An elbow digs into my side. “Admit it. You think they’re cute.”
I refuse to give in to the twitch of my lips. “They’re pointless. They can’t do tricks. You can’t take them for a walk.”
“Technically, that’s not true. They have itty-bitty leashes you can buy. There’s nothing stopping you from taking Jelly and Bean down Broad Street.”
“Rocky and Balboa,” I correct, and she gasps quietly, moving to stand in front of me, head tilted up, amusement shining in her eyes.
“You gave them new names. Youlovethem.”
“I like them,” I grumble, and Nadine whacks at my chest.
“You big softy.”
“Don’t tell anyone.”
She winks theatrically, and my heart thumps behind my rib cage. I find myself back in a ballroom five years ago, a beautifulwoman in an ice-blue dress that matches her eyes floating toward me. Shaking my hand. Smiling shyly.
And then turning right around to call me a prick.
“What happened?” I ask, hands shoved into my pockets so she doesn’t see how tightly they’re curled into fists. “That night of Erik and Molly’s engagement party. What happened?”
She doesn’t need any more explanation. Her face slowly falls, the playful smile I’ve become so familiar with slipping, along with her shoulders. Those eyes—the ones that have haunted me since that night—cloud as her chin dips. Still, she doesn’t answer.
“Tell me what happened. Tell me what I did. Aside from…everything.”
She stays quiet, brushing by me, but I catch her wrist. “I need to know. Because when I first saw you… We were… We had…” I shake my head, trying to make sense of my jumbled thoughts. “What did I do to make you hate me?”
She lifts a shoulder, tugging her hand out of my hold, and it feels like all the goodwill we built up between us over the summer is gone.
“Nadine,” I say, bending to close the distance between us, my voice completely unfamiliar when I plead, “Please, talk to me.”
She inhales audibly, angling her gaze away from me. “Why do you care all of a sudden?”
I don’t know.
I don’t know why I’m suddenly unable to be in my home and not see her in every corner. I can’t help the innate sense of rightness when I’m around her. Like a light has turned on after I’ve been sitting in the dark for my whole life.
“Because I’d like to know how we got so…lost.”
And why it’s taken so long for me to find my way back to her.
“I heard you talking,” she murmurs. “You were with your teammates.”
“Talking about you?” I guess, and she nods, but I can’tremember anything much about that night besides her. Besides the deep-seated fire that came roaring to life and then was immediately snuffed out. I think that’s why I’ve been so willing to spar with her all these years, hoping it would spark another fire.
“One of them said something about me.”
“What? What did they say?” The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Did they insult her? I will kill them. Whoever it is.
“Nothing much. Alluded to…possibly being attracted to me.”
I slowly lean back, doing my best to remember. None of this rings a bell. “Okay?”
“You…” She trails off, scuffing her heel against the floor.
“What? What did I do?”
She takes a breath and spits it out all at once. “You kind of warned him—all of them—away from me and Emmaline. Said it would be better if everyone left us alone because we were Erik’s sisters.”
