“I have, yes.” My tone was clipped as we continued down the path toward the hockey house. Students were out on a warm summer night, and a few heads turned my way as we walked. They were easy to ignore though. A quick nod in greeting pacified them. “Do you?”
“Every once in a while. I have friends and I love people—the noise, the chatter, the questions. I can talk to anyone about anything, but I need quiet and time to retreat. If I’m around people too much, it’s exhausting.”
Two thoughts struck me.
Were my rules keeping her from friends?
Did she think I was exhausting?
I didn’t get to ask though. Someone came into view and said Ryann’s name in a way that had me suck in a breath. It was soft, tender, and intimate?
She stopped walking as the guy got closer to us, and her usual smile slid off her face. “Derrick.”
“Hey. How are you?” he said, his gaze moving to me for a second before he focused on Ryann. “You look amazing. It’s been a while, huh?”
“Yeah.” She bit down on her lip, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “Been about six months since you decided to not answer my texts.”
“Look,” the guy said, wincing and gripping the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. Things got weird for me, and instead of being honest, I backed out. I tried calling you a few times to explain. Could we talk, just the two of us?” He glanced at me again and recognition hit me.
Derrick Flanigan. One of the top guys on the baseball team.
“There isn’t much to talk about,” Ryann said, her tone sad and without her normal zest. Hearing her voice devoid of emotion gutted me. She’d radiated so much joy and hope in the short time I knew her, and not seeing it, even for a second, made me want to do anything to get it back.
“I really am sorry,” Derrick said, his shoulders slumping. “Well, see you around Ryann.”
The muscles along her jaw tightened as he walked away. She took a deep breath, straightened her spine, and blinked away any indication of pain. “Now I want a drink.”
“What happened with that guy?”
She blew out a breath so her lips made a raspberry sound and pushed her hair behind her ears. “We went out for a few months withverydifferent definitions of what we were doing.”
“He hurt you?”
Her gaze moved to my face, the lines around her eyes softening for a second. “Yes. I’m over it now, honestly. The sting is there, but I think it’s more of an ego thing. We were together for about four months, and one day he stopped responding to me. There was no talk, nohey this isn’t working out,just… got a text that said he wasn’t interested since baseball started.” She blinked, and her eyebrows furrowed as she studied me. “I get that sports are important to athletes. But I never once had an issue with his schedule. I got it. Istillunderstand it.”
Her words started a flame of anger deep in my gut, the same rage that made my muscles clench when I thought about what my mom did. “Ryann,” I snapped, making her recoil. “He should’ve been up front with you. That’s on him. You of all people understand the time restraints required of college athletes.”
“Oh,” she said. That one syllable made her red lips form an O shape, drawing my attention to how full and soft they looked. “You’re onmyside.”
“Did you think otherwise?”
“I don’t know. You’re so focused with hockey, I thought maybe you’d agree with him because distractions aren’t allowed. I’m not sure.” She shrugged and gave me a crooked smile, like that would make it okay.
It did not.
Irritation prickled across my skin. “I would neversidewith anyone who thought leaving someone without a damn conversation was the best choice. Hard convos are preferred over nothing.”
Like my mom.
Ryann nodded, understanding dawning on her. She lifted her hand toward me for a second but let it hang by her side. “You know what I think?”
“What?”
“Webothneed a damn drink.”
It wasn’t quite a laugh, but her comment seemed to dissolve the tension coiled tight in my body, and I nodded. “You might be right.”
We finished the walk to the hockey house, and music boomed through the walls as people hung out on the porch. Students held red cups and laughed, and the smell of stale beer and skunk hung in the air as we neared.
