“What time’s your flight?” she asks.
“Eight.”
“When are you back?”
“Wednesday night. We land around eleven.”
She nods, sips her coffee, and looks out the window. I stand on the other side of the island, watching her and thinking about how she tasted, how she shivered when my hand touched her skin, and how she saidI need timeand I repliedtake whatever you need—I meant it, even though every part of me wanted to stay in that room and never leave.
“Syd.”
“Yeah?”
“Are we okay?”
She meets my eyes. “We’re okay, Arch. Go play hockey. We’ll figure this out when you get back.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.” She almost smiles, and it’s small but real, and I hold on to it.
I hug the twins before I leave. Lily tells me to win every game, and Luke reminds me that the human body is sixty percent water and I should stay hydrated. I tell them both I love them and walk out the front door. Sydney is standing in the hallway behind me, and I turn around. She’s leaning against the wall with her coffee mug in both hands, looking at me for a long second.
“Be safe,” she says.
“Always.”
I close the door and drive to the airport.
Ollie sits next to me on the plane because Ollie always sits next to me on the plane. He’s got his headphones around his neck, a bag of trail mix, and he’s watching me with the focus of a man who knows something is different and is going to wait exactly ninety seconds before asking about it.
He makes it about forty-five.
“So what happened?”
“Nothing happened.”
“Something happened. You’ve got a look.”
“I don’t have a look.”
“You absolutely have a look. It’s like—” He squints at me. “You look like a guy who got punched in the face but enjoyed it.”
I stare at him for a beat and then look out the window, because that’s so accurate it’s annoying.
“I kissed her,” I say.
Ollie’s trail mix stops mid-air. He sets the bag down slowly, like he’s defusing a bomb. “You kissed Sydney.”
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“Two days ago.”
“And then what?”
“And then she said she needed time to think.”
