My phone buzzes.
Gage: Did you talk to her yet or are you still being a coward?
I look at Piper's cabin. At my cabin. At the twenty feet between them that feels impossible to cross.
Then I turn around and go inside.
The message to Piper stays typed but unsent:
Me: We need to talk.
I delete it.
Pour myself a drink I won't finish. Stare at the wall where I can see the glow from her cabin window through mine.
Three games left. Three games to figure out if I'm brave enough to fight for this.
Chapter 15
Piper
Tessa holds up two different mascaras like she's presenting evidence at a trial.
"The left one makes your lashes look like you could cause wind damage," she says. "The right one is more natural but still 'I woke up like this' vibes."
"Neither," Patrice calls from my closet where she's been reorganizing my entire wardrobe for the past twenty minutes. "She needs the waterproof. Trust me on this."
I'm sitting on my bed wrapped in a towel, hair dripping onto my shoulders, trying very hard not to think about the fact that in two hours I have to see Ryder for the first time since the other night when we had sex. Days of radio silence. Days of watching his truck come and go while I hid behind my curtains like a creep. Days of overthinking every single moment of that night until I've convinced myself I did something wrong, said something weird, made some face during the actual sex that turned him off forever.
"Why waterproof?" I ask, even though I'm afraid of the answer.
"Because hockey games get emotional," Patrice says, emerging with an armful of sweaters. "And you look like you're about to cry just thinking about going."
"I'm not going to cry."
Tessa and Patrice exchange a look that says they don't believe me for a second.
"Okay, what's going on?" Tessa sits beside me on the bed, mascara forgotten. "You've been weird since we got here. You keep checking your phone. You look like you're going to throw up."
"I'm fine."
"You're wearing a towel and it's been forty minutes since your shower," Patrice points out. "That's not fine."
Baby Brooklyn chooses this moment to let out a shriek from the travel crib in the corner, and Patrice goes to scoop her up. The baby immediately grabs a fistful of her mom's hair and yanks, which Patrice takes with the patience of someone who's been through this approximately eight thousand times today.
"Did something happen with Ryder?" Tessa asks quietly.
Everything. Everything happened with Ryder.
"No," I lie.
"Piper."
"We're just dating. It's casual. Nothing's happened."
Tessa's expression says she's not buying what I'm selling. "Gage says Ryder's been weird at practice all week. Distracted. Took a puck to the face during drills."
My stomach drops. "Is he okay?"
