Page 53 of Come Back to Me

“There, there,” she soothes. “So, security.”

“I told you we have a security team coming in to handle when Zee is in public.”

“You what?!”

Hearing my sister-in-law’s shriek tells me that her stealth skills are better than mine.

None of us heard her approach, not even Tee.

“Ah, shit.”

Tee

Apart of me wonders if I’m the only one tied to reality, which for someone like me, who really isn’t tethered to the humdrum of everyday life, is a whole welter of an experience.

(Is this,legasp, what it feels like to be normal?)

“I’m fine, Colt. We’ll talk later. I’mfine,” Zee repeats, but her tone’s frosty.

Apparently, Zee didn’t Google the Korhonen brothers either. It’s almost like they didn’t know search engines were a thing or something.

Still, much as I hate this being normal stuff, Zee’s inadvertent breakdown in the store and some out-of-the-blue insulin management leads to us heading to Cody’s ride and her trying to get off the phone with Colt.

Sitting in the back of Cody’s cop car is an unexpected perk.

There’s a grill and everything, and I can’t leave the back seat without him opening the door for me.

(Too cool.)

Especially as I didn’t get arrested and break my parents’ or Nonna’s hearts in the process.

With Zee facing reality, a reality she’s been staring down the barrel of for months without realizing it, I sigh once she disconnects the call. “I blame myself.”

“Huh?” Cody ceases side-eyeing Zee and twists back to frown at me.

Man, he’s pretty.

When focus isn’t incoming and he’s still studying me, waiting for me to finish my verbal guilt trip, I tug on the purple fluorite pendant I’m wearing, hoping it’ll purify my mind.

It has its work cut out for it—nothing about Cody, annoying or not, triggers pure thoughts…

Still, perhaps it does stimulate my third eye chakra because I reason, “I should have approached this conversation sooner.” I bite my lip, well aware of how selfish I’ve been. There I was in NYC, depressed and shit, while my BFF had no idea the sharks were circling her. “I should have warned you, Zee.”

“No, I’m a big girl. I...” She scrubs a hand over her face. “I was slow on the uptake and I did my level best to ignore everything Korhonen for too long.”

At Cody’s perplexed frown, I defend, “I think you were too busy falling in love with your husband and working out how not to have to go through IVF rather than that, but hey, you watch your cookie account take off!”

“I don’t want it to.”

(Honestly.)

I tut. “Zee, don’t be melodramatic. It’s never a bad thing to have money.”

“If my cookies go viral?—”

(Do not laugh.)

“—then I want it to be because they’re damn good. Not because I’m Colt’s wife. Anyway, I don’t need the money. My whole salary goes into savings, and Colt pays for everythingelse. I haven’t dipped my hand into my bank account since we married. I’ve never been as financially secure as I am right now.”

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