Page 65 of Who's Saving You
Sloane: Absolutely not
Olivia: Never
Me: …
Sloane: You know you wanna talk about it
Me: He was wow. Like, four times wow
Olivia: YES, I knew he would be
Me: But it was fun. He was fun, he was teasing, then sincere. And good lord, he spoke to me in Greek
Sloan: STFU
Me: I don’t know what most of it was, but it was hot
Me: Am I crazy?
Olivia: No, you deserve a bit of fun, let him work you out
Sloane: Dylan never gave you wow four times
Me: No one has
Olivia: Well then, the answer is clear. Let the Greek god football star give it to you good
Me: You know he’s only 23
Olivia: Evenfucking better
Me: I hate you guys
Sloane: You LOVE us. We’re your witnesses when this turns into a football royalty wedding
Olivia: Calling it now. Maid of honor duties are mine
Me: I literally just confessed to sleeping with him. Stop fast-forwarding
Sloane: Too late. We’ve already picked the colors
26
Nik
The minute we stepped out of the hotel in Houston, we lost the bubble that was just us. The bubble that felt fun and intimate, the bubble that said if I were anyone else, she’d stay.
But she can’t stay. She can’t get too close, and if I can’t save her, none of it matters anyway.
When we landed in Mistletoe Falls and left the team, Stone following close behind, I almost thought for a moment that things would go back to how they were at the hotel when we entered my condo. Lock the outside world away, and maybe we could try this thing again.
Not sure what I want totry. It was just sex, and I need to remind myself of that. Clearly, she did. She put so much distance between us, I feel miles away. And maybe that's exactly where I need to be.
Because when we dropped our bags, Dante called me. We were waiting on one more game to cash in, and it was big. The kind of bet that doesn’t just pay out, it shifts us into a new tier. But one name made me unsettled: Rhett. Dante said he had been hanging around all weekend, almost like he belonged there. He said he was trying to befriend the security guards. He didn’t drop my name but was hinting all around it to see who’d bite.
But even with that news, I couldn’t stop thinking about her—how she wouldn’t meet my eyes when I handed her bag to Stone. How she thanked him and not me.
And all I kept hearing in the back of my head, louder than Dante, louder than the risk, was her voice from the night before.
