Page 90 of Puck You Very Much

“I told her so,” he said, shrugging and sipping his whiskey. “Well, we’ll stop her when the time comes…right?” Jack raised an eyebrow at him—feeling like there was a silent request in his words.

We.

What a strange word. So small, yet so important.

“Yes,” he murmured. “We.”

Because he was tired of being angry at Jack. He had no energy left for his anger. He understood him better now…and didn’t know what he would have done in Jack’s place. Anna was right: It was enough. They should start over. It would take time for him to completely forgive Jack and for it to feel normal again, but he could at least try, right?

He heard Jack let out a sigh of relief and sink deeper into the cushions.

“Jack,” he said on impulse and pulled the red dice out of his sweatpants pocket. “Can you throw this away for me when you leave later?”

Frowning, his brother took it. “Shit. Where did you get this?”

“It was under your bed. Back then.”

He nodded slowly. “I remember. I stole it from your dad. It was his lucky charm. I didn’t think he deserved luck.”

The corners of Dax’s mouth twitched. “Well, it never did him any good, did it? I’ve carried it around ever since…but I don’t think I need it anymore. Got my own lucky charm now.”

Jack raised an eyebrow but seemed to know he wasn’t going to get an explanation and pocketed the die. “Sure, I’ll throw it away.”

“Good.” For some reason that made Dax feel better.

“So…Lucy,” Jack began again, “you love her?”

“Yep.”

“You want her back?”

“Yep.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“No idea. I guess I’ll wait.”

He hoped to God that she merely needed some time to see things more clearly.

Chapter 26

Lucy believed she simply needed some distance to see things more clearly. However, she was wrong. Her thinking, her world, was one big blur that made her sick to her stomach every night. She thought she would be happy not to see Dax for a few days, but the opposite happened.

The fact that he didn’t show up for practice, depriving her of the opportunity to see his face…drove her crazy.

She was suffering but still went to work! Couldn’t he do the same?

To make matters worse, Leslie asked her what was wrong with him and she was forced to lie and say he had an upset stomach or something equally ridiculous. Matt asked if she was okay and she only gave him a grim look, while the rest of the team wanted to know if she had allergies or why her eyes looked so puffy. Overall, she was glad when she returned to her apartment at the end of the week—only to find her sister settled into her favorite chair.

“Honestly, you need to buy some new furniture, Lucy,” Maddie said, greeting her.

“Honestly, I need to take away your spare key,” she responded angrily. “Why are you here?”

“Matt said you weren’t feeling well and suggested I come over.”

“So suddenly you’re listening to Matt, or what?” Annoyed, she took off her shoes and tossed her own key onto the counter.

“No, I definitely won’t make a habit of that. But he said he got a request from Dax… That made me suspicious. Because if Dax is contacting me through Matt even though he doesn’t know me, it must be something important. And now that I see your grim expression and terrible posture, I’m glad I’m here.”

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