Page 73 of The Fake Date Agreement

“But it’s not the hockey that interests you, huh?”

I don’t respond because whatever I say will be the wrong thing.

Still smiling, she gets to her feet and says off-hand, “Maybe next time you should sit up in the stands with the other puckbunnies. That way, you won’t distract practice when you stop showing up.”

What’s a puck bunny?

She walks away before I can ask.

I watch her make her way down to the ice and start chatting with the few players still lacing up their skates. One guy ruffles her hair. She sticks out her tongue and shoves him away. Since he’s built like a tank, he doesn’t even sway.

So the players know her and like her. Is she dating one of them?

Why did it feel like she’d prefer I left instead of sitting higher in the stands?

Javier, Reid, and I leave the arena together. They’re casual in sweats, and their hair is damp from what must have been a fast shower to be in and out of the locker room in under fifteen minutes.

Reid laces his fingers with mine, and Javier curls his arm around my shoulder and tucks me into his side in a move that feels so natural, I can’t believe it’s happening for the first time.

“What was Hallie saying?” Reid asks.

“Hallie?”

“Hallie Stewart, her brother is Lincoln, one of the defensemen,” Javier explains. “We all call him Sweet.”

Yeah, well, Hallie is less than sweet.

I consider telling them about what Hallie said and how I pulled out my cell phone and quickly searched to discover what a puck bunny is.

Nothing pleasant.

“Oh, nothing important,” I say vaguely. I’m not at the arena to cause trouble. Soon, Hallie will never need to worry about seeing me again.

Reid and Javier share a look that tells me I need to work on my lying face.

“Don’t you get bored with practice?” I ask to distract them.

Reid shrugs. “Not really. It’s what makes me better. Do you ever get bored with studying library science?”

“Yes,” I say without thinking.

“Because?” Javier asks.

Because it’s not what I want to do at all. I feel like I’ve made my bed, lain in it for the last few years, and now it’s too late to get out of it.

“Tobie?” Javier prompts me.

“Isn’t the science building the other way?” I glance around and realize I just spent the last few minutes unaware that eyes are tracking us across the quad.

One corner of Javier’s lips kicks up in a half smile. “It is. But we pass the library this way.”

“And doesn’t your ex have a study period right about now?” Reid’s expression is angelic.

Ah.

These guys are pros at this fake-date business.

They slow our walk to a crawl as we stroll past the library, and Javier tells me about one of the biology labs he’s working on. It’s pretty dry stuff, but you wouldn’t know it from the way Reid keeps laughing like Javier is cracking epic one-liners right after the next or the way Javier’s eyes keep straying to my lips as he nearly kisses me a million times on our way.

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