My voice betrayed me, my throat refusing to let the next words through my lips. I glanced at him, expecting to see scolding, dislike, even hate in his eyes. But none of that was there. Instead, there was warmth in his eyes and a little devious smile playing around his lips.

Not exactly what I expected.

“Why are you smiling?” I questioned him suspiciously.

“Because it kind of makes sense. I can see resemblance in character between you two.” I frowned. Nothing could be further from the truth. “Both of you are stubborn as hell, and short-tempered.”

“What? We are not short-tempered.”

He chuckled. “Okay, you are not.”

“Well, now you are just saying that to appease me.”

“You are right, I am.”

“Why?”

“Because you are upset, and I want to see you smile.”

As if on cue, my lips were already tilted in a smile. This man would be so easy to fall for. Too easy.

“I guess it worked.”

He pulled me closer and his hand came around me. I knew he meant it in comfort but it felt so good. He felt warm, his woodsy smell surrounded me, and I had to resist the urge to bury my nose into his shirt and inhale deeply.

“Don’t worry about you and Liberty,” Maxim’s voice was in my hair. Did he just inhale too? “Things will work out, and no matter what, nobody can take away that you two are sisters.”

Tears pricked behind my eyelids, and I desperately tried to hold them back. We both stopped now, and this time I couldn’t resist burying my face into his chest.

“I should have told her,” I mumbled into his chest. “All those damn years, and I was too afraid to tell her. She knows I knew it all along.”

“But you were there with her all along, right?”

“I suppose so. I don’t even know anymore.”

“When her mother died, were you there?” I nodded into his chest. “When Lena died, were you there?” I nodded again. “When she went through heartbreaks with her ex-boyfriends, were you there?”

“Yes. I threatened one of them.” His chuckle rumbled through his chest and straight to me.

“See, you were there for her. Let her process her new discovery, and I bet you, you’ll hear from her soon.”

This time I raised my head and met his eyes. Yes, it would be so easy to fall for him. I could almost imagine the feeling of intimacy and closeness with him but it was out of my reach. “And how did you get so smart?”

His amused smile did things to me I didn’t want to analyze. “Well, I have a few years on you so I’m just a bit wiser than you.”

I scoffed. “Okay.”

“There’s my girl,” he cooed and damn it, my heart almost burst into a thousand stars at hearing him call me his girl. At this very moment, I wanted to be his girl. All these unfamiliar feelings terrified me.

We continued walking, and like a giddy little girl, I was happy he kept my hand in his. We were barely a block away from my place when we passed a little café.

“Did you eat lunch?”

“We ordered but the bomb dropped before it came,” I replied with a heavy sigh. “And then, both of us kind of dispersed.”

“Okay, then we’ll feed you now.” It sounded like it was his responsibility to feed me.

“My place is right around the corner.”