Page 76 of Stick Break
“Have we let this go too far?” Charley asks quietly.
“Probably,” I say, scratching the back of my neck. “But it’s only for a little while longer. And if it makes her happy…” I tilt my head toward the door Betsy just stormed out of, “…we might as well go along with it.”
Charlie grins and nudges me. “You like her.”
I laugh. “Of course I like her. She likes you, and I like anyone who likes you.”
Charley squints at me “What about... other people, though?” she asks. “What if they see it?”
“She already told everyone we were engaged,” I remind her. “No one’s going to think or care about us when we leave here.” At least, I hope not. I did threaten Jensen, so… hopefully he took the hint. “We’ll explain things to Paisley and Gunther. Pretend we broke up.” I snort out a laugh. “Not pretend. We can’t pretend a breakup if we were never engaged, but you know what I mean.”
She nods slowly. “Yeah, I do.” But there’s something behind it. Something careful and guarded. Worried. Is she worried about her asshole ex. Not wanting him to think she’s with someone else because maybe down the road….
“But really,” I say, trying to lighten the mood, “Who just has a ring lying around? It has to be something else.”
“Let’s just hope it’s not a judge,” she mutters. “Or a licensed clergy.” She pokes my chest. “Can you imagine if she knew you were ordained? We’d be married by tonight. Probably right here in the kitchen. With muffins as witnesses.”
I laugh. “Fortunately, you can’t legally marry yourself.”
She fans her face dramatically. “Whew. Dodged that shotgun wedding.”
“A shotgun wedding is when the bride is pregnant,” I say.
She laughs. “Right. That’s not going to happen.”
But thinking about weddings, and babies, reminds me I’m not at all where I thought I’d be today, and maybe…maybe that’s a good thing. I think about what life will look like when I return home. Will she be going with me? I’d asked impulsively. I’m not even sure I meant to. The words just slipped out. Like my heart hit send before my brain could run it through spell check. But oddly…I don’t regret it. She never answered me. But she didn’t run away screaming either. If she does come, we’ll need new rules. She mentioned me dating again, like that was even remotely on the table.
The truth is, going back to the usual hookups, hockey groupies, meaningless nights make my stomach turn. The bunnies don’t appeal to me anymore. I’ve met someone who cares about me, the work she’s been doing to heal my injury is proof of that. She doesn’t want anything more from me. Not like…
My phone rings.
Jesus.
Lyra.
Of course.
It’s like she sensed I was thinking about her. Which I was, but not in the usual way.
Charley stiffens at the sound. I see the way her shoulders rise just slightly, the muscle in her jaw tightening.
“She seems to be calling more lately,” she says lightly, but I hear the undertone. Feel the shift in the air, the cooling. “Does she… want to be ‘on’ again?” She says it like it’s a joke. Like she doesn’t care. But her body language betrays her. She doesn’t want me going back to Lyra. Probably because of how Lyra treated me.
But could there be other reasons?
Personal ones?
Like…maybe Charley doesn’t just hate the idea of me being with my ex. Maybe she just hates the idea of me being with anyone else. I run a hand through my hair and let out a sigh.
“Yeah. She’s been calling.”
I drop down into the chair and toss my phone onto the table like it just burned me. Charley doesn’t say anything. Just watches me. Watches the phone. And we both still for a moment, the silence louder than any ringtone.
“Are you going to respond?” Charley asks softly, sitting across from me with that careful expression that says she’s trying not to judge.
Instead of answering, I reach for her, guiding her onto my lap. She settles, straddles me, everything about her here with me right, as her hands slide into my hair, brushing it back, like she’s trying to soothe the chaos inside me.
“I can leave,” she offers. “Give you privacy.”
