Page 107 of Face Off
What are you doing tomorrow night?
Redheaded Assassin
I’m getting dinner with Piper, Maven and Lexi.
Me
Look at you having a girl squad!!
Sounds like a good time, but bummed I won’t see you until our flight to Toronto the day after tomorrow.
Redheaded Assassin
Think you’ll survive?
Me
You tell me, Hartwell. You’re the one who texted first.
Redheaded Assassin
Blocking you now.
Me
XOXO!
“Why are you smiling?” Reid asks. He tries to take the phone from my hands, but I’m forty pounds heavier than him and easily knock his arm away. “Is ither?”
“It’s no one,” I say. “Mind your business and grab the controller. We’re playing another game.”
“The deflection tactic. I’m onto you, Mav.”
My phone buzzes again, and I sneak a look at it while Reid gets the next round ofGTAset up.
There’s another message from Emerson, a single black heart emoji that has me grinning like an idiot the rest of the night.
TWENTY-NINE
EMMY
“Great win, y’all!”Grant yells. “We’re going out tonight, and I will not accept no for an answer!”
I throw my bag under the bus and shiver. “It’s freezing, and my legs are killing me.”
“Come on, Emmy,” he whines. “It’s like the good Lord blessed us with an afternoon game on a Saturday. There’s plenty of time to rest up before coming out. Hey, Lexi! Isn’t it better for lactic acid buildup to move around after you exercise?”
She looks up from her phone. “Do you want the scientific answer or the easy-to-understand answer?”
“The easy answer,” Connor jokes. “Grant barely got through a year at FSU.”
“FSU is a great school, and I only lasted a year because the NHL called so I could help your sorry asses,” Grant says fiercely, and he shoves Connor’s shoulder. “You can talk science all you want to me, Lex. You know I like when you use really big words.”
“It’s funny that he thinks he can understand big words,” Maverick murmurs, his lips brushing against my ear and his hand at my waist. “How are you feeling after the game? Any nausea or dehydration? What about lingering symptoms from when your head was in a toilet?”
My heart thumps steadily at his questions and the way he’s checked in on me every day since he found me with food poisoning in my apartment.
Maverick sends me texts in the morning and again at night, asking if I need anything. He hangs around at the end of practice and waits for me to give him a thumbs up before he leaves.
