Page 89 of Can't Always Get What You Want

I smile like a totally normal sister who is definitely not hooking up with one of his teammates behind his back. “Hey! Good game!”

Gio’s eyes flick over me like he’s noticing something. My face? My expression? The hoodie?

Please not the hoodie.

He tilts his head. “That mine?”

I freeze. “What?”

He gestures with his stick. “The sweatshirt. That mine?”

It’s not.

I didn’t have the heart to show up to a game wearing anyone but Luca’s number except if I turn around and let my brother see…

Game. Over.

So I lie.

“Yeah,” I say quickly, nodding once, firm. “Yup. Yours.”

And then he’s gone, gliding back to the goal like hedidn’tnearly blow up my entire life with one simple question.

I let out a strangled sound halfway between a laugh and a sob.

Poppy calmly pops another piece of pretzel in her mouth. “Best performance of your life.”

“Do you think he believed me?”

“Hell no. I was lying when I said that was the best performance of your life.”

I glare at her. “You are the worst emotional support I’ve ever had.”

She shrugs, unbothered. “I support you by keeping you humble.”

“I’m going to puke.”

“Shh…” She holds her soda toward me. “Sip. Don’t hurl.”

I take a sip of her soda like it might dissolve the panic fizzing in my bloodstream.

It doesn’t.

Poppy watches me for a moment, chewing slowly, her gaze a little more serious now beneath the usual chaos. “Um… what’s the actual plan here?”

I blink at her. “What?”

“With Luca,” she says, wiping her fingers on a napkin. “What’s the plan? Because you’re clearly not done with him, and I just need to know if we’re pretending this is still casual, or if we’re in full-blownRomeo and Juliet with hockey sticksterritory.”

I open my mouth. Then close it. “I—I don’t know.”

“Nova.”

“Idon’t,” I insist, dropping my head back against the seat. “It wasn’t supposed to get this far. We were just… flirting. And kissing. Er, maybedoing other things.It wasn’t serious.”

Poppy gives me a knowing look. “And now?”

I sigh. “Now I think about him constantly. Like,stupidstuff. What he’s doing. If he ate lunch. If his shoulder’s still sore from the last game.”

---