Page 67 of Perfect Score

Without a sound, he mouths the words, “We need to talk.”

My eyebrows knit together, and I shake my head like I can’t hear him.

Shelby is also busy talking with someone else to her right, but he checks to make sure she isn’t watching.

“I need to talk to you,” he mouths again.

I glance quickly at Brent, who’s still in deep conversation about the NCHC’s stance on college players getting paid to play over and above their scholarship funds.

“Not now,” I mouth back because that’s all I can think to say.

Do I want to finish that conversation with Liam about why he said he regrets calling off our engagement? Yes.

But it feels wrong to sneak off to do it.

The climate around Brent and me and this fake thing between us feels delicate.

I need closure from Liam, at the very least.

Do I still want more?

Do I want him to confess that he regrets breaking it off with me and that he’ll leave Shelby to start a life together like we always planned?

But then what do I do with these feelings that are growing for Brent? Do I forget that they ever existed?

Do I somehow forget that all this time I assumed Brent would never be interested in me and now I know there was a time in Spanish class that he was attracted to me? Something I never would have imagined before.

Did I miss my chance with Brent before Liam asked me out?

After dinner ends, the rest of the wedding party and other family members mingle inside while the groomsmen smoke the cigars Brent got out on the veranda.

“How did it look out there?” Phoebe asks as she stands looking over my shoulder while I show her the digital pictures on my camera.

She watches as I go through the photos I took.

“Hmm,” she starts, looking over the wedding party standing at the altar. “Maybe we should move Brent to the end since he’s so much taller than everyone else. Is it weird that he’s in the middle?”

Liam’s tall, too, but a few inches shorter at six feet, and Ben is shorter than both of them. It does make Brent stick out of the group, but it won’t matter where you put Brent. He’s tall, gorgeous, and a hockey star… so he’s going to stand out.

“I think it’s fine, Phoebe, but I also know that Brent won’t mind if you want him to go last.”

“I’ll ask David after the guys come in from their cigars,” she says, scrunching her nose.

“Sure, that’s a good idea.” I smile back.

I notice that Christine is sitting with Shelby at the bar when I start to overhear their conversation.

“That ring is gorgeous. Did he pick it out himself?” Christine asks Shelby.

I can’t help but wonder about her answer.

I haven’t seen the ring yet. I couldn’t bring myself to look earlier.

“No, it’s a family heirloom actually… his grandmother’s.”

My stomach twists uncomfortably. If there was a family heirloom ring, then I certainly wasn’t offered it. He purchased my ring from a jewelry store we had looked at months before.

That was the moment I knew he was going to propose even though he had taken me out to lunch and then pretended that we just so happened to stumble on the jewelry store a few blocks down.

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