Page 77 of Fake As Puck
“I was actually pretty good at them.”
“Of course you were. Hockey player lung capacity.”
“Something like that.”
She’s grinning now, and I can’t help but smile back.
“Don’t worry,” she says. “I’ll pretend I’m impressed by your former keg stand prowess.”
“You don’t have to pretend anything. Just... be yourself. That’s all you need to do.”
“Just be myself.”
“Yeah.”
“And what if myself isn’t good enough for your college friends?”
“It will be, Liv.”
The thing is, I mean it. Liv could walk into any room and charm anyone. She did it with my teammates. She did it at Reed’s wedding. She has this way of listening to people that makes them feel like they’re the most interesting person in the world.
It’s one of the things I—
No. Not going there. Not thinking about the things I like about her, because that list is getting dangerously long, and I’m supposed to be focused on driving.
“Tell me about the groom,” she says, changing the subject. “How do you know him?”
“Jamie. We were roommates sophomore year. Good guy. Really good guy. We stayed close through college, but after graduation...”
“Life happened?”
“Life happened. He went to law school, I went pro. We kept in touch but not like we used to.”
“And now he’s getting married.”
I nod, adding, “To someone I’ve never met. Which means I’m going into this completely blind.”
“We’re going into this completely blind.”
“Right. We.”
That word does something to me every time she says it. We. Like we’re a team. Like we’re in this together.
Which we are, technically. But it feels like more than that.
“What’s her name?” Liv asks.
“Sarah. That’s literally all I know about her. Sarah, and that she makes Jamie happy enough to marry her.”
“That’s all you need to know.”
I don’t disagree with that.
“Yeah. If she makes him happy, then she’s good people. And if she’s good people, then we’ll like her.”
“We again.”
“We.” She smiles over at me.
