She smiles. Still close. Still shimmering.
“Maybe we could talk about it more,” she adds. “Outside of practice?”
There it is. Before I can figure out how to respond without accidentally agreeing to something I absolutely do not want, laughter cuts across the rink. I glance past her and resist the urge to crack up myself.
Liam’s leaning against the boards, grinning like he just found free entertainment for the evening, and Owen’s beside him, already losing it. Next to them is Nathan, one of our newbies coming up to play in the next season. His arms are crossed and he’s watching like he hasn’t yet determined whether the situation requires intervention. Probably smart to reserve judgment. I’m trying to.
“Friends of yours?” Danielle asks.
“Unfortunately,” I mutter. Then, louder: “Yeah. Teammates.”
Liam gives me a little wave, while Owen sticks his tongue out in our direction, much to Nathan’s amusement. Great.
“Anyway,” I say, returning my attention to her. “I need to wrap things up here.”
She doesn’t move right away. She waits a beat. Then another. Then, another. Finally, she steps back. “We’ll talk soon.”
I nod like that is absolutely not going to happen. “See you Thursday.”
As she walks off, I finally give myself permission to exhale. I survived that challenge, now on to the next. I make it three steps before I find it.
“So…glitter,” Liam says.
“Do not.”
“Full glitter,” Owen adds.
“I hate both of you, but we are out of here. Leaving,” I cut in. “Right now. Immediately.”
Liam grins. “Dinner?”
I grab my bag. “Dinner.”
Nathan falls into step beside us, and I notice he doesn’t ask any questions. Smart guy. He’ll fit right in.
By the timewe get to The Oarhouse, I’ve almost forgotten about the glitter. Almost.
“Table for four,” Liam says, already halfway inside like he owns the place. We get seated near the back—booth, good sightlines, low lighting, the kind of place that pretends it’s casual but charges like it isn’t.
Menus hit the table, and water shows up as I’m scanning my options. When the waiter drops off a bread basket, I’m pretty sure he tossed it to us like he was feeding zoo animals. Fair enough, we can be feral.
Liam settles back and immediately reaches for the little QR code stand like it’s the main event.
“Oh, this place is perfect,” he says.
“For food?” Nathan asks.
“No,” Liam says, offended. “For this.”
He taps the code and turns his phone toward us. “It’s their playlist system.”
I glance at it. “Their what?”
“Playlist system,” Liam repeats, like I’m the problem here. “You sign up for a free account, you add songs to the queue, and the whole place runs off what people pick.”
I frown. I can see a lot of holes in this plan. “So anyone can just choose the music?”
“Yes,” he says. “And it’s brilliant.”
