Page 67 (1/2)

"Hey, Tick!" E up into one of the chairs

He bent down and bopped her on the nose "Hey, Tock Hot cocoa?"

"With extra marshmallows!" she yelled

"With extraaway His happy de I wasn’t sure what it meant, or how to take it We hadn’t spoken in days, yet he was acting as if everything was perfect "Elizabeth, can I get you so?"

He’d calledbeside Elass of water and handed Emma her ‘semi-hot’ cocoa, which he always added a few ice cubes to She hopped out of her chair and hurried over to find Zeus

"Everything’s fine Everything’s good"

I raised an eyebrow "We should talk I know you’re probably upset because I’ve been avoiding you…"

"Have you?" He smirked "I hadn’t noticed"

"Yeah, it’s just--"

He started wiping off the counter "That your husband killed htened andas I replayed the words that had just left his mouth "How did you…?"

"Your best friend Tanner stopped in for a bit yesterday He wanted to, you know, try to talk Mr Henson into closing his shop So then he and I had a talk He thought it eet hoas able to look past the fact that, you know, your husband killeddown on the counter, stood across fro have you known?"

"I--I wanted to tell you"

"How long?"

"Tris…I didn’t know…"

"Da his fist down Emma and Mr Henson turned toward us with looks of curious concern He was quick to usher E? Did you knohen you told me you loved ?"

My voice shook "I thought…I thought I would lose you I wasn’t sure how to tell you"

He srin and nodded "Awesome That will be two dollars and twenty cents for the hot cocoa"

"Let me explain"

"Tenty, Elizabeth"

His storain There was a coldness I hadn’t seen in his stare since the first day I’d e, and placed it in front of me Tristan picked up the ister

"We’ll talk later this week," I said,the best I can"