My jaw drops. “A few weeks? You’ve been keeping this from us for weeks?”
“You’ve been ignoring me for two, so it wasn’t hard.”
“Touché.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“How’s it going?” Tate wonders.
“The sex is phenomenal.”
“Alright, I think this conversation is—”
“Em?”
I hear my name, but I don’t know where it came from. Maybe I’m hearing things.
“Em?” I hear it again, but this time the voice registers. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it took a second since I haven’t heard it in a while. A few steps behind our row stands Cam. He’s suited up, and I wonder how he walks around in his uniform, especially when stairs are involved.
“Hi, shouldn’t you be—” I point toward the ice where the players are starting to file out and warm up.
“I asked Coach if I could have a minute.” He pauses. “Can I? Have a minute?”
“You want to talk?”
He nods.
“To me?” I clarify, and he smiles but nods again.
I don’t respond; I just follow him to an empty hall.
“Alright, what do you want to talk about?”
“I’m sorry. What I said to you wasn’t right, and it wasn’t fair. I was hurt, but that’s no excuse for how I treated you.” He shakes his head. “I’m better than that, and in that moment, I became the kind of person I always thought Declan was. And after what happened, you were hurting, and I let you hurt. I shut you out and became the reason you had no one, and I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not okay. Everything I said wasn’t okay. You deserved better than that, and I shouldn’t have said it.”
“I forgive you.” I smile. “Cam, I’m sorry too. I mean, I wasn’t an absolute asshole like you—” he laughs, “—but you’ve always been there for me, and I should’ve known that you’d support me no matter what. You lashing out wasn’t because of who I was with, but because you felt like I didn’t trust you enough to share it with you.”
“Still, I said things I shouldn’t have,” he continues. “And I don’t know the full story of what went down between you two. But I do know that he really loves you.”
Hearing this from Cam feels different because he has no reason to be on Declan’s side over mine.
“I think a small part of me always knew; it’s hard to deny it with how he looks at you.”
“Should I give him another chance?”
“I think you should follow your heart.” He rubs my shoulder. “It’s what you’ve done all year, and I’ve never seen you happier, Em. And if following your heart means being with Declan… I want you to know I support it.”
“Not that I need your permission.”
“Obviously.” He rolls his eyes. “But um, Em… if you’re gonna, you know, at our house, can you like put a sock on the door or lock it or—”
“If you learned to stop barging into my room, then it wouldn’t have been a problem.”
