Page 47 of Love on the Ice

After we win these games.

My victory party will be with my woman. Because she is just that.

Mine.

Chapter

Twenty

LORELAI

I am cutting up vegetables and cheese while Karlie pours some wine into glasses. We’re going to watch the hockey game tonight and cheer on our neighbors. I’m trying not to think about Reid and the things he said, the hope of what could be. Except I’m failing because that’s all I’m thinking about.

“Have you heard from Reid?” Skye asks.

Lifting my eyes, I place the knife down beside me as I scoop up some cheese cubes and place them on the platter in front of me.

“I have,” I murmur. “Well, we were texting last night.”

After our conversation, I half thought that he might call me, but I didn’t hear from him the rest of the evening. Which was okay because I was still full of anxiety over Professor MacDonald. I’m better today, mainly because I haven’t seen him at all, and I’ve been watching.

I ended up not going to work, deciding to stay locked in my bedroom all night and stare out the window, wondering if he was there watching me. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life. I feel better today because I haven’t heard or seen any evidence of him.

Maybe he was just trying to intimidate me because I saw him at that hotel. He doesn’t have to worry about me.

I'm not saying a word.

“I’m so happy that he’s into you.”

Blinking, I look across to her. “Into me?” I ask.

She nods. “Totally. It’s so cute. You guys make the cutest couple, and he seems really laid back and chill.”

Reid is really laid back and chill. But I just chalk that up to the fact that I was and am in the friend zone. Without a doubt, I do not feel relaxed, laid back, or chill around him. My belly feels like it’s flipping, flopping, twisting, and turning all at the same time when I’m near him.

My breath hitches, my chest squeezes, and my heart races when he just texts me. I am completely into him, and I feel like an idiot every minute of the day about it, too.

“He is not relaxed or chill,” Brooklynn calls out from the living room.

“What?” I ask.

She turns and stands from her place on the sofa. I watch her as she moves toward the kitchen and places her elbows on the bar as she leans over.

“He is not chill at all,” she repeats herself.

“Are you going to elaborate?” Skye asks.

Brooklynn’s eyes find mine, and she holds my gaze, then her lips slowly curve up into a grin. “When he found out about that professor, he was pissed. He made me tell him where to find the guy. He went to him. I don’t know what happened, but I would venture to bet there was nothing relaxed about that meeting.”

Her words don’t compute. They don’t make sense. I stare at her, frozen in shock. I can’t believe that she has just said what she has. Reid went to him? Went to Professor MacDonald? What the hell?

Then my thoughts switch. Is that why the professor came to find me? I mean, it was a few weeks ago, but maybe that’s why he’s suddenly watching me.

“Lorelai, are you okay?” Brooklynn asks. “I don’t think he did anything to him other than talk. Otto went with him, and he seems to be pretty grounded.”

I would have thought that Reid was grounded as well, but now I’m not so sure. This information is new and different. I’m not sure if it changes how I feel about Reid, but it does make me feel like maybe, just maybe, this isn’t just a booty-call thing the way I’ve been trying to tell myself it is.

Hope.

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