Page 116 of Ice Dance Hockey

“Why do I get the scolding voice so quickly? Theo got a business deal.”

“Theo is six and isn’t my boyfriend. It’s important that you’re on that trip to Maui with the family.” I’ve explained to him several times that Maui is where Father is the most relaxed. When he sees us together for days and days in a row, he’ll know this isn’t fake.

“I have to add the camping dates, so I’ll do it tonight.”

I lean down to his ear. “My palm is itching to spank you for this.” I have a bad feeling those dates are going to overlap. I know how much he wants to go on that camping trip with his family, but it’s imperative that he’s in Maui with us. “You’ve waited too long, and the trip has been signed off on.”

It could have been changed right up until last week when I began nagging him. Father wasn’t impressed by his lack of commitment to the trip, and I was forced to lie and say he’d told me the second to last week of August would work.

He runs a hand over his face. “Then it’s my fucking fault, okay?” he snaps.

“Not okay. Do you know when the dates for the camping trip are?”

“Yeah, Merc texted them. I just have to … here.” He pulls out his phone and of course, it’s now that I realize I should have just done this in the first place.

It reminds me how new we are. The sweet drug of falling in love, fools you into thinking you’ve known each other forever. Still, he should take some responsibility for this.

I look at his phone and of course the dates overlap. Completely. There’s no way to spend some time with one family without missing time with the other. I facepalm.C’mon, Rhett. There’s got to be a way to make this work.

Not without Father knowing that I lied.

“I’m sorry,” he says, reading from my face that we’re fucked.

I take a calming breath. “We have to go to Hawaii. Wehaveto.”

We’re not walking anymore, so I turn us around to head back to the car. I don’t want to cause a scene, but I’m having trouble keeping cool. This is frustrating.

He’s mad, too, for reasons I can’t imagine. It’s his fault we’re in this mess and it’s going to be up to me to fix it. No answers come to mind.

Striding back to the Meyer property takes longer than it took to reach the hiking trails. “Look, I’ll go, Rhett,” he says. “This my fuck up. I don’t expect you to take responsibility for that.”

If only it were that simple. I’m going to feel like an ass keeping him from his family, but this could be a nail in the coffin for us if he doesn’t go.

Doubts creep into my mind. Ones that weren’t there before. I never worried about anything with Jack. I assumed that he was as committed to me as I was to him.

Maybe Logan isn’t.

If falling in love is the highest of highs, a wounded heart in love is the most barren of lows. I want to rip my guts out and nothing has happened yet.

“Or, what if we told your dad my family changed the dates? He won’t be happy about it, but seeing how devoted you are in giving me what I want and how devoted I am in missing half the trip with my family should speak volumes. Maybe this is what will finally make him realize.”

I consider all the angles of that, but I take too long and Logan’s eyes glass over. “If that doesn’t work, I’ll go. I said I would. I won’t complain. Promise. Just please stop being mad at me.”

That’s worse than any of it so I yank him flush with my solid body as I think faster, surrounding him with my presence.

“I’m not mad, just thinking.”

“Fuck you. You’re also mad.”

“I was a little mad, but I’m less mad now.”

“That still equals mad.”

“Do I have a mad face?”

“Not really. It’s annoying how perfect and calm you appear on the outside. I can just tell. I can tell everything about you.”

He can. It’s unnerving sometimes. Even with knowing me—including the ugly parts of me—he still wants to be with me.

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