“You’d have no fucking chance with her, bro.”
I gritted my teeth, switching up my trajectory, skating toward my far-too-loud teammates. If Coach heard them speaking like that when we were supposed to be doing line drills, I’d get the blame as the captain.
“Keep it down,” I hissed as I skated past them, tapping Smith’s stick with my own in warning.
He chuckled, skating after me to take his position next to mine. Glancing over at Miller, he leaned in, lowering his voice. “Hey, man. Ignore us. We’re just playing.” Nudging me in theside, he added, “I think she’s here for you. She hasn’t been able to take her eyes off you since she showed up.”
“Huh?”
I followed his gaze to the stands, and my heart stuttered.
Ava. Looking way too gorgeous and way too distracting in tight sports leggings and a Blackwell U hoodie, with her blonde waves loose and spilling over her shoulders.
Her pouty lips curved upward the second our eyes locked. I hadn’t forgotten she was coming, but I guessed I hadn’t expected her to come and actually watch me practice. We still had forty minutes left of our session.
“Whoa. I didn’t know your mouth could smile that widely,” Miller said, getting all up in my face and blocking my view of Ava. I shoved at him with my gloved hand.
“Shut your mouth, dick.”
“It’s shut.” He was still grinning obnoxiously, so I turned away from him, doing my best to focus on the repetition of the drills rather than the girl in the stands. Every now and then, I glanced over, and every time, she was watching me.Onlyme.
After our cooldown, I noticed her rise to her feet and make her way through the stands toward me. I dismissed my teammates, leaving them to gather their shit up and head to the locker room, and then I skated over to the edge of the rink to meet her.
Tugging off my helmet, I smiled down at her, and she instantly returned my smile with a bright one of her own. Easy and free, like she used to be before everything that had happened.
“Hi,” I said. She didn’t reply for a moment, studying me with a small furrow between her brows despite her smile.
Eventually, she exhaled. “Gray?” she began hesitantly. “If…if I were your girl, and I came to watch your practice, what would you do?”
I stared at her. What? “Uh…I don’t?—”
“No, don’t tell me. Show me. I want to cash in my favor.”
My brows lifted. I had no idea what she was thinking. “You want that to be your favor?”
She nodded.
Okay. What would I do if she were mine…?
The answer came easily. I moved a little closer, lowered my head, and brushed a soft kiss over her cheekbone.
“You missed my mouth,” she murmured, and then her lips were sliding against mine, and I was lost.
19
AVA
Ihad decided to live my life one day at a time, and so far, it had been working for me. There was a sense of freedom and liberation once I stopped living by society’s norms and started to live for my own. Everything wrong in my life was still fucked up, but I had decided that I was going to do what I wanted, go for the things that brought me happiness, because whoever was out there was not going to stop.
My life was running on borrowed time. I dreaded to think about it, but now and then my brain liked to remind me it was a matter of time before the killer rectified their mistake. Livy was a tragic casualty, and soon they would make amends.
So, no, I would not be apologizing for how I was choosing to spend the time I still had on this earth. If finding scraps of happiness was all I had left, I would try to get my fill.
I had woken up in Micah’s arms in the early hours of the morning.
There were a few seconds where we just stared at each other, and then we both couldn’t help but smile. If I were being honest, it had been a long time coming, and I was glad I now shared that intimacy with him. I briefly wondered what would have becomeof us if we had made this step sooner. What would have become of us if something had developed between us before that fateful party that changed all of our lives?
As quickly as the thought had entered my mind, I dismissed it.
