Page 56 of Breakaway to You

“Oh, my gosh.” She scrambled to take out the hair tie, quickly running her fingers through her hair to put it back up.

“C’mon, loverboy,” Holden said. “Everyone is waiting.”

I reluctantly stood, giving my back to Holden. “When I get back, we can do my actual therapy session.”

She turned around to face me but couldn’t look me in the eye. “Um, I forgot, I have something I need to get to, so I won’t be here. But you know a enough of the exercises to be able to do them on your own.”

What? What did she mean she wouldn’t be here?

She fidgeted with her watch and shifted from one foot to the other. What was going on with her? So Holden had caught us kissing—who cared? It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen us kiss before.

“Okay,” I said slowly, not knowing what else to say.

She walked past me to where her clipboard sat on the counter and started to write something down, like she was dismissing me.

I clenched my jaw and tried to hold my anger at bay. How had we gone from teasing and kissing to her icing me out? No pun intended.

This whole thing between us might have started out fake, but we were way past that now. Nothing about last night had been fake. Every word we’d shared, every press of our lips had been the most real thing I’d experienced in over a decade. Or possibly ever.

And now she didn’t want to look at me and had some made-up excuse so she didn’t have to see me later? What the heck?

I breathed in and out of my nose, trying to calm down. Fears and anger from my past were quickly coming to the surface, and I worked to smother them down. Just because she was blowing me off right now didn’t mean last night hadn’t been real. Maybe she was embarrassed Holden had walked in on us making out at work. I could at least wait to talk to her later, to let her explain why she was acting this way, before I let my brain get carried away with all the what-ifs.

I nodded, even though she wasn’t looking at me or paying me any attention, and walked out of the room with Holden at my side.

“Trouble in paradise already?” he asked sarcastically.

I wanted to smack him. Which told me I hadn’t suppressed my anger all the way.

He must have not seen the annoyance on my face at his remark or felt the waves of frustration coming off me because he continued to mock me.

“I thought you were smarter than this,” he said. “Getting tangled up in relationships only ends in disaster. All you can count on is yourself. Not sure why you’ve forgotten this.”

I clenched my jaw so hard this time that I wasn’t sure I hadn’t cracked a tooth.

I was smarter than this but…but Piper was different. Or at least, I’d thought she was.

She’ll leave you, just like everyone else in your life.

That voice in my head made me want to smackmyselfin the face.

The words still came out of my mouth, even though I wasn’t sure how much I believed them. “Piper is different,” I bit out.

“Oh, that old chestnut—but they’re different.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe she got to you so easily. This isn’t like you.”

Itwasn’tlike me. But I was still holding out hope that I was wrong about Piper. That we’d talk tonight, and everything would go back to how it had been before. That maybe I could have something with her I’d never thought possible to have for myself. Those hours together cooking dinner and cuddling on the couch had made me think that being happy—maybe one day being in love—was a possibility for me. That I just needed someone like Piper to make me see it.

Or had I just been a fool?

Holden stopped me before we headed into the room where the rest of the team was waiting. “I never thought I’d have to be the one to give you this talk,” he said. “You are better on your own. Tying yourself to people will only leave you with regrets. You know this.” He paused. “We both do.”

My brain agreed with him one hundred percent. But my heart? Yeah, it wanted to argue that I just needed to find my person, and that maybe Piper was my person.

Stupid heart.

I teetered on the edge of decision. Did I listen to Holden and do what I always did, keeping people at a distance? It had kept me safe for the last ten years, and it was a lifestyle and choice I was used to. Or should I follow my heart and see what could happen between Piper and me? Give myself the chance to have a life outside of hockey.

Standing in a random hallway in an arena wasn’t the place to make such an important decision. That, or I wasn’t willing to make the choice. At least not yet.

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