Page 26 of Puck to the Heart
“Stop taking my hand,” I snapped. He didn’t let go, so I snatched my hand away, shaking it. Partly from the cold, partly from Brad’s gross hand.
He didn’t notice my reaction as he wandered off to find who knew what, but Ash noticed, pausing beside me, tugging a pair of gloves out of his back pocket, and holding them out to me. The whole time, he wouldn’t even look at me.
I didn’t want to take them, but my hands were freezing.He’s being nice.The gloves were still warm as I reluctantly slid my hand inside, and much too large. The inside was velvety against my fingertips, like petting the soft fur of a baby animal.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“Hmph,” he grunted. No smirk, no thinly veiled innuendo, nothing. My focus zeroed in on his sullenness, drowning out the background noise of the festival.
“What’s your deal?”
“No deal.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Asher Whatever-the-fuck Wilder. I don’t know what to think aboutanyof this. The first time we met, you irritated the hell out of me on purpose. We went to a concert, and you stopped my panic attack. Then, when you heard about my dad’s accident, you flew me across the country. We ate gummy worms and talked about books, and it wasnice. And just now, you gave me your gloves because you saw I was cold, but you’ve said about three words since you got here. Which, come to think of it, whyareyou here?” Boiling heat roiled in my chest as I rounded on him, looking up into his onyx eyes, when they refused to meet mine. It felt like we were playing some sort of game, like he was waiting for something specific, but I didn’t know what.
Scowling, he said, “Please excuse me for not flirting with you every five seconds, Olivia.”
“What?Flirting?”
“Yes, flirting. What the hell did you think it was?”
“You were being—I don’t know—obnoxious!”
“I was not.”
“It doesn’t matter, does it?”
“No? Maybe?” More bubbling, boiling spewed up, making me furious at him without knowing why. “Why doesn’t it matter?”
“Just drop it.”
Absolutely not. And he was sodifferent. Distant. I didn’t like it, not one bit. The push to tease him, to draw out his playful side rippled through me.
“How about this? We play a game. The winner, which will be me, has to tell the truth.” Maybe bringing out his competitive side would lighten the mood. The cornhole game a few yards away would be perfect; I’d taught myself how to win it in college, too.
Ash grunted again, but there was no way of knowing whether it was in affirmation or not. “But as the challenged party, I get to choose.”
“What? Why?”
“Isn’t that how they do it in your historical romances?”
I grumbled about his reading habits, but the games around the quad looked easy enough, probably not rigged like carnival games. I was fairly confident I’d still win, and then I’d sort this out. For no other reason than simply needing to know what was bothering him. I hated not knowing. “Okay, fine. You choose.”
“That one.” He pointed, his arm stretching straight in front of us to the far end of the quad.
“That’s not a game.”
His scowl deepened, and his shoulders turned a fraction of an inch inward. “I don’t know why I bothered. See you around, Barnes.”
“I can’t.” The small ice rink was situated in a gap between buildings, with open sky behind it and strings of fairy lights strung back and forth, giving it a magical glow. “Ash, really, what’s wrong?”
“Skate with me, and I’ll tell you.” His body already turned away from mine, as though he was already preparing to leave me here.
“I can’t skate.” Panic rose in the back of my throat, metallic like blood, and dully throbbing with old embarrassment.
Ash cocked his head, and I missed his longer hair. The longer strands would’ve fallen over his forehead with the movement. “I’ll show you what to do.”
“No, please, I—” It was stupid, how afraid I became. Ice skating wasn’t easy, but toddlers could learn how to do it. Hell,Bradsaid he could skate. I was a grown-ass woman, not a ten-year-old girl anymore. Ash and I were friends, sort of, and he’d been there for me in our short acquaintance enough times. Maybe I owed him this, to help him somehow.
