“And Ramos takes control, passes to Ramos ... passes back to Ramos. We haven’t seen stick handling this good since the playoffs. Ramos has the ball, setting up the shot ... he shoots ... he scores!” He made a sound that sounded like a stadium of fans going wild.
Kavita, who was playing with a friend against the two of us, elbowed me. “Your boyfriend is hilarious. Does he have any hockey player friends for me?”
Even I played better than I expected. With Daniel helping me with my form, of course. When I managed to get the wooden ball through the little metal hoop, I also got the excited hockey broadcaster treatment.
“Rookie player Samaya, the pocket rocket, Janmohammad shows us all that it’s not size that counts! Keep an eye on this one ... She’s going to go far in the lawn sports world.”
I got caught up in it, laughing. He whispered in my ear, “Permission to give you the highest of fives?”
I grinned, nodding, putting my hand up until he hit it. But he didn’t slap my hand as expected. Instead, the second his hand came into contact with mine, his fingers curled around mine, holding my hand in his in the air.
Fine. We’d held hands earlier. He squeezed a bit, and our eyes locked for a second before he let go. That look, and that small action, sent a shiver down my spine.
I turned away, sure that my face was as red as the croquet bat (hammer? stick?) in my hand. That was when I noticed I was being watched. Not just by the other croquet players.
Devin was at the edge of the lawn, staring intently. The look in his eyes was ... misery. Which, fine. I mean, I knew that it didn’t feel too good for me to see his PDAs with Hana. But had Daniel seen Devin watching us? Was this why he’d held my hand?
I decided to ignore my ex and got back to the game.
We won croquet, of course.
Not long after our game, Hana finally lowered all the lights in the yard and set up the projector. In case anyone expected Daniel to sing along to theDragon Arenamovie, and so I wouldn’t have to sit anywhere near Devin, I guided Daniel to one of the small round picnic blankets spread out on the grass. Each was big enough for two people, and a few blankets were already occupied by couples snuggling.
“This is good,” Daniel said as he lowered himself on the blanket. It was one of those boho mandala-print ones with tassels around the perimeter. “I won’t have to whisper here.”
The movie was, of course, terrible. But being far from the crowd meant we didn’t join in on the slagging, mocking, shooting the screen with water guns, or most importantly, the singing. We could just talk.
“Why’d you tell Omar earlier that we’d both go to Jayden’s party?” I asked.
Daniel shrugged. “I thought we were being too defensive. It’s good to agree to some things or they’ll figure out we are lying. I won’t actually go if you don’t want me to. I can’t believe he accused you of cheating.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, I didn’t see that coming. I was so sure he was going to admit he was LostAxis. Now I can eliminate him from my suspect list, I guess. If he was LostAxis, he’d know if I was fooling around with the guy. Or sexting him.” My nose wrinkled at the thought of sexting Omar.
Daniel’s eyes widened. “You weresextingthis Axis guy?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “No! That’s just what Omar accused me of. We only played together. It wasn’t that deep. We didn’t even talk of meeting up.”
He shook his head. “Maybe I should go to that gamer party. Someone could accuse you of shit there, too.” He sounded ... protective of me. Which was sweet. “Maybe the catfisher will be there.”
I shook my head. “We can’t go. Here it’s fine—we’re justtalkingabout the game. At Jayden’s we’d beplaying. You’ve never playedDragon Arenain your life.”
He smiled mischievously. “Wrong.”
I raised a brow. “You have?”
“I downloaded the free trial last night and started a character. And even woke up early to play before school. Addictive game.”
My eyes were wide. “Seriously? What character class?”
“Dark Mage, of course. That’s where I got the name IceMagic—that’s actually my name in game.”
I slapped his arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
He laughed. “I wanted to tell you when no one else was around so I wouldn’t have to share your surprised face with anyone. I think I want to start another character, though. I want to play as a Paladin ... because he’s like the center forward of a group, which is my position on ice. Dark Mage is like left wing, and Warrior is right wing.”
“You have this all figured out, don’t you?”
He nodded. “The Bard and the Weaver are defense. And you, the Light Mage, are the goaltender.”
