36. Chapter 36
Chapter thirty-six
By the time Nik’s private elevator opened into the penthouse, light snow dusted our coats, and Isabella had already decided she loved winter.
Lacey hurried across the living room before the doors had fully opened.
“You made it!”
She wrapped Isabella in a hug first, then Scarlett, before giving Lucian and me much quicker versions.
“Nice to see where we rank,” Lucian muttered.
“You’ll survive.”
Nat and Jae were waiting near the massive windows overlooking Central Park, already bundled for the cold. I’d met them plenty of times through Nik and Lacey.
Lacey caught Isabella by the hand and pulled her over.
“Isabella, these are my best friends, Jae and Nat. They were my roommates when I first moved to New York and pretty much kept me alive when I was broke, exhausted, and making questionable decisions.”
“We prefer young and artistically underfunded,” Jae said.
Nat snorted. “Then you made the biggest questionable decision of your life.”
Lacey glanced toward Nik. “Which somehow turned into the best decision of my life.”
Jae followed her gaze. “Yeah, picking up Mr. Mafia King over there worked out surprisingly well for all of us.”
“I can hear you,” Nik said.
“You were supposed to,” Jae called back. “You know we keep you entertained.”
Lacey laughed and bumped her shoulder against Nat’s. “See what troublemakers I lived with?”
“And yet you love us,” Jae said, opening his arms.
Lacey stepped into them without hesitation, and he kissed the top of her head before turning his attention to Isabella.
Jae’s whole face lit up. “Okay, first of all, you are adorable.”
Nat gave the pink snowsuit an approving once-over. Tattoos showed above the collar of her black winter coat, and years behind a Manhattan bar had given her a presence that discouraged people from testing her.
“That is offensively cute.”
Isabella laughed. “Aria chose it.”
“Figures. Aria has a good eye for this stuff.”
Jae held out a hand to Isabella. “Welcome to the chaos. I promise we’re the mostly normal ones.”
“Speak for yourself,” Nat said.
The easy affection between the three of them made it obvious why Nik had made sure Lacey’s old roommates stayed close. They weren’t simply friends she saw occasionally. They were family.
Lacey turned toward the elevator, already impatient to get moving. “Now can we please go before a million people with sleds and boots destroy all the good snow?”
Nik placed his hand on her lower back and guided her forward. “My security detail is thrilled that my wife wants to spend the day running around Central Park in a snowstorm.”
“Your security detail needs more joy in their lives. Henri doesn’t mind,” she said, glancing over at her ever-present bodyguard. He just nodded and gave her a soft smile.
Lacey rolled her eyes. “See.”
Nik caught her around the waist and smacked her ass.
She yelped.
“Roll your eyes at me again, and I’ll put you over my knee.”
“Promises, promises.”
He pulled her into a kiss. Judging by the way Lacey kissed him back, being put over his knee wasn’t much of a punishment.
I leaned toward Isabella. “See? I told you these people have no filter.”
She watched them with open amusement. “I’m beginning to think you may be the restrained one.”
“Terrifying thought, isn’t it?”
Outside, the cold hit Isabella full in the face.
She stopped on the sidewalk and sucked in a breath, then laughed at the white cloud it made when she exhaled.
“Oh, wow.”
Snow packed the curbs and blanketed every ledge, awning, and rooftop, while the last of the storm drifted down in light flurries.
People picked their way through slushy sidewalks, cars crawled along the street, and every few yards somebody was shoveling a path through what the plows had left behind.
Isabella turned, taking all of it in.
Then she spotted the pastry shop next door.
The lights were off, and a weather-closure sign hung inside the door, but the front windows were filled with elaborate cakes, tarts, macarons, and pastries arranged behind the glass.
Isabella slowed, then stopped altogether as the others continued ahead.
“I’d love to work somewhere like this someday. Somewhere I could learn to make things like these.”
I studied the display. “Why stop at working there? You could own a place like this if that’s what you wanted.”
She turned to me. “You can’t simply buy everything, Lachlan.”
“I’m fairly sure I could buy you a bakery.”
“That isn’t what I mean.” She pointed through the glass. “Look at those. Someone spent years learning how to make those properly. Cakes and pastries don’t care how rich the person making them is. If the chef doesn’t know what they’re doing, they’ll still taste like garbage.”
