“I'm not tracking her,” I defend quickly. “It’s not like I can see where she’s going or coming from. I just… notice.”
“You notice,” Holden repeats, amusement in his words. “You notice that she’s getting rides home at two in the morning when you should be sleeping before practice.”
I don't have a good response for that, so I don’t bother. My eyes drop to my nearly empty glass.
Maxton shakes his head, standing up from the booth. “I need another drink if we're going to keep talking about this. Does anyone else need one?”
“I do,” Kai says as he lifts his bottle. “I’ll have another beer.”
“Whiskey for me,” I add.
Maxton walks off toward the bar, muttering something under his breath that sounds like “fucking Lucero” and “my family”. A smile pulls at my lips.
Holden watches him go before he turns back to me. “Maxton might have gone about it wrong, but you have to know that he has a point. Gianna is not exactly what you need right now.”
“You don’t have to tell me. I’m well aware.”
“You're in the middle of the playoffs of your last season. This is it for you.” There’s a look of remorse in his expression.
“I know.” I nod, biting the inside of my cheek.
“So why are you still thinking about her?” Holden contemplates his next words before a smile splits his face. “Was it really that good that you can’t let it go?”
I throw a punch at his upper arm. It’s not hard, but it gets my point across. The amber liquid in my other hand sloshing from my sudden movement. “I won’t be answering that question. As for the other one… I just can't stop thinking about her.”
It's the truth. I've tried to get her out of my head ever since the morning I left her in that cabin. I got up at three and watched her sleep for a solid twenty minutes as I thought about what we could be. When I walked out the door, I told myself that there was no future for us.
But every time I see a new charge on my card for an Uber at some ungodly hour, I can’t stop myself from imagining what she’s been up to all night.
My mind also wanders back to our brief time together. The way she laughed when we sped off on that snowmobile. I think about the way she looked at me like I was the most interesting thing in the world. How she felt underneath me, like even though she could be wild and free, she was mine.
“She's twenty-two,” Holden says quietly. “You're thirty-eight, man.”
“Thanks for repeating what I already know.” I regret my snarky retort almost instantly, but I don’t take it back.
“Do you? Because from where I'm sitting, it looks like you're about to do something really stupid.” He lifts his hands in surrender, like that will lessen the blow of his words.
I meet his eyes. “I’d still do it if I had the chance.”
Holden sighs, shaking his head, but there's a hint of a smile on his face. “Well, if you're going to be stupid, at least wait until after we win the Cup.”
“I can’t promise that, but I can try.” It’s all I can offer him.
Kai raises his beer. “To Daemon being stupid. We’ve all been there. I mean, I did sleep with my best friend’s sister.”
Truett clinks his glass against Kai's bottle. “Cheers, to bad decisions.”
I don't toast with them. I just tip my cup in their direction before downing the rest of the contents of my glass.
I know that they are right. Anything I do with this would be a bad decision.
Gianna is chaotic, and I'm trying to hold my life together for the end of my last season. I don't have time for distractions. I don't have time for a twenty-two year old party girl who steals snowmobiles and uses my damn credit card for months. I don’t have time for a girl who makes me feel things I haven't felt in years.
When Maxton comes back with our drinks and slides my whiskey across the table, I catch a glimpse of the door. My chances at the Cup flash before my eyes as the object of my distraction appears before me.
There she is.
Gianna.
