Page 17 of My Best Bet

She slowly sat back down and pulled her legs up onto the bench so she could rub out her calves. “Well, what’re we gonna do?”

We.

It was nice to hear. It made it feel like I wasn’t so alone down here in the metaphorical dumps. That’s why I thought settling in Chicago would be good– because at least Piper and I had each other. I was just so sick of being alone all the time.

I shrugged.

“Well, it looks like you got paid at least?” she said, pointing to the crisp $100 bill I was still holding.

I immediately shoved the money at her, not wanting to hold it anymore. I wasn’t sure if she remembered the significance of it, but I wasn’t about to rehash it. Saying it aloud would surely make me break down and I was already struggling to keep myresolve. I’d walked out of the rink too many times with red-rimmed eyes.

“Drinks?” she asked, tucking the money away in her pocket. “Couldn’t hurt?”

“It probably could,” I lamented, remembering the last time she met me out on tour and we went to the bars. It started with a group of finance bros flirting with us and ended with Piper being hauled out of the bar by a bouncer, her limbs flailing, because she was trying to “burn down the patriarchy.” In her defense, the finance bros started it when one of them grabbed her butt without permission.

“Eh, you’re right, but I say we do it anyway,” she said, nudging my shoulder. “Let’s get out of here and do something with this money thathewould absolutely hate. We’ll make him rue the day.” She held up her fist.

I rolled my eyes, but a small smile tugged at my lips over how she was trying to cheer me up. “What’d you have in mind?”

“Let’s go blow it on fruity drinks at the bar, then make out with some hot guys,” she said, wagging her eyebrows.

Despite the hurt in my chest, I laughed. “That man wouldn’t care if I made out with a hundred guys.”

“Hmmm,” she said ominously. “I don’t know about that.”

“He wouldn't, Piper,” I said dejectedly. “He moved on. Clearly,” I breathed out, trying to clear his stupidly handsome face from my mind.

“Is he still hot?”

I dropped my face in my hands and groaned.Yes. Yes, he was. How was it that he became even more attractive? The boy version of him could’ve starred in teen movies. The man version of him put Greek god statues to shame. Just one look from him made my lower stomach flutter and I’d been practically dead in that region for a very long time.

She arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow. “He has a daughter, but did he have a ring?”

I smoothed my hands over my face and shot her aget-reallook.Of coursehe was married. What woman in her right mind would let him get away?

Oh, yeah. Me.

But I wasn’t exactly the picture of mental health.

“He could totally be–”

“Doesn’t matter. Ireallydon’t want to think about him, P,” I said, hoping she’d drop it.

“Okay, okay,” she held her hands up in innocence. “Just one more question, then I’ll drop it. How was ‘The Conman’?” She rolled her eyes and used air-quotes around the nickname the hockey world dubbed him for his impressive trick-shot goals. “Was he surprised, angry, sad, nonchalant?”

“He was…” I breathed out and thought about the way his jaw clenched and his eyes bore into me. “He was pissed off.” It was pretty obvious. His body practically radiated frustration. “But that’s just because he didn’t wantmecoaching his daughter,” I added quickly.

Piper snorted. “Ireallydon’t know about that, Mer.”

4.Colt -MyCity

I tried like hell to hide my emotions from Lucy at the rink, plastering on a fake smile and telling her how amazing she was at skating, but she could see straight through me that something was wrong. And then when we got into the car, she actually mumbled an apology that sounded an awful lot like, “sorry I was bad at skating.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked her, feeling panic erupt in my chest. “You were amazing, honey.”

“I can tell,” she said, looking at me with storm clouds in her eyes.

“Tell what?” I asked desperately.

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