Chapter 251

Emilia had been trying not to worry since the previous night.

She had failed spectacularly.

Kylie’s text had arrived a little after eleven, just when Emilia had been getting ready for bed.

"I saw Ben tonight." Kylie text had read.

Emilia’s quiet evening upside down.

She had called Kylie immediately, but her best friend had declined the call. Emilia had tried again. The second time, Kylie answered with a tired sigh and the unmistakable sound of someone who was already regretting picking up.

"Before you start," Kylie had said, "I’m alive."

"That is a very low standard, even for you."

"Emilia."

"Kylie. Are you alright?"

There had been a pause.

Kylie said nothing. Then Emilia lowered her voice. "Where did you see him?"

Silence.

"Kylie." Emilia had sat up straighter in bed. "Kylie, where did you see Ben?"

Another silence.

And then, with the casualness of someone announcing that she had run into an old classmate at the grocery store, Kylie had said, "It doesn’t matter."

"It matters to me."

"I know."

"Then tell me."

"No."

Emilia had stared at her phone. "No?"

"No."

"Are you actually refusing to tell me where you saw a man who has no business being anywhere near you? He should be dead."

"Emilia."

"I’m going to ask you one more time."

"And I’m going to give you the same answer, sweetheart."

Emilia had closed her eyes. "Kylie."

"I love you. Goodnight."

The call had ended before Emilia could respond. She had spent the next several minutes staring at the ceiling.

By the time she reached Kylie’s apartment building, it was already eight in the morning. Emilia picked up the bag of pastries and headed upstairs.

She knocked once when she got to Kylie’s door. There was no response, so she waited, then knocked again.

Still nothing.

Her brows drew together. "Kylie?"

She tried the handle, and the door opened.

That was the first surprise.

Kylie usually locked the door even when she was home. She had a habit of checking it twice, sometimes three times.

Emilia pushed the door open and stepped inside. "Hello?"

She shut the door behind her and glanced around the living room.

The apartment was empty, and quiet.

Emilia’s fingers tightened around the paper handles of the pastry bag.

She looked toward the hallway. "Kylie?"

A faint sound reached her from somewhere deeper in the apartment.

She stopped. Emilia’s expression changed.

She could hear them more clearly now, coming from the kitchen. One voice was low and unmistakably male. The other was Kylie’s.

Emilia stared toward the doorway.

Then the male voice spoke again. "No, not yet. Give it another minute."

Kylie answered, but Emilia couldn’t make out the words.

There was a soft clink of metal against a pot.

Emilia’s eyes narrowed. The closer she got, the clearer the voices became.

"It’s fine," Kylie said.

"It isn’t ready."

"It’s been cooking for twenty minutes."

"And it needs another minute."

"Christian, if you say one more thing about this pot, I’m going to put you in it."

A quiet laugh.

Then Christian said something too low for Emilia to catch.

Kylie made an offended sound. "You’re insufferable."

"Turn the heat down, Blue."

There was a pause. Then Kylie said, "Fine."

Emilia stopped walking.

Kylie did not take instructions.

Kylie took suggestions, examined them for weaknesses, challenged the logic behind them, and then did whatever she had intended to do in the first place.

The only person who had ever consistently managed to get her to follow a direct instruction without a lengthy debate was Emilia herself.

And even that depended on the instruction.

So Emilia stood at the kitchen doorway, holding her bag of pastries, and watched her best friend stir a pot while Christian Sinclair stood behind her with both arms wrapped around her waist.

His chest was pressed against her back.

His chin hovered near her temple as he looked into the pot over her shoulder. One of his hands rested loosely against Kylie’s stomach while the other reached around her to point at something on the stove.

Kylie continued stirring.

Christian said something into her ears, and she nodded. Then she reached for a small bowl beside the stove and tipped its contents into the pot.

"Good," Christian murmured. "Now stir it through before you add anything else."

Kylie did exactly that.

Emilia’s jaw dropped.

Actually dropped.

She stood there with her mouth open, staring at them as though she had walked into the wrong apartment and found two complete strangers performing an elaborate domestic reenactment.

Kylie.

Her Kylie.

The same woman who had told Emilia, with absolute conviction, that she would rather be single for the rest of her life than have a man dictate what she should do in her own kitchen.

Kylie was standing in her kitchen, stirring a pot while a man wrapped around her from behind and gave her instructions.

And she was listening. Not arguing, or rolling her eyes. She was listening.

Emilia felt the foundations of her understanding of the universe shift beneath her feet.

Christian leaned a little closer, studying the pot. "Add the curry now."

Kylie reached for the little bowl of curry powder. "Here?"

"Yes, Blue. All of it."

She tipped it in.

"All right," she said, stirring it into the sauce.

Christian smiled. Then he kissed the side of her head.

It was such an easy, absent-minded gesture that Emilia almost took a step backward. There was no exaggerated display of affection.

He simply kissed her as though it were the most natural thing in the world to have his arms around her while she cooked, as though he had done it a hundred times before and intended to do it a hundred more.

Kylie tilted her head slightly toward him.

Christian’s mouth brushed her hair once more before he settled his chin near her temple.

Emilia looked at the ceiling, then at the floor. She was going to need someone to explain what she was seeing.

Emilia slowly lowered the bag of pastries.

The paper rustled.

Neither of them noticed. They were too busy playing house. She cleared her throat.

Kylie stirred the pot.

Christian murmured something into her hair.

Kylie said, "I heard you the first time."

"Then why are you looking at me like you’re considering ignoring me?"

"Because I’m considering ignoring you."

Christian laughed softly against her head.

Emilia stared at them.

She cleared her throat again, this time with enough force to announce her presence to the entire building.

Kylie froze.

Christian’s head lifted.

For one extraordinary second, all three of them remained perfectly still. Kylie turned her head.

Her eyes widened. "Emilia?"

Emilia looked at her, then at Christian’s arms around her waist, and then back at her again. "Good morning, Khys."