Free Heart by Rachel Higginson

how sweet it was to
hear him talk about me familiarly. If I were honest, I hadn’t had a
caramel macchiato since I’d left the States. I’d weaned myself off
of coffee for the most part and when I needed something to pick me
up, I would buy a cup of espresso from Fleur and then swear off
coffee for the rest of my life. Café Callisto served toxic waste
disguised as caffeine. It was abominably way too strong for me.
    Still… I couldn’t deny that a Caramel
Macchiato sounded amazing.
    “So you kissed and made up?” Phoenix waggled
his eyebrows at us.
    Ice cold tension burst through the room like
Phoenix had detonated a bomb made out of hypothermic weather. I
felt the chill snake over my skin as Ryder took a step away from
me.
    “We worked some things out,” Ryder deflected.
“We’re friends.”
    “Is that what we are?” I hated the
defensiveness in my voice, but I couldn’t do anything about it.
    “Uh…” Phoenix raised his eyebrows at me. I
shook my head. I didn’t know what he expected to happen by bringing
Ryder here, but I thought Phoenix might have been as heartbroken as
me with the way his eyes lost some of their brightness and his
broad shoulders slumped.
    Ryder either didn’t notice Phoenix’s
disappointment or didn’t care. He pushed on by announcing, “I’m
going to help Ivy run some errands. I’ll call you later.”
    “I can go with you,” Phoenix jumped to his
feet and slammed his bowl of cereal on the countertop. Milk sloshed
over the side, taking some cereal with it. He ignored the mess.
    “We need more time to talk,” Ryder explained
quickly.
    “Ah, but I miss the ninja! I need some
quality time with my favorite ginger.” Phoenix’s solid arm slid
around my back and he pulled me into his side. I took comfort in
his easy forgiveness and genuine desire to be around me. There
weren’t many people that felt that way.
    Ryder’s voice was granite when he explained,
“She’ll be around for a couple days, Man. We need to get this stuff
taken care of first.”
    Phoenix was undeterred. “I could help. I’m
excellent at errands!”
    “I’ll see you later, Phoenix,” I jumped in.
“This is probably something I should do with Ryder, but I promise
I’ll come hang out with you later. I’m sure you have another movie
I need to watch or my life will forever be incomplete.” I
smiled at him and hoped that would be enough. It wasn’t as if I
wanted to spend all this alone time with just Ryder, because I
didn’t. I just didn’t want to bring Phoenix into my messy life. So
far he had been completely protected from the negative side effects
of knowing me and I wanted it to stay that way forever.
    “Yeah, alright,” he conceded slowly. “I do
have a few movies that I know you haven’t seen yet. Mighty
Ducks ?” he asked and I shook my head. His grin grew back
slowly. “ Terminator ? Aliens ? Sandlot? ”
    “None of those.” I wrapped my arms around his
waist and squeezed tight. “We have hours of bonding ahead of
us.”
    “Good news.” He looked down at me and pinched
my cheek. “Be safe, yeah? Call if you need help.”
    “We will.”
    “Let’s go, Red.” Ryder backed out of the
kitchen and I got the message.
    I turned around and followed Ryder to the
front lawn where his new and improved Bronco sat waiting for
us.
    “Wow,” I exclaimed. “She looks amazing!”
    “Yep.”
    “Have you been working on her this whole
time?” I ran my fingers over the glittery new paint and perfectly
restored door handles.
    Ryder’s Bronco had once been the most
pathetic vehicle I’d ever been in. I called it the Death Trap,
while Ryder lovingly referred to the horrid thing as his baby. Last
I’d seen it, I’d basically stolen it to leave the hospital and get
myself to Smith’s. I’d left it there and hoped Smith would return
it.
    Apparently he had.
    “Yep,” Ryder answered succinctly.
    “She looks really good, Ryder. Seriously. I
don’t feel like I’m risking my life anymore