I nod.
“And more importantly, you really trust her?”
“One hundred percent.”
He nods but he doesn’t smile. “I don’t. Sorry. This feels…like you’re gonna get burned.”
“Give it time,” I reply. “She’s not going anywhere, so all I ask is that you have an open mind. Please.”
“I can do that, I guess,” Jace says and shrugs. He’s still skeptical and I can’t blame him. Maggie and I have a long, rocky road to pave but at least Jace is willing to let us try.
“Love you bro,” I say as I get up to pay.
“Gross.” Jace smiles and makes a face. “She’s already making you soft.”
I laugh. “Soft is something Maggie doesn’t make me.”
“GROSS!”
18
Maggie
Everything has already gone awry. I wanted to talk to Daisy on the way to the game, but she didn’t come home. She stayed at school after her last class and I had to walk over with Caroline and Jasmyn, who both noticed my mood was off. Caroline said I was a big ball of anxiety, and she wasn’t wrong.
Now it’s moments before puck drop, we’re surfing down the row into our seats, and Daisy is still nowhere to be found. Jasmyn and Caroline sit but I stand and glare at the entrance. Where is she, damnit?
“She’ll be here, relax.” Caroline reaches up and tugs on my arm to try and get me to sit down.
“She didn’t tell either of you why she wasn’t coming home before the game?” I ask. “Where she went?”
They both shake their heads. “She said it was important and all would be revealed later.”
I stare at Jasmyn after she announces that and she just shrugs. “What the hell does that even mean?”
Neither answer because neither knows. I sit because I don’t know what else to do. I told Tate I would tell her before the game, so that after the game at the Biscuit we could actually hang out together without causing a scene. He texted me earlier and said he had told Jace, who promised to keep it quiet and that he was okay with it. “Okay” was the best we knew we could expect, so I was relieved. I was hoping the same from Daisy, if I could just damn well tell her.
Finally, as the players skate around the ice in warm-up, my attention is drawn to something other than my missing sister. Tate. Just watching him glide over the ice with his teammates makes my heart flutter. He looks so hot in his uniform. I know that sounds ridiculous because you can barely see him with the helmet and face cage and everything but man, my ovaries don’t seem to care.
And then he looks up and scans the crowd and he finds me—stares right at me—and I swear we’re eye-fucking in front of everyone.
“You know, Maggie, if I didn’t know any better I would swear that smile on your face is for your mortal enemy,” Caroline says with a side-eye glance.
I reach up and touch my lips and yup, I’m smiling. I hadn’t even realized. I glance over at Caroline and both she and Jasmyn are staring at me with curious looks. “Yeah well, you’re wrong,” I say calmly. “He’s not my mortal enemy anymore. He’s…”
“Oh my God!” Daisy’s voice cuts through the din of chatter around us. “I so didn’t mean to be that late. And yes, Mags, I got your nine hundred text messages. I know I was supposed to meet you at the house and you want to talk. Sorry, sorry, sorry! But I’m here now so, yak away.” She drops down dramatically beside me.
“Where the hell were you?”
She’s staring at the ice. “I had to do a thing. You’ll see. Eventually. It’s a surprise. A glorious surprise.”
“I don’t like surprises,” I reply, feeling a dark sense of dread start to swirl in my belly, sucking up my Tate butterflies like they’re the cow inTwister. “Spill it now.”
“Nope,” Daisy replies firmly and shakes her head. I have to lean back to avoid being clipped by the end of her high ponytail which starts swaying back and forth. “Now why don’t you tell me what you wanted to say to me before the game gets started and this place gets even noisier?”
I open my mouth and the announcer blares over the sound system welcoming everyone and blabbering on about the upcoming season, the team, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I’m sure everyone wants to hear but me. Argh.
Then it’s National Anthem time. Then Daisy announces she’s thirsty and has to pee and will be right back. Then the game starts. Caroline switches seats with Jasmyn so she’s right beside me and when I ask her why she grins and says, “I have a feeling you’re the real show tonight and I want a front row seat.”
