Page 19 of The Lie of Us

“Come on,” I said softly as Kai lifted his head and his eyes crashed into mine. His gaze wavered and there was a look of hope and hesitancy swirling together in his stormy irises.

“Come inside where you’re safe.”

With me.

CHAPTER NINE

MALAKAI

As I stepped inside Winter’s house, it was familiar and just as I remembered. The soft scent of a vanilla candle that was burning met my nose and I closed my eyes as I inhaled deeply. Winter’s mother always made sure their house smelled welcoming and it was as if Winter had taken a page from her book. I stood just inside the foyer, listening to the sound of her locking the door.

I knew I shouldn’t have come here, but I couldn’t help myself. She was who I had always turned to in times like this. I avoided this kind of shit with my father for as long as Winter had been out of my life. It was kind of funny how the two were coinciding now. Life was a fucking mess and it was hard to not wonder what the hell I was really doing here.

I came back home because of her and she wanted nothing to do with me.

“Do you want some water or anything?” Winter asked me softly as she stopped in front of me. Her bright green eyes stared back at me with a touch of concern.

I shook my head. “Do you have anything stronger?”

Her lips pulled downward and she nodded. “Do you still like bourbon?” Her voice was quiet and hesitant. There was a part of me that was surprised she remembered, but there wasn’t much that Winter forgot. That mind of hers was like a goddamn vault.

“I do.”

Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and my gaze instinctively dropped down to them. She was nervous, with reason. My eyes shifted back up to hers as she cleared her throat. “I’ll be right back.”

She spun on her heel and disappeared down the hall in the direction of the kitchen. I watched her until she was no longer in sight before I began to make my way deeper into the house. There wasn’t much that had changed. There were never any family photos hanging, except for the massive portrait-style one that Mrs. Reign had hung above the mantle in their family room.

Throughout the rest of the house, it was all expensive art that they had purchased from different shows and events over the years. I was surprised Winter’s parents left everything in the house the way it was before they had moved, but then again, there was a lot of shit to move out of a house this size.

Winter hadn’t changed anything inside to make it her own. She had just moved back not long ago, but I didn’t see a single trace in my venture to the family room that indicated she had even brought any of her own stuff with her. Perhaps she put it in storage. Maybe she still had her apartment back in Vermont and she left it fully furnished the same way her parents did with their mansion.

As I walked into the family room, I noticed there was a house hunter show playing on the TV. I couldn’t fight the smile that played on my lips. Winter went through this phase when we were in high school that she wanted to design the interiors of homes. Sutton had jumped on the idea because she was into the actual design of buildings and she had this brilliant idea for the two of them to work together on it.

I didn’t know if it had to do with their sibling rivalry or what it was exactly, but after Sutton went down a hole of trying to convince Winter that it was something they needed to do, Winter shut it down. She didn’t want to be an interior designer. She just wanted to hide behind her books, in her own little fictional world. There wasn’t a single part of her that wanted to be tied to her family. She wanted her own thing and Sutton ruined that.

My eyes traveled across the couch and I could make out where Winter must have been sitting before I arrived. There was a book with a bookmark tucked inside sitting next to a blanket that looked as if it had been pushed aside in a rush. The remote was on the arm rest of the couch and there was a pillow propped up.

“Here.” Winter’s soft voice snaked around my eardrums as she pressed her wrist against my bicep. I slowly turned around and she held out a glass with amber-colored liquid in it. “Something stronger.”

I gave her a nod as I took it from her. “Thanks,” I murmured as I lifted the glass to my lips. The pungent smell of the bourbon stung my nostrils and as I swallowed back a mouthful, it burned as it made its way down my esophagus.

“Is this your father’s?” I questioned her as I watched her take a sip from her own glass. Winter never had a taste for expensive bourbon, but her father did. And this tasted like it was old and waiting around for a special occasion.

“Yeah,” she said with a shrug as she lifted the bottle to look at it. “I suppose if he didn’t want anyone to drink it, he should have taken it along with him.”

I half snorted and shook my head at her. “I’m surprised they left everything here.”

Winter shrugged again as she took a swig straight from the bottle. Her nose scrunched up and the distaste was evident on her face. “They’re traveling and couldn’t take things along with them. They plan on moving down to their house in the Keys after they’re done, but there was no sense in putting their things in storage. I didn’t have much to bring along with me and it certainly was not enough to furnish this place.”

Silence settled between us and Winter took another nervous sip of the bourbon. She let out a ragged breath and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Come sit,” she said softly, her voice practically a whisper as she motioned to the couch.

My feet were cemented in place and I watched her for a moment as she moved back to where she was sitting before I interrupted her. Her hips swayed and her footsteps were light. She was just as I remembered, yet even better. There was always a grace and beauty to Winter Reign.

I followed after her and took a seat a few cushions away from her. I didn’t want to push things between us. Hell, I didn’t even know if there was a chance there would ever be anything between us again. In her eyes, I was still the asshole who broke her heart six years ago. And in my eyes, she was still the one who held my heart in the palms of her hands.

“What happened tonight, Kai?”

Of course she would ask. She couldn’t just let it be. My mind had drifted away from the shit with my father and now it was crashing down around me. I closed my eyes for a moment as my jaw clenched. I tightened my grip around my glass and opened my eyes as I drained its contents. I held it out to Winter and she filled it again.

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