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“So are you, man,” I say, then I tap the dashboard as a new tune swells across the speakers. A workout song. The kind you play to get pumped up. “And listen, we’re going to play our asses off the rest of the season. Focus on the prize and be the last team standing. But what kind of distraction do you want in the meantime? New car? A poker night? A rousing round of Candy Land?” I ask as we pass the Marin Headlands, cruising by the big, beautiful hills that’ll take us to Wine Country. Before he answers, I offer one more. “Or maybe you need to get laid.”
He rolls his eyes but then goes quiet as we wind past Sausalito, the Richardson Bay glittering to the right.
I smirk. “I’m talking your language now. See? I think you just need to blow off some steam. Maybe when we’re in Lucky Falls you can get laid again and break your un-laid streak.”
“You and your streaks,” Rhys says, seeming amused.
“You like your un-laid streak?”
“I don’t believe in superstitions,” he counters.
“But I do,” I say, since they aren’t truly superstitions. They’re a mindset. An athlete needs habits to compete at the highest level. Practice is a habit, excellence is a habit, teamwork is a habit. If you get lazy, you get sloppy, then you start missing chances on the ice and in life.
Habit is the best friend of an athlete. Ever since his ex fucked with his heart last year, Rhys has been in the habit of resistance. But it’s messing with his head. “You said you need a distraction. So, yeah, break that streak with a distraction.”
“And you’re my wingman?”
“If that’s what you need in Lucky Falls, then yes,” I say.
A little later, as we exit the highway and slow to a stop at a light, a message flashes across my phone screen.
Hollis: It appears we may have a roomie for the week
I tip my chin toward my phone in its holder. “Can you see what that’s all about?”
“Course.” Rhys picks up his phone. Scrunches his brow. “Hollis says, and I quote, we might be sharing a rental with Briar. More to come.”
I picture the tenacious blonde who went to the ends of the earth for her pet.
I remember her offer to drive us all home.
I think about her thank you texts, her picture of her dog, and the way she looked when she ran across the parking lot that night.
Then, when my pulse pounds, my brain connects all the dots at once. I’m fucking attracted to her.
All of a sudden, I’m the tense one.
17
THE AVOIDANCE POSE
Briar
I can’t hide forever on the deck.
But I can make this pose last for a long time. I can backbend the hell out of this moment here on the deck on Thursday morning in the early February California sun.
Maybe Hollis will just make some coffee and leave.
Except…
I feel awful for thinking that.
It’s not my style to avoid things. I still just feel so…ridiculous after last night. I don’t know what else to say to this kind, funny, outgoing man who tried so hard to please me.
Except what I already said when he called me out. It’s not you—it’s me.
Then I said it was no big deal and I needed some sleep. I immediately retreated to the bedroom and considered never coming out.
