Page 148 of Wicked Serve

I fiddle with my leather bracelet. Will myself to relax.

“It’s nice to meet you.” She sits across from me, clasping her hands together. “Let’s talk a little about therapy.”

Chapter 70

Izzy

I park my car in the driveway, silencing Taylor Swift midsong.

For the past two weeks, I’ve done nothing but throw myself into work and school. Finalizing plans for the wedding, going to volleyball, writing papers—anything to keep from thinking about Nikolai too hard. He asked for space, and I’m trusting him with that space, but that doesn’t stop reminders of him from peppering my life like ghosts. A doodle he slipped into my planner. Rift headlining my “on repeat” playlist. The clothes he left behind in my room, the koala stuffies on my bed. The other day in class, I pulled out a pen he lent me and felt heartache so acute, I couldn’t listen to a thing my professor said.

The distance is one thing. I could take the distance happily, if only we were talking. But it’s been two weeks since we spoke. Two weeks since we so much as texted. If Katherine wasn’t updating me, I don’t know what I’d do.

I sit in my car for a long time before finally dragging myself into the house. I have homework to catch up on. A couple small wedding-related fires to put out. I owe Mia a phone call.

All of that flees my mind the moment I see what’s on the television.

I know that Nik is playing every game—and doing well, according to Cooper—but I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch any of them.

Tears well in my eyes as I stare at the broadcast. I drop my bag, shuffling to the couch. Cooper’s here, of course, and Penny, but so are Evan, Xander, and Mickey. I bite my lip, so the tears don’t spill over.

The camera pans to the Sharks bench. I press my fist to my mouth.

He looks good in teal. Really good.

“Shit,” Cooper says. “I’m sorry, Iz. I thought you had a game.”

“Just a practice.” I wipe quickly at my eyes. “How... how’s it going?”

“He scored his first goal,” Penny says, untangling herself from Cooper and hurrying around the couch to me. “From the blue line.”

“It was fucking awesome,” Mickey says eagerly. He sees the expression on my face and clears his throat. “Uh, sorry.”

I lean my head on Penny’s shoulder as she strokes my hair. I haven’t spoken much about this break that Nik and I are on, but it’s not a secret. He left, and I haven’t visited, even for a weekend.

“I got the chocolate chip cookies you like from Trader Joe’s today.”

“Thanks.” I straighten my shoulders. “I’m fine. I just hadn’t seen him in his new uniform.”

“It’s a good look on him.” She gives me a half smile. “Want to watch some of it with us? They’re winning.”

I draw my legs to my chest as I settle into the armchair, popping a cookie into my mouth. Maybe I’ll feel closer to him if I watch him play. Maybe some of the hurt that I wish I wasn’t feeling will fade away.

“Do you think they’re making it in?” Evan asks Cooper.

Cooper’s answer, whatever it is, fades into the background as the camera pans away from the game, showing the bench again. A bunch of guys I don’t recognize, and then Nik at the end, hair flopping over his eyes. He works his mouth guard with his jaw as one of the coaches shows him something on a tablet.

He takes off his glove to point at something on the screen, and my heart stops.

He’s wearing the bracelet I gave him.

I can’t breathe. I get up, somehow, and manage to run upstairs without succumbing to the emotions beating a painful rhythm in my chest. I put my hand over my mouth, trying to catch my breath without sobbing.

My bracelet, underneath his glove, just like it had been the night everything came crashing down. Somehow, I didn’t expect to see it on him. Not like that, so casual, a mark of me from three thousand miles away.

It takes me a moment to notice Cooper standing a couple feet away.

I wrap my arms around myself, clearing my throat. “What?”

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