Chapter 3 "It's fine. I can manage on my own."

I said it to Kane, and I said it to myself.

I hung up and called a rideshare home.

Kane didn't come home that night.

Fireworks went up outside the window. I picked up my tablet and saw the Instagram post Lillian had shared an hour earlier.

In the photo she stood in the middle of an outdoor rink Kane had rented out for her. Fireworks filled the sky and fell across the ice, and Kane's captain's jacket hung over her shoulders.

The caption was one line. "Seven years away, and somehow both the rink and someone were still waiting for me."

I didn't scroll through their messages. I simply logged out of the Instagram account Kane had left open on the tablet.

The next day, I arrived at the jewelry studio right on time.

My manager held my resignation letter, and when she heard I was going home to get married, she was happy for me and sorry to lose me at the same time.

"I'm losing my best designer."

I smiled and hugged her.

For Kane I had turned down better jobs overseas and stayed in New York for seven years. Leaving felt like taking back the part of my life that had been pinned down.

When my coworkers heard, they jokingly demanded one last dinner on me. I booked the steakhouse we always went to.

Halfway through dinner, I went to the restroom and ran into Lillian again.

She smiled gently. "What a coincidence. This is where Kane took me on our first date back in college. After all these years his taste hasn't changed at all."

I nodded politely and started to go.

She stepped into my path, and her eyes traveled slowly from my face down to my waist.

"Does Kane still blend you a peanut butter shake before bed?"

I stopped.

Lillian laughed softly. "Back when people used to hit on me at the rink, he'd say he wanted to feed me until nobody looked at me anymore. But I wouldn't listen to him, and I wouldn't give up skating for him."

"I never thought he'd do the same thing to you."

Cold crept into my fingertips.

"What's your point?"

"It just seems like a waste." She tilted her head at me. "You really used to look like me. The way you look now, doesn't kissing you disgust him every time?"

I met her eyes. "Whether he can stand to kiss me is his problem. My body isn't yours to judge."

She pinched the fabric of my dress between her fingers.

"The dress doesn't suit you either. A knockoff is still a knockoff. You can use the finest fabric in the world and it will never be the real thing."

I slapped her hand away. "If you have to humiliate me to prove you're the real thing, then you're not very impressive either."

Lillian clearly hadn't expected me to stay this calm, and her smile stiffened for a second.

I stepped around her and went back to our private dining room. The sound of my coworkers laughing slowly thawed the chill in my veins.

Not long after, the door was shoved open.

Kane stood in the doorway in his practice gear, bits of unmelted frost clinging to the hair on his forehead.

His gaze locked on me immediately, his expression thunderous.

"Erin. Outside."