They’re not the only ones. Ava and Kiera are also here.
“You love him, don’t you?” Ava asks quietly next to me. I’ve just finished getting Kiera up to speed on everything that’s been going on for the past few weeks.
“I do. I shouldn’t. We haven’t known each other for long, and I promised myself after Mark that I wouldn’t make the mistake of loving another man again.”
I’m as skilled at ignoring my own advice as Pooh is at ignoring his rumbly tummy at the sight of honey.
Ava flashes me a small smile—a smile filled with wisdom and smugness. “I’ve long since learned that, for better or for worse, the heart and brain often have opposite opinions. Your job is to figure out which one is right, but it’s not always the one you hope it will be.”
“But at least now you know the men you loved didn’t leave you because they stopped caring,” Kiera adds. She still looks taken aback at the news that the three men she’s referring to were killed over the last two decades.
“No, they were murdered,” I say, my heart as heavy as cupid’s statue with pigeon poop on it. “And now I’ve unwittingly cursed Landon to the same fate.”
Ava wraps her arm around my shoulder. “Life isn’t a fairy tale. There are no curses and things like that—just don’t tell that to my readers.”
“She’s right,” Isabelle says. “Don’t let fear prevent you from loving someone because you’re afraid something bad will happen to them.” She glances at her fiancé before turning back to us. “You’ll miss out on so much if you let that guide your heart.”
“Does Landon know you love him?” Kiera asks.
I shake my head and shrug. “It hasn’t really come up. Besides, he was nothing more than my temporary fake boyfriend. What we shared was all part of his cover. And then there’s the part where he lied to me.”
“He truly believed that was the only way he could get close enough to you to protect you,” Isabelle says.
I give her a pointed look. “And to discover where my cousin was hiding.”
She cringes. “Yeah, that too. But you understand why he needed to locate Nikolai, right? Why we were all hired to ensure he didn’t follow in your grandfather’s footsteps?”
I nod because that part I do understand. As much as it hurts that Nikolai died—and I’m sure it will hurt even more later on, once I know Landon will be okay—at the end of the day, he was still the new crime boss. And as a crime boss, it meant doing illegal activities that could lead to more loss of life.
Kiera rubs her hands together and grins. “Does this mean you’re going to tell him you love him?”
“I don’t know if—”
“He’ll be okay, Chloe. You have to have faith in that. You’re not cursed. And once he’s in recovery, you’ll kiss him on the lips—”
My mouth curls to one side. “You mean true love’s first kiss?”
She laughs. “Something tells me you’ve already kissed him. So it’s a little late for that magical kiss. But youwilltell him how you feel.”
“And what if he doesn’t feel the same way about me?” Although telling him while he’s still under the effects of the anesthesia might make things a little easier. It’ll be like a truth serum…but he won’t remember later what I told him.
So maybe she’s on to something—even if that’s not what she meant.
“Then we’ll all come over to your apartment with ice cream and help you get over him,” Isabelle says. “We won’t let you go through this alone.”
I smile at the three of them, and for the first time since leaving my family, I don’t feel so alone anymore.
Their optimism is heartwarming, though a little misguided. I suspect Isabelle and Ava are in the dark as much as Kiera is about his girlfriend who was in a coma. It changed how open he is to allowing another woman into his heart—much like I’ve been.
“You do realize they might not even let me see him,” I point out. “I’m not family.”
“So you’ll tell him once he’s home from the hospital.”
What none of them say—but which is a real possibility—is that we still don’t know if he’s going to live.
I do an impressive mental roundhouse kick to that thought. He’ll be okay. A little worse for wear for a while. But if he wants me in his life after this ordeal is over, I’ll be more than willing to give him all the blowjobs he wants if it helps him heal.
He’s going to be fine.He’s going to be fine.He’s going to be fine.…