“Then learn how to do it properly.”
She glanced at me. “What do you mean?”
“Pastry school, for a start. Learn from professionals, work your way up, and master the craft. Then, if you still want your own place someday, you’ll know the business from the kitchen up.”
She stared at me for a second. “I could actually do that.”
“Aye, you could. And you could test out recipes on me.”
She smiled up at me, then turned back to the display. “I could take classes. Learn from professionals instead of trying to teach myself from books and online posts.”
“Sounds like a much better plan than me buying you a bakery tomorrow.”
She gave me a look. “Much better.”
“Good. I’ll cancel the bakery.”
She laughed.
A shout from farther up the sidewalk broke the moment.
“Are you two coming?” Scarlett called.
Isabella stepped onto a slick patch near the curb, and her feet shot out from under her. I caught her around the waist before she hit the sidewalk.
She grabbed my coat, laughing.
“This is becoming embarrassing.”
“I’m going to start charging you for this service.”
“Put it on my tab,” she said, giving me a quick kiss.
We followed the others into the park and spent the next twenty minutes working our way deeper in, dodging kids hauling sleds, dogs tearing through the snow, and New Yorkers who’d decided a snowstorm was an invitation to come outside and play.
Isabella took in the untouched stretches of white lawn, the snow piled along the stone walls, and families building snowmen anywhere they could find enough open ground. Every few minutes, she stopped to point something out or turned to make sure I’d seen it too.
By the time we reached the lake, even I had to admit Central Park had earned its reputation.
Fresh snow covered everything, weighed down the tree branches, and made the paths slick beneath our boots.
Bow Bridge curved across the lake ahead, white with snow and half-veiled by the flurries like something painted onto the landscape, while people threw snowballs, posed for pictures, and dragged sleds toward the hills.
Isabella stopped beside me, barely knowing where to look first.
“Oh my gosh, it’s so romantic.”
I smiled. “Aye. This one’s worth stopping for.”
We caught up with the others near the bridge, and for a few minutes everyone managed to behave like civilized adults.
Then Lacey scooped up a handful of snow, packed it between her gloves, and launched it straight at Nik.
It hit him squarely in the chest.
He looked down at the white splatter across his black coat.
Lacey backed away, laughing. “Oops.”
That was the end of peace.
Within seconds, everyone was grabbing snow. Nat fought dirty, Jae complained loudly whenever anyone hit his hair, Scarlett and Lacey formed an alliance that lasted roughly thirty seconds, and Lucian became far too competitive for a grown man.
Isabella crouched beside me and tried to scoop up a handful.
The snow fell apart between her mittens.
“How do you make it stay together?”
I stepped behind her and covered her mittened hands with mine.
“Pack it tight like this.”
I guided her hands together, turning the loose snow until it formed a solid ball between her palms.
“There. Now pick someone you don’t mind offending.”
She looked across the park.
Lucian was laughing at something Scarlett said.
Perfect.
Isabella threw.
The snowball caught him high on the shoulder.
His head turned slowly toward us.
I bent close to Isabella’s ear. “Run, Mouse.”
She took off laughing.
After that, the day got away from us. The snowball fight eventually dissolved into everything else the park had to offer.
Lacey and Scarlett dragged Isabella into an untouched stretch of snow to teach her how to make a snow angel, and Jae dropped down beside them and made his with far more flourish than a snow angel required.
Nat swore she wasn’t getting snow down the back of her coat for anyone, right up until Lacey grabbed one arm and Isabella took the other.
A few minutes later, all five of them were lying in the snow laughing while Lucian took pictures and Nik complained that his wife had lost her damn mind.
We built a snowman that leaned badly. Someone in Lacey’s security detail produced a couple of sleds, and we spent another hour acting like out-of-control kids.
Isabella rode down the hill with the girls first, shrieking the entire way, then decided I was going with her next, whether I liked it or not.
The sled was nowhere near big enough for both of us, but Isabella wedged herself between my legs anyway.
My boots hung uselessly along either side as we tore down the hill, her body shaking with laughter against mine.
We reached the bottom and nearly rolled straight into the snow as we tried to climb off.
Somewhere between another round of snowballs, hot food from a park vendor, and more wandering than we’d planned, morning became afternoon.
By midafternoon, we’d traded the sleds for skates.