Page 72 of Hate to Love You

Unfortunately, my lips start moving before my brain has time to pull the plug. “Brody could have gone straight to the NHL after juniors, and he chose to come here and work on his degree first. It’s important to him.”

Even though I’m tempted to tell her about the promise Brody made to his mother before she died, I don’t. For all Brody’s party-boy, manwhore ways, he’s turned out to be infinitely deeper than I gave him credit for. I wish other people could see that side of him.

But that’s not my decision to make.

It’s his.

And I would never break the promise I made to him.

Zara’s eyes narrow as she considers me. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this from you. For three years all you’ve done is hate on that guy.”

Her words make me wince. She’s right. “Hate is an awfully strong word,” I murmur. “I don’t think I ever hated him.”

She gives me an are-you-crazy look. I can’t blame her for being confused at my sudden about-face. “Yes, you did. In fact, I specifically remember you saying that you hated him and wished Brody’s penis would shrivel up and fall off. That was like a month and a half ago.”

All right. Fine. I said it. I wanted his penis to shrivel up and fall off.

But clearly, that’s no longer the case. I’m not sure what to do about these strange feelings growing inside me. I have to remind myself more and more often that we’re acting out a charade. That’s all.

No longer wanting to dwell on the Brody situation, I change the subject. “How about we grab dinner Saturday night? Maybe see a movie? We can keep it low-key.”

A look of guilt flashes across her face. “Oh. I can’t.” She bites her lip. “I’m sorry, Nat. I just assumed you’d be with your mom on your birthday. I’ve already made plans with Luke. His parents are coming into town for a visit. We’re going out to dinner.”

“That’s fine,” I say hastily, trying to backtrack. “It was just an idea. No big deal.”

After a moment she says, “I’ll cancel if you want and we can go to dinner and a movie. Now I feel terrible. I don’t want you to spend your birthday alone.”

I shake my head. “No way are you cancelling on Luke. I’m happy things are going so well for you guys.” I was nervous when she first told me about getting together with him. Most of the hockey players are douchebags. But not all. Luke is definitely one of the good guys.

Zara smiles and her entire face lights up as she confides, “I told him that I loved him.”

“Wow.” Setting aside my own disappointment, I say, “You two are amazing together. And for the record, I was wrong about him. Luke is a great guy. Nothing like Reed.”

What I’m starting to realize is that Luke isn’t the only hockey player I was wrong about.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Natalie

I slant a look Brody’s way as we walk through the parking lot of La Fuente. Which is weird, since he didn’t even ask where I wanted to go. He just showed up at my door thirty minutes ago and told me to change out of my yoga pants and T-shirt because he was taking me out.

I peppered him with questions on the car ride over, but he wouldn’t tell me who let the cat out of the bag.

“It was Zara, wasn’t it?” I ask for the tenth time.

I should have suspected she would do something like this. She didn’t want me getting all sad-bastard on my birthday, knuckle-deep in a carton of chocolate peanut butter chunk. Which is exactly what my big plans consisted of.

Brody shrugs, looking all cagey. “You’ll never know, will you?”

Who else could it have been? Mom? Or, as he likes to refer to her as, Mrs. D? I almost snort. “I think we both know it was my bigmouth roommate.”

He winks, and I’m secretly glad to have narrowly avoided the ice cream portion of this evening. How depressing would that have been?

“Why didn’t you tell me yourself?” he asks as we hit the walkway.

I shrug, keep my eyes focused straight ahead, and lie. “It didn’t seem important.”

There’s a teasing lilt in his voice. “Didn’t think I needed to know something like that about my girlfriend?”

---