Frost Bite

Chapter 20

Jack

Ryan knows I hear every word he said to Josie. He knows and he doesn't care that I could freeze him from the inside out for the things that he suggested. That I want to. Jealousy burns a fire inside me and I don't know what to do about it. After centuries of cold I don't know what to do with the life that Josie has brought into being inside of me.

Josie comes back into the room with her arms hugged around her torso and something in my chest twists into a hard knot.

"Hey," I say because I don't know what else to say to her. I don't know what she's feeling or thinking and I don't know what to do about what I'm feeling and thinking.

She grimaces. "You heard that." It's not a question because she knows. I nod. "I'm sorry."

I don't want to be, but I'll be honest. "He's not entirely wrong, you know."

She raises her eyebrows. "You're going to break my heart, stomp on it, and then laugh?"

"Well, that's not quite my plan this second. But it might be later on. I have been known to change my mind from time to time."
 Josie rolls her eyes. "I trust you."

My stomach gives a queasy squeeze. "You shouldn't."

She sits down in front of me and stares me right in the eye. I try not to let her see how my chest shakes when my eyes meet her warm, hazel ones. When I take in her clear gaze and the thick, dark lashes that frame it. She's so ridiculously beautiful and she has no idea.

"Why not?"
 "Because I'm immortal. And I get bored."

She laughs and the sound makes my stomach clench with wanting her. "Jack, you're a really bad liar."

"That wasn't a lie."
 "Yes it was. And you were wrong – you aren't good at everything. Because you're a terrible liar."
 I fight the urge to smile and lose. "You think you have me pegged, don't you?"
 She beams at me and it's like the sun comes out and a layer of ice in my chest thaws after a thousand years. "I know I have you pegged. I am very smart, in case you've forgotten."

"I hadn't," I assure her and without meaning to I've reached for her and she's in my arms and I'm warm in ways that I haven't been in so long. I realize I didn't remember what warm felt like. I hold her in my arms and in that moment, I know that I'm frightened of Josephine. I'm frightened of what she'll make me remember.

"You know Ryan's in love with you, don't you?"
 She laughs. "Hilarious, Jack." She rolls her pretty eyes.

I shake my head. "I'm being serious. He's in love with you. Painfully. I think he might implode."

"He's my best friend. He's like a brother."
 I shrug. "Doesn't make you his sister."

She frowns. "Ryan can't be in love with me..."
 I raise an eyebrow at her and she blushes. "I would know..." but her voice trials off because no, she wouldn't.

I shake my head. "You are many things, but aware of how other people feel about you is not one."
 She looks at me and something flashes in her eyes. I think it's fear. "And how do you feel about me?"
 I smile because if I told her she'd probably run away screaming. Because after a thousand years the nuances of human interaction are lost on me and I'm pretty sure I'm creepy. "I like you. A lot. More than I should."

"Oh, you like me." She nods and I don't know what she was expecting. I don't know how to tell her the truth because I'm raw and bleeding with it.

I look down. "Are you gonna make me say it?"
 She frowns. "Say what?"
 I laugh, and it's not quite the light, carefree laugh that I know she wants to hear. "You are so brilliant and so unbelievably clueless. I've never met anyone less sure of how amazing they are."

She gives me a dry look, but I can see the hurt behind it. She was hoping for something else, something that I don't know how to tell her yet. "And I've never met anyone more sure. Even though they most likely wrong."

I grin. "Oh, I'm always right. Haven't you learned that yet?"

Josie

Jack is more determined than he was before to find who wants to use me to get to him. I'm beginning to wonder if he was reluctant before – if he just didn't want to see me go.

There's something comforting about that thought.

Now that he knows how much I really care for him, though, there's nothing holding him back. He smiles more often, now, and I hope it's because he knows when this is all over I won't be walking away. That it will never be over because there is no more separating him from me and me from him.

Which is equal parts frightening and thrilling.

Ryan grumbles at breakfast a few short days after Jack kisses me for the first time.

A few unbelievably short and impossibly long days. Time flows strangely around Jack, like the cold and all his sharp angles keeps it from moving normally.

"What's the matter with you?" I ask around a forkful of perfectly runny egg. Jack may be many things, but I think cook tops the list.

Ryan makes a face at me like, isn't it obvious, but I guess it isn't because I have no idea.

Unless, of course, Jack is right about Ryan being in love with me. But after nine years of friendship, I think I would know.

I'd have to, wouldn't I?

"Ry, come on."

He glares at me. "I just don't want to talk about it."

"Seriously? I'm your best friend and you won't tell me what's pissing you off?" I fold my arms across my chest. "Did you and Jack argue again?"

"We're always arguing."

"You are. I don't like it. I think the two of you should get along. Or at least try. He's really not that bad, Ry."

Ryan smiles a smile I've never seen on his face. It shouldn't physically fit there, on Ryan's blond all-American good looks. "You're right," he says and I feel some of the pressure in my chest ease when he opens his mouth again and then it's a hundred times more painful, "he's worse."