To verify, I call Chris.
“Hey, man.” Chris’s voice sounds lethargic. “When you make it back to the league and get all those brand deals, youhaveto buy a private jet. I’m not kidding.”
I speak urgently, “Chris, was Riley at the hospital after my accident?”
“Huh?”
“Was Riley there?” I spit. “Was she there to see me?”
“I don’t remember. Probably, yeah.”
My heart pounds wildly. “What do you mean ‘probably’?”
“Given how she’s always felt about you, I can see her doing that. She called everyday asking for updates. I’m almost one hundred percent sure that she took time off work around that time too because…”
“Chris,” I blurt, “how long has Riley had a crush on me?”
My best friend goes silent.
Something clicks in my head. The hospital visit. The playlist. How else has Riley been quietly showing her feelings through the years?
“The journal,” I whisper.
Chris laughs guiltily. “Journal? What journal?”
“You know what I’m talking about, Chris. The poems we found that day. The one you said was about that other guy on our team. It wasn’t about him, was it?”
Chris hems and haws. “Well, I…”
“Riley wrote those poems about me.”
“I neither confirm nor deny that.”
Shock locks me in place. My mind wanders back to the past, picking apart the memories I have with Riley that seemed platonic and regular at the time.
“I was totally oblivious,” I breathe out.
Chris sighs heavily. “Let the record show that I did my big brother duties and didn’t say a word.”
I start the car, my pulse jackhammering under my skin. “I need to see Riley.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
RILEY
I hear a sharp thudding on my door and I know who’s on the other side before I hear his voice.
“Riley, it’s me,” Nat says. “Open up.”
My nostrils flare.
My body buzzes with equal measures of frustration and determination.
I throw aside the mechanic books that I’d been studying since Nathan dropped me off this afternoon.
My fingers close around the doorknob. Twist. Pull.
I throw the door open.
