Like something is missing that shouldn’t be.
Thirteen
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ROWAN
I told myself I wasn’t going to look for him.
That was the rule.
Not written anywhere. Not spoken. Just something I’d started enforcing after realizing that Mason Reed had somehow become… noise in my system.
The kind you notice when it disappears.
Which was stupid.
Because nothing about him should’ve mattered outside of interviews and practice coverage.
Nothing.
“Stop overthinking your face,” Serena said as I adjusted my hair in the reflection of my laptop screen.
“I’m not overthinking my face.”
“You are absolutely overthinking your face.”
“I’m literally just tying my hair.”
Serena leaned back in her chair, watching me like she’d already decidedthis was entertaining. “You’re going to the arena today, right?”
“Yes.”
“Because of work.”
“Yes.”
“Not because Mason Reed might exist in your proximity.”
I paused.
That pause betrayed me.
Serena smiled immediately.
“I hate you,” I said.
“No you don’t. You just hate that I notice things before you admit them to yourself.”
I grabbed my bag. “I’m leaving.”
“Take notes,” she called after me. “On your emotional regression.”
I flipped her off without looking.
The arena always felt louder than it needed to be, even when it was emptying out.
Basketball courts had a way of holding energy like it lingered in the floor.
