Page 93 of Playing Games

And what about Blake? Was he just collateral damage?

The fact that his name pops into my brain makes my chest grow tight with discomfort. I don’t know why I’m thinking about him, but it’s like my mind hasn’t fully moved on from him. I chalk it up to just needing to adjust to not having his presence in my life.

Surely that takes a little time.

“Okay, that’s enough badgering Lexi,” my grandma announces as she carries a giant buffet-sized tray of spaghetti into the dining room. “It’s time to eat!”

Everyone listens to her demands, most of the women heading into the kitchen to help carry more of the food out into the dining room.

But just before I can sit down at the table, Ace pats my shoulder, a sneaky smile on his lips.

“You’re coming out with us tonight.”

I quirk a brow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I said, Lex. You’re coming out with us tonight to enjoy your last college party.”

I sigh. “I don’t know, Ace. I—”

“Uh-uh,” he cuts me off. “Consider this a metaphor for you passing the torch to me.” He waggles his brows, and I roll my eyes at how he might think he’s being discreet. In fact, he’s so obvious, if anyone in the room were paying attention to us instead of filling their plates with food, they might start asking questions.

“Fine,” I answer, mostly focused on just shutting him up rather than asking him the most likely important questions of what going out entails. For all I know, he’s taking me to some illegal party in someone’s dorm.

Surprise dorm pizza is risky enough, let alone some party with mystery punch in the communal bathroom.

As fast as that thought comes in, I shove it right back out of my head, focusing on Ace instead. “I’ll go, but you have to stop talking about anything related to parties for the rest of the night.”

“You got it.” He pretends to lock his lips and throw away the key.

And I work to mentally prepare myself to let Ace Kelly take me to my last college party.

Pray for me.

“You want anything to drink, babe?” Finn asks Scottie, his voice just barely rising above the din of laughter and music and boozed-up college co-eds who litter the frat house Ace dragged us all to.

“Just a water,” Scottie says with a smile.

Finn presses a kiss to her forehead and meets my eyes for a brief moment.

“I’ll stay here,” I tell him, and he nods, clearly grateful, and pushes his way through a crowd of twerking girls to head toward the back of the house where the kitchen is located.

It’s taken me a long time to be able to pick up on social cues or unspoken words, but the quiet exchange with my technical half uncle makes me feel confident in the progress I’ve made. I still have a lot of work to do and I know I’ll never be perfect, but my evolution is certainly trending upward.

“Do you think I should be scared?” Scottie asks, and I look down to where she sits in her wheelchair, her eyes solely fixated on my face.

“Scared?” I question as I kneel down to get closer to her. “Of what exactly?”

“The surgery.”

Oh. The surgery. As in, Scottie has decided to move forward with the surgical and medical treatment plan my father wants to do. It’s a complicated surgery that involves nerve grafting, and the follow-up medication will require months of treatments.

“Are you scared?” I ask her, and she shrugs.

“Sometimes I am,” she answers and shrugs again. “And sometimes I’m excited for what this could all mean for me. But then, having that kind of excitement and knowing that nothing is a certainty scares me too. Would you be scared?”

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “It’s hard for me to place myself in your shoes and know exactly how I’d feel, but I think I’d probably be feeling like you are. A mix of lots of things.”

“Really?” she questions, her eyes going wide and a smile cresting her lips.

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