Page 61 of Any Second Now
Lachlan snorts softly and I whip my head to him. He’s looking back and forth between Raleigh, Barrett, and me with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.
“You alright, mate?” he says to me.
Barrett and Raleigh stop talking and look over.
“Of course. Why would I not be alright,mate?”
“No reason.” But Lachlan smirks and turns his attention to Barrett. Thankfully, my friend does something useful and asks Barrett a series of boring questions about how he’s settling in.
Raleigh leans over to me and places a hand on my forearm.
“Hey,” she says in a low voice, only for me. “I had an idea.”
I lean in, loving her attention on me. Loving her hand on my arm.
God, I’m such a brat.
“Tell me.”
She holds up her other hand. “A hockey cross-stitch series. Starting with something likehockey is the only love I needorboyfriend requirements: hockey player.”
I chuckle. “Sure, but can you can handle an onslaught of more orders? Aren’t you still buried underneath zombies?”
“Is that an undead joke?” Raleigh twitches her mouth to the side.
“An unintentional one.”
“And you’re cute in assuming I’d get a slew of orders.” She cocks her head at me. “Or something likeI only date hockey players.”
“Do you?”
“Clearly not.” Raleigh laughs and leans back, regrettably removing her hand from my arm. “As I’ve never dated a hockey player.”
“We can fix that,” Barrett says, butting his big fucking head into our conversation.
Honestly, I am going to body slam this guy.
“Raleigh is on a dating ban.” I immediately regret the words as everyone at the table turns to me, Lachlan with a smirk, Barrett with raised eyebrows, Raleigh with narrowed eyes. “Self-imposed,” I rush to add. “Right, Raleigh?”
“I wouldn’t say that exactly, but…” She turns to Barrett. “I recently got divorced.”
“Oh, sorry to hear that.” His face crumples in manufactured empathy. His fingers twitch on the table and I picture him reaching over and squeezing her hand.
He better fucking not.
I curls my toes. I shouldn’t care if he touches her, laughs with her, dates her, etc. I shouldn’t care what she thinks of him. Or of me, for that matter.
But I do.
For fuck’s sake, I do.
I want to spend more time with Raleigh.
I’m gonna ask her to hang out again. And again. And again.
That feeling of this being a big deal—spending time with her this summer—is heavy on my shoulders.
CHAPTER 13
