“Agents. Investors. People in the entertainment industry,” he explains with a laugh. “It’s not as glamorous as you’d think, but it’s interesting. And, yes. Privacy is at the utmost premium.”
“No offense, but that seems like a pretty heady job for someone who doesn’t look a day over twenty-five.”
He puts a hand to his chest, mock flattered. “Twenty-nine, technically, which I suppose is still a little young.” He shrugs and smiles. “But I skipped a few grades in elementary and ended up starting college at sixteen. I guess that puts me a bit ahead of the curve.”
“Wow. That’s impressive,” I say, because itisimpressive. I barely tolerated college at eighteen, nineteen, and twenty, let alone sixteen. If it weren’t for Gammy, I probably would have dropped out. Not because I wasn’t smart enough, but because it was just so…ordinary. Which I know is rich coming from someone working in an accountancy firm and dreaming of an early bedtime now, but when I was younger, I always thought my life would be bigger or more interesting or…something.
Talent-adjacent, perhaps.
He waves it off. “Anyway. Where has the other girl you usually skate with been? Alyssa, right?”
“Yeah, Alyssa,” I say. “She’s my roommate. Normally, she’d be here now, but she’s out of town this weekend.”
“Oh?” His tone is light but inquisitive. “Everything okay?”
“Sort of. She went to Connecticut for the weekend. Her dad’s been sick for a while,” I explain. “It’s been hard for her…balancing school and going home to be with family.”
“That’s rough,” he says.
“Yeah,” I agree. Putting myself in Alyssa’s shoes somehow always places my current woes in perspective. I know what it’s like to lose your parents, but at least it happened to me before they were such a big part of my life. At this point, a world with her dad in it is all she knows.
“And what about you? You staying put this weekend?”
“Mostly,” I reply. “Trying to recover. I’ll probably spend time with my grandmother Saturday, though.”
“Lucky,” he says. “I don’t have any family close…well, other than the guys on my team.” He shakes his head. “They’re probably not too happy with me tonight, though, because I missed a game. Work ran late.”
He glances toward the window, where the rink sign is visible down the street. Compulsorily, I follow his line of sight with my own, visions of Rook Slater dancing in both my eyes and another, deeper place I’d rather not discuss.
I don’t know how my body can be so freaking interested in a man who doesn’t even know how to smile.
“Who’d you play?”
“Iron Knights.” It’s the team I was hoping to hear and, begrudgingly, makes my heart skip a tiny beat.If I get to the rink soon, Rook might still be there.
“Ah, yes. The most heated rivalry in Concordia Rec League,” I joke. “Bet you’re missing the chance to shed some of their blood.”
He laughs, and I push my luck.
“What is it between you guys, by the way? Is it just the hockey? Something else? I always feel like games between your two teams take ugliness to a new level.”
Holland’s eyes shutter briefly before he brushes me off diplomatically. “Oh, you know how it is sometimes. Grew up together. Never got along. We just don’t see eye to eye on a lot of stuff, and most of my guys and I are over the immaturity, you know?”
I hum my acquiescence, but the truth is, Idon’tknow. That nonanswer gave me exactly zero point two five out of a million when it comes to real reasoning.
“Well, I better head over now anyway,” I say, swigging my still-too-full cappuccino and shrugging. “I’m planning on skating after it’s done, and I don’t want to have a late night.”
“Figures,” he says with a grin. “That is your usual routine.”
A piercingly sharp pain zaps my head at Holland’s mention of myusual routine, but it’s gone as quick as it came. I don’t know if it’s a stress headache trying to form or an aneurysm or something else, but I chalk it up to one weird moment and move on.
He grins, seemingly unaware of my phantom pain and drifting mind. “So…about Friday…still no pressure, but maybe if I give a clearer picture of what it actually is, you’ll feel better about it.”
“Okay,” I agree, knowing the fastest route sometimes is directly through the forest. For whatever reason, Holland Thorne is fixated on me and this thing Friday, and if I don’t let him finish now, he’ll chase me around until he can.
“It’s very low-key. Private event that includes people from my firm and a few folks from New York, and I know that can sound intimidating, but I think you’d actually like it. Free drinks and dancing and food and maybe some connections that could give you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something big.”
“It all sounds really interesting, but I’m not sure an event of that scale is a great way to make my best impression. I tend to…lock up…in large crowds.”
