Page 56 of The Rebound Plan

“Go,” Shannon urges when I hesitate to leave her essentially alone. “By the time you get back, Max will be up and ready for a late night bonfire.”

Something tells me that if we leave, they’re going to quietly depart before we get back. But I can’t force them to stay. I don’t even know what they were fighting about.

I nix taking the boat, because it’s dark and dangerous. Emery offers to be a designated driver by road, because she’s happy to party on seltzer water, and Malik is happy to let her drive his SUV that sits seven, and then Becca and Hayden ride over with Ani and Jenson.

It’s a short drive down the road that winds around the lake, walkable even, and when we pull in down the lane, there are easily twenty cars lining the drive. Music pulses from a terrace that promises to be just as big as mine.

“Let’s go,” Hiro says, leaping from the car.

There are a few other hockey players here, local Ontario boys home for the summer, and their extended crew. I lose names in a blur of introductions, but it doesn’t matter, that’s how many people are here.

Emery tugs me along, dancing her way to the middle of the terrace. “I could do this all night,” she hollers next to my ear.

“Dance?”

“Yeah!” She beams at me.

I stick by her side for a while, then drift away to find a drink, but the line at the bar is long and nothing in the grab-it-yourself coolers looks good.

I wander back to Emery, who has found a group of girls to dance with now.

I love that she beats to her own drum. Little Miss I Can Do It Myself, she finds joy in everything. And one day she’ll meet the right Mr. Sit Down and Let Me Help You, but whoever he is, he’s going to have to like dancing a hell of a lot more than I do.

I glance around.

And suddenly, all I want is to go home. Maybe check on Shannon. But at the very least, I’d be happier climbing into bed and putting a movie on. I’m done with socializing. I’m done with the loud noise and the constant awareness of how everyone else is feeling at my own expense.

“Hey, I might…”

I don’t think Emery hears me at first. Her eyes are closed and she’s singing along to the music.

But then she blinks up at me and smiles softly. “Not your scene?”

“Not at all,” I mutter. “I’m going to walk back.”

“You sure? I can give you a ride.”

“It’s a nice night for a stroll. Plus you’re probably blocked in already, the way this place is filling up. Text me if you need anything or if the cops get called.”

She snickers. “Never fear. And I’ll get your teammates home safe and sound at the end of the night,” she promises.

I don’t bother to let anyone else know I’m leaving.

It’s a quiet forty-five-minute walk back to my cottage, just my heels scuffing along the gravel side of the road and the occasional distant owl hoot.

Max’s car is still in the driveway, but all the lights in my house are turned off, so I assume Shannon ended up turning in and they’re asleep for the night.

Since I don’t want to wake them, I head around the side, planning to grab a beer from the bar fridge next to the grill, but I pull up short when I hear splashing in the pool.

Shannon is doing laps. I don’t want to startle her. Or at least that’s what I tell myself when I stay in the shadows on the edge of the terrace.

It’s dark enough that I shouldn’t even know who’s swimming. All I can see is a long slim body slicing through the water. But I know it’s her in the same way I know when she enters a room even if my back is turned.

And right now, I can pretend for a second that she’s my wife, and this isourcottage. That I’ve come back from an evening skate or running an errand, and I’ve found my woman taking a late-night swim.

If she were mine, I’d strip down and join her. Catch her in the water and wind her around my body, tangling us together until it’s hard to tell where she ends and I begin. I’d taste her mouth and find out if her choice tonight was white wine, or gin, or apple cider for a change. I’d kiss her until she was breathless, and then?—

“That you, Shannon?”

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