“Oh, huh…” Wren starts. I can picture the little notch between her brows as she tries to figure out stuff. “I’m sorry, I thought I’d called Aaron.”

“You did,” Finn says, flicking the camera my way for a second before returning it his way.

This is useless. I give up trying to get my phone back, instead glaring at Finn with my hands on my hips. He better not say something stupid.

“Oh,” Wren repeats. After clearing her throat, she says, “Well, you two must be busy, so—”

“Not at all,” Finn says, sending a shit-eating grin my way. I answer with a middle finger up. “I was just telling our dear Aaron how crazy it is to give up his life to take on his family’s work. We’ve been working for an hour, and I don’t think he’s smiled once.”

Okay, that’s enough.

Taking him by surprise, I push his shoulder so he drops the phone in the snow. We throw ourselves on it like two hyenas, but in the end, I come up winning.

“Hey,” I say, slightly breathless. “Sorry about that.”

God, it feels good to see her. To know she called.

“No, that actually sounded important,” she says, eyebrows furrowed just like I’d imagined. “I’ll leave you to it and call you later, okay?”

“No, it’s—”

The call ends before I get to say anything else.

My heels dig in the ground as I spin slowly toward Finn.

“I will kill you.”

He doesn’t even have the decency to appear remorseful. “She seemed to be agreeing with me.”

I blink.

“You have three seconds to run,” I deadpan.

Grinning, he obliges.

I count to two until I start running, but just as I take my first step, my phone pings.

The air is particularly cold and dry today. Enough to enter my lungs and make me feel like I’m inhaling pure ice. I felt bad for having asked Finn to come work outside today—before he betrayed me, that is.

And yet, the moment I hear the notification on my phone, I remove my gloves to grab it again, frozen fingers be damned.

Wren: Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have called before texting.

Me: No, don’t worry about it!

Me: Was there anything you wanted to talk about?

A pause.

Wren: Nothing important. Just wanted to know if you wanted to come to my place tomorrow night after work?

Another text comes in.

Wren: :)

Not important, my ass.

The pinch of the wind on my skin doesn’t even bother me. Not when it’s to answer that kind of text.

Yep. Truly fucked.

Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23

Wren

Wow.

I went wrong somewhere in my life. Because why in the world did I decide to deprive myself of this feeling?

Aaron is lying next to me in my bed, chuckling as he catches his breath. “That good?”