Page 19 of Into Ruin

“Wow.” He stops a foot away, and that feelstoo close.

My breath catches. “What are you doing here?”

He squints, confusion flickering across his expression. Like he can’t imagine why I’m asking. “I go to Shadow Valley. I came as a fan.”

“I—”

“I love hockey,” he continues. “I used to play, remember?”

Olivia is going to break my hand with her death grip. But I think I’m squeezing back just as hard. He looks the same but different. Taller, if that’s possible? His sandy-blond hair is styled. The sweatshirt, clinging to his biceps, is fitted around his torso. It shows off what he’s proud of—his strength, his fitness, hissize.

All that is familiar. The squareness of his jaw, his dark eyes. The way his lips flatten when people say things he doesn’t like, but just for a split second. Like a tic, or a twitch.

Seeing him is like seeing a ghost.

Terrible. Impossible.

“Y-you love?—”

“Hockey,” he finishes. His smile is bland. “And obviously the chance to see Royal in action couldn’t be passed up. But seeingyou? This has got to be fate, Harper. I had no idea you decided to go to FSU.”

Olivia shifts, putting herself a little in front of me. “You’re not playing for Shadow Valley then, Max?”

Disgust flashes across his expression. “No. Knee injury ruled me out, unfortunately. No matter—it was a stupid high school dream.”

“Shame,” Olivia murmurs. “Well… we’ve got to get going. Meeting friends, you know. It was good to see you.”

He looks at me, and I barely suppress a shudder.

I can’t find any words that will get me out of this situation, but Olivia isn’t allowing room for Max’s doubt. She tows me away from him with a casual, backward wave. We weave throughthe crowd. It’s only when we’re around a corner and Olivia murmurs the all clear that I take a gasping breath.

It’s not enough—my chest aches. I can’t seem to inhale enough. The closeness of the crowd only adds to the overwhelm. Light spots flicker in my peripheral vision.

“I’m going to pass out,” I say as loud as I can.

Ahead of me, Olivia swears. We take a turn, go through a door, and the noise, the crowd, it all goes quiet. There’s a stairwell in front of us, and she guides me down a step, then another, and presses on my shoulders.

I fold, sitting hard on the stairs. There’s an elephant on my chest.

“It’s okay.” She cups my cheek. “Breathe slow. After me. Inhale… ah,fuck.”

My hearing goes first.

Then my vision.

Then, I suppose, everything else.

9

HARPER

“Are you sure?”

I shudder, and aches make themselves known along my back. My arms. My head pounds.

“Who is he?” another voice asks.

I open my eyes.

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