Page 60 of Oh, Flutz!

“You should see your face right now,” Bryan says, absolutely giddy, and I grab the tissue box from the nightstand and smack him in the face with it.

“Ow!” he protests, and I glare down at him.

“You are unbelievable.”

“You weresoworried,” he teases, practically giggling, and I shove him in the chest, grabbing a pillow and raising it.

“I will smother you with this.”

“You werescared!”

“You are the one who should be scared right now.” My face is probably three-alarm red right now. I shove him harder.

“Okay, okay! Stop hitting me!”

“Apologize,” I demand, picking up the tissue box again and holding it above his head threateningly, and Bryan takes my elbows, lowering them and keeping his hands there as he keeps them gently pinned to my waist.

“I’m very sorry,” he says, not even a trace of sarcasm in his voice, blue eyes solemn and brows slightly furrowed the way they get whenever he’s being genuine. He rubs my elbows, tilting his head to the side as he looks up through his (stupidly long!) lashes at me, just…watching me, in a way that isn’t creepy but still manages to freak me out. Which is exactly when I realize that I’m basically sitting on top of him.

My mind goes blank. Thankfully I recover quickly, and I clear my throat, shifting and rolling off of him, sitting up straight at the edge of the bed. “I have to go. I said I would get the groceries for Lian this week.”

His lips curl into a smile. “Good idea. Believe me, you do not want to be late on chores in the Chen household.”

I snort, turning my head to look back at him, completely lazy and reclined, body stretched out across his bed with the boot sticking out from the edge of the sheets. “Exactly.” But what he says, along with all the strangeness of Alexandra’s comments, reminds me of something I’d completely forgotten about until right now. “Why were you there, anyway? I don’t think you ever said.”

He flicks his gaze back to me, no longer relaxed. He clears his throat, sitting up slightly. “What?”

I shrug. It isn’t out of the norm for skaters to move in with their coaches. It’s more convenient in intensive programs like mine, or when it’s too far to make the drive every day. “Why did you live with her? It isn’t like her place is any closer than this.” Actually, it might be even closer than Lian’s townhouse. So it doesn’t make any sense.

Neither does the look on Bryan’s face—like he’s scared. “I don’t know.”

I almost laugh. “What?”

“I mean—” Bryan cuts himself off with a sigh, running an aggressive hand through his hair. “It’s complicated.”

“Everything’s complicated with you,” I say, and I mean it teasingly, but it doesn’t come out that way.

The corner of his mouth turns up. “True.” He might be smiling, but it doesn’t come out that way, either. “Guess I get it from my mom and dad.”

“You don’t talk about them much,” I say before I can stop myself.

Blin.

Chapter Sixteen

BRYAN

She says it matter-of-factly.Not asking me any questions, just making an observation.

So why do I feel the need to tell her everything?

Katya’s never asked me too much about myself. I can’t tell if it’s because she senses I don’t like talking about it. I’m probably inflating my ego, though. She probably just doesn’t care.

“I don’t,” I say.

Katya glances back at me, then nods once. Not asking for explanations. Not poking or prying or asking for more. Which just makes me, ever the oversharer, want to spill my guts.

“I’ve always kind of had a weird relationship with them. They were always around, unless you count Mom always working, but it was more of like…an emotional absence than anything else.” God, I sound so stupid. She doesn’t want to hear any of this. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you my therapist. I have anot-being-able-to-shut-upproblem, as you know.”

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