“Something sentimental and romantic.”
I burst out laughing as I type on my phone. “Right. So, I’m guessing you want to go the funny route. Maybe throw in a bunch of hockey and sports metaphors that only you and your brother will understand.”
I expect him to lob a wise-ass joke back at me, but he doesn’t. He just frowns and rubs the back of his neck.
“Would it be okay if we saved this for our next meetup? I’ve got an early training session in the morning and I should get to bed soon.”
“Oh. Sure.”
I stand up and walk over to the kitchen island to clean up the food, but Liam stops me.
“It’s okay, I’ve got it.” His tone skitters on the edge of curt.
He doesn’t look at me as he packs up the food. It’s so jarring from just a minute ago when he was smiling and being so sweet and playful.
For a second, I stand there, wondering what I did or said to put him off. But then I start to feel awkward. Clearly he wants me to leave. I grab my purse from the table and head to the front door.
“Same time next week?” I ask before I open the door.
He flashes a tight smile. “Sounds good.”
An unsettled feeling gnaws at me. He’s never smiled at me like that before, like he’s faking it.
Even the times when we’ve bickered and I’ve been so frustrated I flipped him the middle finger or told him off, at least those interactions were genuine.
I hate how artificial this moment feels.
That gnawing feeling stays with me the rest of the night.
Chapter 10
Liam
Sweat pours down my face as I finish my last set of box jumps at the Wolves training facility.
“Two more. You got this,” my trainer Eddie says.
My leg muscles burn as I jump again and again. When my feet land on the ground, I hunch forward and brace my hands on the tops of my thighs.
“Nice work,” he says. “Hit the stationary bike for cool down.”
I nod at him and drag my aching body to the far wall of the gym and climb onto the nearest bike. I force my legs to pedal at a medium speed, despite the burn in my muscles. Eddie will give me hell if he sees me slacking, even during cooldown.
He walks over and tells me I’m looking good in my off-season training.
“At this point in your training, I think we could swap out one of your cardio sessions for yoga. Something that stretches you out well,” Eddie says. “That’ll help prevent injury when you’re back to playing in the fall.”
I nod instead of shouting out of pure joy, like I want to. As important as off-season training is, I’m done with the four sessions per week of explosive cardio that I’ve been doing for the past month.
I tell him I’ll find a local yoga class and enroll right away. He walks off, and I continue with my cooldown.
It’s a couple of minutes before my breathing starts to even out, the soreness in my body starts to ease, and my mind starts to clear.
The one good thing about training sessions that make me want to puke? It’s helped me avoid thinking about the way I left things with Kendall the other night.
Every day since then, I can’t stop thinking about what a jerk I was. How I cut things off when Kendall teased me about me only talking about jokes and hockey for my best man speech. How short I was with her when she offered to help me clean up. How I barely acknowledged her when she left.
I exhale sharply, wishing I had handled things differently. I knew she was kidding, but in that moment her words stung. Because I was dead serious when I told her I wanted to write something romantic and sentimental. I was gearing up to tell her that I wanted to incorporate the books they love into my speech and I wanted her help with that. But when she made that joke, my defenses went up.
