Page 55 of Offside Attraction

Rhonda wet her lips and searched for his music library. She found it at the top right of his screen and tapped, realizing too late that a text message notification had appeared at the exact same moment. Before she could process what was happening, she’d read the last four texts.

Cam

I didn’t think Elite took snow days

Nate

Getting soft

Chubs

There are pills for that, Natters

Steele

Game’s rescheduled. Third week of November.

Rhonda flipped the phone over and pressed it against her thigh.

“What?”

“I—I’m sorry. You got a text, and I accidentally clicked on it.”

Jordan readjusted his grip on the wheel. “Who was it from?”

“Your team, I think. Talking about a game being rescheduled. And a guy named Nate’s sex life.”

Jordan grinned, and there was that almost-dimple. It was more pronounced in the low lighting.

Rhonda flipped the phone back over and swiped back to the home screen. Her finger hovered over the music icon. “Did you have a game tonight?”

Jordan nodded. “It got cancelled.”

She nodded but didn’t press. “When?”

“Hmm?”

She worked to form words around the constriction in her throat. “When did they cancel it?”

Jordan shrugged. “Before we left the gas station. Why?”

Rhonda’s corner turned into a full-on confine. Four walls without any doors or windows.He’d left Calgary thinking he’d be missing his game.She tapped on the music app and searched for something, anything, to fill the silence before it swallowed her whole.

She clicked on the first one to pop up, “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish. She’d never heard it before and thought it was a perfect choice until she started listening to the lyrics. Damn it, why was a song with a bird title about undying love? She clicked to the next icon, realizing too late it was Stick Season. Rhonda couldn’t type the words “Nickelback” fast enough. She scrolled to “Burn It to the Ground” and hit play, then set Jordan’s phone in the cupholder.

He stopped at a red light and shot her a look that confirmed she had not avoided coming off as crazy.

“Sorry. I’m picky about music.”

“Tonight? Or in general.”

Rhonda moved and got another puff of Jordan-scented air from the inside of his coat. “In general.” Her dad loved music. He was always playing classic bands and comparing them to new ones with statements like, “It’s the same four chords, do you hear that?” or, “This is the first original thing I’ve heard since ‘88.”

The memory now felt like a stained glass ornament. Only parts of it would let the light through.

How had she not been able to see then what he was? She’d adored him—idolized him. Even in high school, she thought her mom was crazy for not falling over herself with gratitude for all the things he did for her. It wasn’t until she’d been out of the house for a year and had come back for Christmas that the perfect image she’d sculpted for him cracked.

“Is this it?” Jordan pulled to a stop on her street.

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