Page 76 of Burn for You

He just shakes his head. “There’s no one I’ve ever met that is anything like what I want.”

“Well, what do you want?”

Heath looks into my eyes, and for a second I think he might actually tell me, but then he says, “Incoming.”

A second later, I'm enveloped in a big shadow once again.

“Can I cut in?” Rafael’s hard voice asks from beside me. I don’t look. I’m too scared of what I'll see in his eyes.

“Sure,” Heath says before he drops my hands, but Rafael quickly grabs them so I don’t lose my balance.

“Thanks,” I mutter before I watch Heath skate off in the direction of Marina and Leo.

We skate in silence for a moment, neither of us knowing what to say. It seems that’s become our pattern, our dynamic. With things constantly changing between us, neither of us knows how to approach each other until we go back to our safe spot of bickering. But there's always this weirdness between us first.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he grits out.

“Have I ever told you how smart you are?” I say, trying with all my might to get back to some kind of normal.

“Stop playing games, Whitley.”

His voice is so gruff, it forces my head up to look him in his dark eyes. “I’m not.”

“I can tell when you're lying, remember?” he says.

“No, you can’t.”

“Try me.”

Those words are dangerous to my ears, giving me the opportunity to say so many things and see whether he thinks they'retrue or not. Like how much I hate being back at my cottage purely because he’s not there with me.

But instead I go with, “I hate cats.”

“Lie. You like any animal that so much as looks at you, even if it was a fish.”

My nostrils flare at how easily he can see me. See beneath the shield I try to hold up against him.

“I hate the smell of your cologne.”

“Lie.” This time the corner of his mouth tips up with the word.

“I regret the other night.” The air grows cold between us.

Both of us must hold our breath, because there are no clouds of air between us now. Me, because I'm waiting to hear what he says, and him…I guess he’s deciding if I really mean that, or if I'm lying through my teeth.

“Lie,” is all he says.

“I wish I could regret it.”

“Truth.”

A breath rushes out of me at the relief I feel flooding my veins. He doesn't know much, but at least he knows that.

“Hey!” A bright light shines straight into my eyes. “What are you kids doing in here?!”

“Shit!” I say, as Rafael mutters. “Kids?”

He tugs on my hand, dragging me to the edge of the rink. I hear Marina squeal as we all scurry off the ice like teenagers caught in trouble.

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