“How long has the bridge been a thing?” she asks as we make our way through Somerville over into Cambridge.
I shrug. “He said something about his fourth life . . . live?—”
“Alive day,” she says, sounding distant. “First the robe, now this.”
I don’t know what to say to that.
Without warning, Lucy cuts across two lanes of traffic and pulls into a shopping mall parking lot.
“Jesus!” I exclaim as someone honks. “Did you just really need a Starbucks?” I ask, gesturing at the sign.
“First, I’d never choose Starbucks when there’s a Dunks in the same parking lot. Give me some credit. And no.” She sighs, parking the car and turning to face me.
“You’re my friend, and I adore you. But that man is my family.”
“I know.”
She takes my hand in hers. “Good. So you’ll understand why I have to say this before we finish our grand mission.” We both huff a laugh at the dramatics. “Be good to him. Don’t...don’t leave him guessing. If you love him?—”
“I do.” I take a deep breath, as though admitting it removed a weight from my chest. A stupid laugh bursts free, and I can’t help but smile. “And if I can’t find him to tell him to his face within the next thirty minutes, I might snap.”
Lucy beams at me. “Then let’s find your man.”
Mine. I like—no, I love—the idea of Cillian being mine.
CHAPTER 34
Cillian
The river shimmerswith lights from the skyline and the bridge alike. It’s beautiful in a crystalline way that I’m sure Toni would love to capture on canvas.
Except she’s leaving.
It’s a knife to the gut. Twisting and twisting every time I think about it, made even worse by the fact that, from the look of it, she was leaving with that jackass.
I may not know the guy, but I knew people, and he didn’t deserve to be in the same area code as her, much less?—
And I did?
My breath forms a cloud as I force myself to unclench my jaw.
What he deserved and what I deserved didn’t matter. Toni made her choice, and all I could do was honor it.
I lost fair and square. Now I get to pay the price.
Pushing myself away from the wall, I stretch, my body stiff from being slumped over in the cold. I’d been out here for far too long.
I step onto the main sidewalk just in time to see a familiar car decide to stop in the fucking middle of Mass Ave. Hornsblare and Lucy curses at them as, to my absolute horror, Toni bolts from the passenger side and across the bike lane, heading toward me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” It’s the most prominent thought in my head as I rush to meet her.
“You won,” she pants.
I take her by the shoulders, moving us beside one of the shakers. My mind is unable to register what she’s saying, too stuck on the risky move she and Lucy had just pulled.
“The bet,” she laughs. The sound instantly warms me. “You won. I tried to tell you earlier but...” She throws her hands up, moving further around the side of the shaker and away from the street.
I follow, half in a trance, because she can’t be saying what I think she is.
