“I’m really happy,” I say.
I watch Blake race across the ice as he chases after the puck.
“Blake’s amazing. He’s been so patient with me. We go at my pace. He prioritizes me in every way.”
Anna lifts an eyebrow. “Ineveryway?” she asks.
I bite back a giddy grin and nod. Anna grabs my hand, softly squealing. Poppy smiles.
“He’s so generous,” I say quietly. “I think he gets off on getting me off.”
“Good man,” Anna says. Poppy nods along.
“So is it official?” Poppy asks. “Are you two together?”
I shake my head. “I told him I wanted to take things slowly. My breakup with my ex was pretty rough, and I don’t want to rush into anything. I just want to have fun for a while.”
They both say they understand completely.
“But, um, honestly? It’s hard to think of Blake as just my friend who I fool around with. It feels so much deeper than that.”
“Probably because you have such a long history with each other,” Poppy says.
I nod. “Sometimes, I want more. I want him to be my boyfriend.” My nerves kick up. That’s the first time I’ve said that out loud. “But part of me is scared that if we do become boyfriend and girlfriend, something might go wrong, we’ll break up, things between us will be weird and tense, and I’ll lose him forever.”
I feel sick just thinking about that.
Poppy grabs my hand. “I understand. That’s scary for sure.”
Anna hesitates like she’s about to say something.
I look at her. “What?”
“Look, I get it. It’s scary to think of what you could lose if you go from best friends to a couple. But sometimes doing scary things is worth it because the payoff is that good. You might be missing out on something because you let your fear call the shots.”
I’m quiet as I think about the way Anna explains it.
“Sorry, I don’t mean to oversimplify or tell you what to do,” she says.
“It’s okay. I’m glad you put it that way. It helps to get out of my head and talk to good friends like you guys.”
Anna’s smile is warm as she looks at me. She turns back to the ice and looks at Travis in the net. “I was really scared when Travis and I started seeing each other.”
“You were?” I ask.
“Oh, yeah. We spent our entire childhoods despising each other. For years, we couldn’t talk to each other without arguing. But then, one night, the guys were having a huge birthday party for Travis at their house. A ton of people showed up. I was going after some other guy and grabbed him and kissed him in the dark in their garage. That guy turned out to be Travis. We hooked up, and it was a random mix-up.”
I gasp. “No way!”
Anna chuckles and tucks a chunk of her long, chocolate-brown hair behind her ears. “Yup. I had the hottest makeout of my life with a guy I hated. We were both pretty freaked out. We swore it would never happen again. But it did. Over and over. And pretty soon, in between hooking up, we were hanging out with each other and getting to know each other in a way we never had before. We both caught feelings. But I was scared toget into a relationship with him because I’d been burned by guys before. And he was my brother’s best friend. If things went belly up between Travis and me, it would have changed the dynamic between all of us forever.”
I stare at her, stunned at how much was at stake in their relationship.
“But what we had was amazing,” she says, gazing adoringly at Travis.
When he turns around to grab his water bottle, he catches eyes with Anna and winks at her. She smiles, her heart in her eyes as she looks at her boyfriend.
“It was definitely a big risk to be with Travis,” she says. “But it was worth it. Now he’s my best friend, and the guy I want more than anyone in this world. I wasn’t going to let fear stand in the way of my happiness.” She turns to Poppy. “You took a similar risk dating my brother.”
