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My chest tightened, and it was hard to catch o now?” I didn’t look up from my work I was te a fever and delirious Had he gotten his bell rung during the gaht before and I’d missed it?

He let out a deep sigh and left the room

I stared after hiure out what the hell had just happened Oneaway from me like I had a chronic case of halitosis, and the next he was playing twenty questions

“You know he’s into you” Max’s voice broke through the intense fruit- on

“Maybe he was once for a split second, but it’s too co past the lump in my throat, I squeezedI could do about it The things Grant had confided in rabbing a bite to eat Sitting on the swings, he’d talked about how relieved he was that I’d said yes to the date, about how much he’d always had a crush on ainst his all-star brother

I’d dropped round and hadn’t said anything He’d figured Ford had already beaten hi : state cha pro Grant had talked about how he’d always felt like Ford had becoated to kid status I identified with that hardcore

I had choked back the tightness in my chest and let him know he definitely didn’t have to worry about Ford, said I wasn’t interested any it over and over in my head, I shook h Grant that I was over Ford Stupidity had had a field day that summer

Then there was the rocky relationship between Ford and Cols had been off for a long ti Even if Ford had been an option once, he wasn’t anymore It was time to button up that old dream and lock it away

Even if that weren’t enough, he was a hockey player, and I knew that life: puck bunnies throwing theames a season That wasn’t a settled life, all the staticky phone calls, the eneral mayhem Even if he wanted me—which he didn’t—what kind of life would that be when I craved stability above all else?

“If you say so, but you didn’t see the way he checked out your ass when he was lurking in the doorway”

“Right, to otten dirt on rabbed more raspberries that had escapedto do with Ford was a one-way trip to heartache Been there, done that, got the jersey

5

Ford

Real freaking sainst the wall

Hoas I supposed to be in the sah? Her lips? Want to feel her pressed against olden braid over her shoulder She’d only gotten more beautiful, and she hated me Hell, even I hated me sometimes