Page 45 of Here We Go Again

I don’t tell Mia I agree with her. I find myself infuriating every time I look toward the Jaguars tent in search of one very specific hockey player.

When it’s finally our turn to walk, Mia and I give up our chairs and make our way to the track. I look for the millionth time toward the Jaguars tent, but it’s still empty. The team of fancy hockey players must have different rules than the rest of us.

The sun is still low in the morning sky, hidden behind the enormous high school beside the track, so we’ll make it through this shift without sunscreen. But in a couple of hours, we’re going to be roasting.

“Wait, is the fire department here so they can hose us down if we get hot?” Mia asks. “That’s totally brilliant.”

“Theo told me they would be,” I say. I lift my tank top away from my skin as a faint breeze moves through the stadium. “I think we’re definitely going to need it.”

We walk for almost twenty minutes before I finally spot Theo and Carter standing at the edge of the Jaguars team tent.

I’ve seen them both this summer but not together. The effect is almost startling. They really are so alike.

“Becca,” Mia calls, and my eyes dart to hers. She’s several paces in front of me, which means I stopped walking and didn’t even realize it. She walks back, hands propped on her hips. “You can’t just stand here and stare at him.”

“I’m not staring,” I say, but Mia isn’t an idiot. She caught me three different times in the past week with the Jaguars Instagram feed pulled up on my phone. She knows I’m thinking about him, even if I don’t want to be.

She tugs me to the grass beside the track, out of the flow of traffic. “Tell me what you want here,” she says. “Do you want to talk to him?”

“I shouldn’t want to talk to him,” I say. “It’s against my rules.”

She gives me a look, but she must see something in my gaze because her expression softens. “Okay. What if he decides he wants to talk to you?” she asks. “Would you let him?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t be rude,” I say. “I would talk to him.” I don’t know why the distinction matters, but it does. I can’t actively seek him out—that’s far too risky. Spending a night in his apartment and then hoping he would text made it abundantly clear I am not immune to his charms.

But if he happens to find me, that’s different. Safer, somehow. I don’t usually like leaving things to fate, but in this case, it feels more important that I not be the instrument of my own demise.

“Okay, so we’re just going to leave it up to him, then,” Mia says. “We’re walking, we’re chill, you’re gorgeous. And if he finds you, then he finds you.”

“Right. Good. And if he doesn’t?”

“Then it doesn’t matter because…” Her words trail off, like she’s waiting for me to fill in the blank.

“Because I’m leaving Atlanta in October,” I say.

“Right. You totally are.”

“And because he’s a total player.”

“Mm,” Mia says, her face quirking to the side like she disagrees with me. “I did my own research, and I think that’s just a rumor.”

“You researched?”

“Of course I did. You’re my best friend. You think I’m not going to vet the guy you’ve been cyberstalking for the past week?”

Her loyalty makes my heart squeeze in my chest. “Okay, but rumor or not, it would still be dumb to put any energy into this.”

“Girl, I hear you,” Mia says. “I’m not pressuring you into anything. I’m just following your lead.” She loops her arm through mine. “Why don’t we just walk and see what happens?”

“Ugh,” I grumble, still dragging my feet. “Because I’m so good at that?”

“You are desperately bad at it,” she says. “But it’s part of your charm. Now let’s walk. Your butt looks amazing in those shorts. Time to show it off.”

As soon as we’re back on the track, Mia launches into a detailed account of the latest celebrity lawsuit she’s been following. She consumes celebrity gossip as regularly as she consumes kale, things that both baffle me and charm me at the same time, so it isn’t an unusual topic for her. But this time, I can tell she’s distracting me on purpose.

After celebrity gossip, she shifts gears and talks about Dr. Rivera’s research—his actual research and not just how cute he looks doing it—then gives me a thorough update on her many nieces and nephews.

After six laps, we round the bend approaching the Jaguars tent, and I spot Lexie standing at the edge, blond ponytail swinging as she smiles up at Theo.