Where are all these words coming from? Grey Davis barely texted back more than three words at oncewhenhe was still replying.
Wait, never mind. When it comes to skating and ice hockey, he would talk a whole lot more last year as well. That minor information must’ve slipped my mind.
“To you it might be, but I can count on one hand how many times Iinlineskated, Grey Davis.” I don’t like showing my weaknesses in front of other people because showing a weakness leads to embarrassment, and embarrassment leads to being made fun of. Though, I am twenty-four years old, so maybe I should start seeing all of this a whole other way.
Grey shrugs. “It’ll be fun.”
To him. “Okay, I trust you on that.” I wink at him, to which Grey rolls his eyes, already regretting inviting me on behalf of Brooke. As they’re about to head right into the store, I blurt out some words just to hold up the conversation a tiny bit longer. “Do you always shop at the competition’s stores?”
Grey looks right inside of the Hayesland store then back at me. “Sometimes.”
How he still doesn’t know thatIam sort of the competition remains a mystery to me. Unlike Grey Davis, my face is plastered all over the internet if one googled Hayesland or my father. Then again, a whole lot of people have the same last name as me, and just because my last name is in the brand name, it doesn’t mean I am associable with it. It’s like saying anyone with the last nameSwiftis automatically related to Taylor Swift.
“I see. Got to keep an eye out for them, huh?”
Grey’s eyes narrow at me just that tiny bit. “Always.”
“We go now, okay—What’s your name?” Brooke asks.
“Luan.”
“Okay, Luan. We go now because I get two new Barbies, and then when we go ice skating we call you and Uncle Grey come pick you up with me, okay?”
Chapter 3
“light the room up without trying”—Piece Of You by Shawn Mendes
June 2023
“They’re too loose,”I tell Luan when he tries to get up after attempting to put on his skates.
I almost laughed the second I stopped the car in front of him when I picked him up, seeing the skates he had draped over his shoulder. He must’ve bought them last minute because they lookverynew. However, as a now professional ice hockey player, I know my fair share about skates, and the ones he has might as well have cost twenty dollars.
I guess the price is okay for a beginner, especially when he might never use them again. However, I don’t think he’ll ever be able to skate in those as the ones he bought are speed skates. Sure, they’re great for someone who skates frequently and professionally as a speed skater, but they’re not for him.
Luan leans back against the locker behind him, groaning. “How should I know how to tie stupid skates?”
“You have the wrong skates, Luan,” Brooke tells him, saying what I couldn’t bring myself to do. She’s already standing right beside me, her skates all tied up perfectly for a five-year-old. I’ll have to tighten them a little, but that’s about a ten-second work.
“There is something like ‘the wrong skates’?!”
I don’t know if I despise or love his knowledge about skating. It’s kind of adorable, but on the contrary, who the fuck knows as little about all of it as he does?
Still, I nod, keeping a straight face. “You need hockey skates or figure skates, not speed skates.”
Luan blinks at me a little lost. “Well, I don’t have anything else.”
“What’s your size?” I never leave New York without at least two pairs of skates with me. You never know when you might need them.
“Ten?”
“Shoe size, right?” He nods. “So an 8.5.” I’m not quite sure if this is normal, but I can translate shoe sizes into skate sizes in my sleep. “You can have mine if you want.”
Luan shakes his head, though he grins at me as always. “I bet your skates cost about the same as my house, so no thank you. If I break them, I’ll owe you both of my kidneys and my heart.”
I only offer him a sort of disagreeing yet also acknowledging hum. My skates didn’t cost that much, they were about eight hundred, I think. A thousand two hundred at most. That’s almost nothing to me given the money I grew up with, and as an NHL hockey player, even in my second year only, I make enough money without having my trust fund to go back to if needed, so a thousand still isn’t a lot to me.
“Uncle Grey!” Brooke shrieks a little madly this time. “Like we practiced!”
