“For, like, twenty minutes,” Theo argues. “He met her once.”
“Twice,” I say.
“That’s not any better,” Theo says. “You wereinterested.That doesn’t mean you wereintoher. Or that you would have been had you just dated her normally instead of diving headfirst into engagement photos and house shopping.”
“I get what you’re saying,” I say. “But I’ve spent enough time with her to know that I would have been into her. Even if we’d just dated normally.”
“All right,” Theo says, his expression turning resigned. He lifts his shoulders in a shrug, like he’s sorry he has to say this next part out loud. “But maybe she can’t say the same.”
It’s the same conclusion I keep coming to, and it doesn’t suck any less to hear someone else say it.
“Still,” Holly says. “Just because she’s trying to protect herself doesn’t mean she doesn’t like you. Orwouldn’tlike you. Nothing about this situation is traditional. And it’s not like you’ve put yourself out there, right? So she doesn’t knowyou aren’t just pretending. It makes sense she would want to be careful.”
“I’ve told her I find her attractive,” I say.
“Not quite the same thing asI’d like to build a life with you,” Holly says.
“I think you’re playing the long game here,” Theo says. “You know you have chemistry, so just…be yourself. Show her how good things could be for real and hope she comes around.”
I move over to a rack of weights and pick up a set of dumbbells for bicep curls. “But that goes back to what you were saying earlier. Do I want her to just come around? If she never would have dated me in the first place?”
“That’s your ego talking,” Holly says.
“It isn’t,” I say. “If she has reasons to resist, I don’t want to pressure her just by being available all the time. I want her to want me because I’m me. Not because I agreed to do this or because she’s living in my house.”
“But now you sound like you don’t trust her to know her own mind,” Theo says. “If she falls for you, she falls for you. Who cares how or why your relationship started?” He lies back down on the bench and motions for Holly to spot him. “If you’re good together, you’ll know, and she will too. I think you have to trust that.”
Holly nods. “I agree.”
Wearegood together. We’re only just getting to know one another, but I already feel more comfortable with Sarah than I ever did with Veronica. That has to mean something. Even when we’re not together in person, we’re texting. She messaged me about her visit to the Rooke, I texted her after I played a great game in Boston, then again last night when wewere back at the Vortex. She already feels like a friend. I just want her to be more than that. “So in the meantime, I just…?”
“Follow the rules,” Theo says in between reps. “That says you respect her. Then woo her in all the ways thatdon’tbreak the rules.”
“Has she said anything else about hockey?” Holly asks. “About why she doesn’t go to games?”
I push through two more reps before I have to put down the weights. “She hasn’t,” I say. “But I don’t think it’s just a preference thing.”
“Meaning?” Holly asks.
“That she isn’t skipping them because she doesn’t like hockey. There’s more to it than that.”
“Like what?” Theo asks, still cranking out reps. The fact that he can talk while he’s lifting that much weight makes me want to drop a dumbbell on his toe.
“Maybe something happened at a game?” I say. “I don’t know. I get the sense she’s really been through something. I don’t see how it’s all connected, but I feel like it has to be.”
Holly’s expression shifts, like he’s considering how much he wants to say, but then he shakes his head like he’s thinking better of saying anything at all. I watch as he helps Theo rack his weights—sometimes Holly takes a minute to formulate his words—but he never says anything.
“What was that?” I finally ask. “What were you about to say?”
He loops a hand around the back of his neck. “It’s nothing. Or…maybe it was nothing. Either way, I’m not sure it’s my story to tell. This is your fiancée’s family we’re talking about.”
“Sort-of fiancée,” Theo clarifies. “And thesort-ofmeans you should say whatever you’re thinking because our man here is trying not to get his heart broken.”
“Whoa, hearts are not involved yet,” I say. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“I don’t believe you,” Theo says to me. “But I do want to hear what Holly has to say.”
Holly drops onto a weight bench, propping his elbows on his knees. “It’s not much,” he says. “It might have been nothing. But when I played junior hockey with Miles, he came to practice more than a few times with bruises I don’t think he got on the ice. I mentioned it to our coach once, and he said he’d look into it, but nothing ever happened. I don’tknowthat it was happening at home, but that’s definitely what it seemed like.”
