I frown. “Huh?”
“Oh—I thought we were trading compliments. I figured I’m a little more thancute,but I’ll take it.”
I shake my head, laughing. “Whatever.”
“So, is that a yes to coffee?”
“It’s a maybe, Shaun. Things are complicated for me right now, so you’re just gonna have to take amaybe.”
His grin stretches wide, like he’s just won something. “I’ll take it.”
Then he heads off toward the press area, leaving me standing there—pulse racing faster than it should, head spinning just enough to irritate me.
Get it together, Marlow.
I turn toward the entrance, where security is waiting to escort me inside, and I see Eslin waiting for me so we can head out together. I wave, getting ready to greet her, but before I take more than two steps, the loudspeaker booms across the stadium.
“Gooooooal!”
I glance up, just in time to catch the instant replay on the jumbotron. One of our players scores a clean, beautiful shot. The crowd erupts in cheers.
Then the camera pans to his face.
And my entire world tilts sideways.
The name flashes across the bottom of the screen like a cruel joke: Declan Agassi.
It’s him.
The man I married in Vegas.
My husband.
The noise of the crowd dulls instantly, like someone pressed mute on the world. My breath catches in my chest, my vision narrowing.
I feel my heart pounding somewhere in my ears, the field blurring as everything starts to spin. The sun feels hotter. The air feels thinner.
“—Marlow? Hey! Are you okay?” I hear a voice, faint and distant.
Another voice—maybe Shaun’s? They’re closer now, worried. “Marlow? Marlow!”
I want to answer. I try. But my lips won’t move.
The ground seems to rise up beneath me, and then—everything goes back.
Chapter eighteen
Vegas & Vows
Declan
That one night in Las Vegas.
Sasha, Anton and I…how do you say it? Our friendship goes way back. We’re more like brothers. Since we were little boys kicking balls through the streets of Naples, eating gelato too fast, and getting yelled at by the neighbors for playing too close to the windows. Our fathers were best friends. Not just the kind who said hello at the café. They helped each other fix their roofs and fought like brothers over football teams and politics.
When my mother left us and disappeared out of nowhere, Sasha and Anton were the ones who stayed close. We didn’t talk about it. I didn’t want to. I just remember sitting on the curb while they passed me sunflower seeds and said nothing. Their fathers took mine to the bar and tried to drown the silence in cheap whiskey.
Without warning, one night, not long after my mother left, my father woke me and my older brother and told us to pack some clothes for a few nights away. Within hours, we were on a plane to Argentina. At first, we were told we were going to visit my nonna in a little town I barely remembered from childhood. But it wasn’t long before me and Niko realized we would be there for much longer.
