in!” Marina whisper shouts again, this time in Heath’s direction.

Isla makes a noise of uncertainty. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

Marina skips up to her, stealing her from Caio’s grasp. “You just got engaged! We need to celebrate!”

“Isn’t that what we were just doing?”

“The night is young Mrs. Marchetti. Live a little before we literally never see you again!” Marina pleads.

Isla grabs her hands, swinging them between them. “Why would you never see me again?”

Marina swings one of Isla’s hands above her head, prompting her to spin around in the middle of the street. “Cause you’ll be holed up in Hotel Dolce fucking my cousin for a living!”

Isla spins around, pointing at Caio with a mischievous grin.

Heath just chuckles beside me, looking down at his feet. But his smile falters when he thinks no one is watching. Sometimes I wonder about him, all alone out there in that big house. I wonder if it ever gets too quiet for him, if he ever gets lonely.

“I’m in,” Leo announces, appearing from somewhere behind me. “Why the fuck not?”

Heath and I share a look. “Why the fuck not?” he asks.

I nod. “But you’re going to have to teach me.”

Isla gigglesas Caio picks her up, lifting her over the mechanical entry gates. They're the ones that only allow one person through at a time, but our group of seven is currently jumping over the top of them.

I groan as I squish underneath the metal barrier, puffing when I jump up on the other side.

“How is that even possible?” Heath asks.

“I’m small. What can I say? I can get into funky positions.”

Heath just shakes his head while a cough explodes from behind us. I turn to see Rafael standing there, one hand on the gate like he needed something to hold him up, with the other held to his chest and he’s looking directly at me.

I snort out a laugh, my lack of sobriety not helping my lack of a filter.

He waves his hand in front of us as if to say,keep moving.So we do. I round the corner to see the shine of the ice in front of me. All of a sudden, I've been dragged into a winter wonderland and all it took was a few steps from our coastal paradise. A massive Christmas tree stands in the middle of the rink, decorated in shades of blue and gold. It’s beautiful. It makes a small part of me miss all the big drama of Christmas back in the states, the big Christmas trees and the jingles playing from the radios in bookstores. But as I hear the sound of my friends laughing from across the space, that small part of me goes quiet.

Leo stands behind the counter handing out skates. “What size for our king and queen?” he asks Isla and Caio. Isla gigglessenselessly into Caio’s shoulder as he grabs the skates and steers her towards a bench where they can put them on. “I don’t even think you were this drunk on your birthday,” he mutters as they go.

Marina grabs hers next before I’m up to the plate. “What size for you, Whitley?”

“She’s a seven.” Rafael’s gruff voice comes from behind me.

Leo’s eyes flick between us, waiting for me to confirm, which I do with a nod before I send a look over my shoulder.

“I could have said that myself, you know.”

“Of course you could have.”

I just shake my head, drawing my gaze away from him and back on where Leo dumps a pair of skates for me on the bench. This dynamic between us is weird, uncomfortable. So I just grab the skates and walk towards the bench, ready to put my shoes on and hopefully not fall on my face.

“You’re fine,”Heath says with a laugh from where he stands on the ice while I’m standing at the edge, my feet safely on the soft, spongy ground that encircles it.

---