I stretch out on the couch and he sits on a pillow in front of it on the floor. We play three races and I win all but the last one, allowing him to beat me.
“I want to go back to playing the other one now,” Asher says.
“So you can win?” I prod him with my foot until he laughs.
“I like winning.”
“Me too, bud. Here.”
He takes my controller and switches to the first game he was playing. I end up scrolling social media until I see a random video about a goat that makes me think of Maya. Sitting up, I bring up her last text. She hasn’t said anything to me since yesterday when I sent her a photo of me and Asher skating on the frozen pond behind our house.
I don’t want a text. I want to hear her voice. No, I want toseeher.
Hitting the FaceTime button, I wait to see if she’ll pick up, rubbing my chin absently.
The call connects and Maya fills my screen. Everything I mean to say flies out of my head at the sight of her. Those gorgeous hazel eyes stare back at me and her lips part. Her hair is twisted half up in a clip that makes me want to run my fingers into the part that’s left down. The sleeves of her sherpa jacket are pushed up to her elbows.
And she’s wearing my Heston University shirt that I gave her to wear at the party beneath it.
“Hey.” She peeks shyly at her parents in the background and leaves the kitchen to talk to me. “Happy Thanksgiving.”
“Yeah. You too.” I swallow, rubbing at my chest. “Did you eat yet?”
“Not yet. It’ll probably be another couple of hours before we sit down for dinner. We always work around my grandfather’s medication schedule so he doesn’t get thrown off his routine.”
“Nice. We haven’t either. Mom makes a huge feast, but between Asher starting his human garbage disposal appetite phase and me, we eat the leftovers by Saturday.”
“Yeah, they don’t last long here with Ryan in the house. And my dad’s a midnight snacker.”
The edge of my mouth lifts. I’m enjoying getting to see this side of her. It feels like she’s letting me in. The fiery girl I split donuts with a month ago never would have told me any of this.
She hasn’t stopped moving since she answered the call, strolling from room to room. I catch a big family photo taken at sunset on a farm hung on the wall before she goes into a den to grab a piece of cheese.
The football game is muted on the flatscreen mounted above the mantel and her brother is visible in the background sprawled on the couch.
“Hold on, I have to put you down for a second. I need both hands.”
She spends a moment propping me against something so I have a front row seat to her making a cheese and cracker sandwich similar to my own masterpiece earlier. A stupid smile stretches across my face and I do nothing to hold it back.
“Looks tasty.”
She smirks. “It’s cheese, of course it’s delicious.”
While she pops it in her mouth, she picks the phone up, humming contentedly as she chews. Her brother appears at the edge of the screen when he stands.
“Is that Blake?” Donnelly leans over her shoulder, squinting at the camera. “What the hell? Why are you calling my sister?”
I blow a kiss. “Just to tell her I miss you.”
He grabs at her phone with an annoyed grunt. She laughs, elbowing him to evade him.
“Stop. Go away.”
“I’m stealing your phone later to delete his number from your contacts,” he says.
“I’d still have her number,” I point out cheerfully.
Donnelly’s brows flatten. “Blake, if you do anything to fuck with her, I’ll?—”
