Page 13 of As You Ice It

“Thanks, Coach Cam,” Liam says.

I shake my head. “That was all you. Way to put in the work.”

We stand there for a few seconds, Liam still grinning and me trying not to watch the door for his mom. Long enough that Liam stops smiling and picks up his bag.

“I should wait outside,” he says.

“Want me to go with you?” I hope I don’t sound as desperate as I feel for even just a glance at Naomi. Not that a glance would be all I want. But at this point, I’m a bear coming out of hibernation. I’ll take what scraps I can get.

Liam hesitates. “Um.”

“Ah. I can’t walk you out because your mom won’t want to see me, right?”

“I’m sorry.” He looks miserable.

“It’s not your fault, Liam. It’s just … grown-up stuff.”

And to explain it, I would have to understand it myself. I’m still honestly confused about how it all went down. One minute, Naomi and I were together and I was trying to find the best way to talk to her about what would happen when I left my unexpectedly long stay on Oakley Island for training camp.

The next minute, she was telling me we were done.

And any thoughts about trying to convince Naomi to at least talk about what things could look like with us long-term or long-distance, all that vanished when Liam came to my hotel. Which is a dark kind of irony since he came to convince me to stay.

“Mom said that too,” Liam says. “It’s not my fault. But …”

He doesn’t finish whatever thought is in his head—a rarity.

“Liam, it wasn’t your fault. Sometimes with adults, things just get … complicated.”

His smile has a bitter edge, one that looks too old for his young face. “Funny how you and Mom say all the same things. I thought breakups happen when two peopledon’tagree.”

I don’t have a response to this. Not a good one anyway. Normally, when I don’t have things to say, I don’t say them. It’s why I’m often accused of being too quiet.

Now, I need to say something.

Whatto say is the question.

I decide to go with brutal honesty. “You know, I’m sad about your mom.”

I probably shouldn’t say this. I don’t want to give him false hope. But I don’t know what the protocol is with kids. Not in general situations, and especially not in this one. But I can’t not saysomething. And this is the something that comes out of my mouth.

Liam nods, his jaw clenching. Again, he looks older, giving me a glimpse of the young man he’ll turn into.

“Yeah. Mom’s sad about you too. She pretends, but she’s not very good at it. See you next week.”

And with that, the kid hoists his bag with the broken zipper and walks out the door like he didn’t just pull the pin from a grenade and then drop it at my feet.

CHAPTER4

Naomi

“How’s the job?”Eloise asks in her most annoyingly chipper, patent-pending Eloise voice. My brother’s wife is the happiest person I’ve ever met. I love this about her.

I also sometimes want to shake her and see if any of the happy will fall out of her proverbial pockets like loose change.

Covering the mouthpiece of the phone, I whisper “thanks” and take the box of gluten-free apple cider donuts from the smiling woman behind the counter.

Her smile is … disconcerting. Friendly, but with a knowing edge. I have the very strong suspicion she has just become my new donut dealer. I’m not sold on this apple cider flavor, however, which she assured me is a Harvest Hollow favorite. Bonus points for having gluten-free options, which means I can share these with Liam.

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