Best Friends Don't Kiss(61)

“Just dropping off some…pies…” Poppy pauses, looking at Lily with wide, animated eyes. It’s like they are trying to have a conversation telepathically.

“Okay…so where are the pies?”

The room goes silent.

The aunts keep sharing looks with each other.

“The what?” Poppy asks eventually, all of a sudden acting like she’s gone hard of hearing.

“The. Pies,” Ava repeats, skepticism apparent in the sharp inflection of her voice.

“Oh shoot, Pop,” Lily quickly chimes in with an answer. “I knew we forgot something.”

“Well, son of a nutcracker.” Poppy tsks. “How on earth did we come all this way without the pies?”

“Luke, mind putting me down so I can hug the nosy busybodies who are lying about pies?”

Gently, I ease Ava off my shoulders, and she steps forward to give both of her great-aunts a hug.

“Missed you, crazy old bats,” she teases, and they both laugh. “And you know, you don’t have to lie about pie to come and see me.”

“But we didn’t actually come to see you.” Poppy flashes a wicked grin my way. “We came to see your stud muffin pilot boyfriend. And I have to say—” her eyes turn devilish as she gives me a wicked once-over “—our timing was impeccable.”

Ava bursts into laughter. “Well, no need to sugarcoat it.”

And all I can do is grin.

“Oh honey, you know I’m too old to sugarcoat anything.”

“More like too cranky,” Lily mutters, but Poppy ignores her completely.

“So, Luke, you’re keeping my great-niece happy, right?”

“I’m doing my best.”

Poppy leans forward, her lips close to Ava’s ear. “How’s your little beaver feeling, honey?” she asks on a whisper, but my ears don’t miss it. “I bet she’s real happy these days, huh?”

“Oh hell,” Ava mutters, choking on what I think is her own saliva and coughing into her hand.

“Your little beaver?” I ask and turn to smirk at her. “What’s your aunt Poppy talking about, Ace?”

Ava glares. “Oh, shut up. You know exactly what she’s talking about, which is exactly what we’re not going to talk about.”

“Then, what are we going to chat about, Ava?” Poppy questions.

“We’re not going to chat about anything with you, crazy lady.”

“And why is that?”

“Because Luke and I have a very important ice-skating date.”

I tilt my head to the side. “We do?”

Ava smirks and nods. “Check the itinerary, buddy. This afternoon is ice-skating.”

Guy Lucie’s goddamn Christmas itinerary.

I swear, it might be the death of me.

Whatever, dude. You’re loving every minute you get to spend with Ava.




“I thought you were good at ice-skating, Ace!” I shout toward Ava as I round the corner of the rink and come to a stop in front of her.

She grips the waist-high wall’s edge and glares at me. “I never said I was good at it. I just said it’s a tradition we do every year.”

Her dad, her mom, and her sisters and their significant others are here. And everyone appears to be completely competent in the skill of ice-skating.

Everyone besides Ava.

“She’s horrible!” Guy yells across the rink. “Never managed to get it down!”

“Mind your business, Dad!”

Guy just chuckles, and I take mercy on Ava, holding out both of my hands toward her.

“I got you.”

“No.” She shakes her head. “I’m fine right here. Promise. I’ll just stand here and watch you guys have fun.”

“Ace, don’t you trust me?” I question, and she rolls her eyes.

“It’s not about trust, Luke. It’s about the fact that I am incapable of doing anything else but holding on to the wall and slowly skating around the rink. That’s it. That’s all I can do without falling on my ass.”

“C’mon,” I say, voice gentle. “I promise I won’t let you fall.”

She snorts at that. “I don’t think you realize how big of a promise that actually is.”

“I do,” I retort and smile at her. “Just come on and let me help you get more comfortable on the ice. I swear, I’m a fantastic teacher.”

She quirks a brow.

But I don’t let up, keeping both of my hands stretched out toward her.

Eventually, on a sigh, she releases her death grip from the wall and puts her hands in mine. And slowly, very slowly, I ease us out into the middle of the rink, carefully weaving in and out of the other skaters.

“Oh no!” she whisper-yells as she falters a little, her left skate nearly slipping out from under her. But I steady her by quickly wrapping one arm around her waist and pulling her close to my chest.

“See? I got you, Ace.”

She stares up at me with those big blue eyes of hers, and for the briefest of moments, it feels like everything just…stops. The world. Time. The people skating around us.

And all I’m capable of doing is searching her eyes, my gaze occasionally flitting down to her lips.