Page 11 of Fractured Ice

"And then you said she looked good wet." He covers his face with one hand. "Ethan."

"I know."

"Of all the things to say to a woman you've been quietly in love with for years⁠—"

"I wasn't thinking. I was just…" I stop. "It was reflex."

"It was a terrible reflex."

"I know that, Knox."

He shakes his head, but he's smiling now, the fond kind rather than the mocking kind, which is marginally better. "You know what this reminds me of? Your mom's Fourth of July party, you were what, sixteen? You were going to do that thing off the diving board to impress her and you miscalculated."

"We don't need to revisit that."

"You went completely sideways. The splash took out her entire plate of food."

"I remember."

"She didn't even look mad. She looked tired."

"Knox, I'm begging you."

"Or the thing at the basketball game junior year of high school, when you tried to get her attention from across the gym and knocked an entire drink display off the table."

"That was not…" I stop because it was definitely related. "That was a coincidence."

"I’ve never seen Noah and Blake laugh that hard before."

I groan. "I've been a disaster around her my entire life. Never able to relax, even for a minute, no matter how hard I tried. So, yes, I'm aware, thank you for the comprehensive review."

Knox laughs, but it's softer now, and he straightens up on the bench. Something shifts in him, the joking pulling back a little, and he looks at me for a second like he's actually thinking about what to do now.

"Okay," he says. "Real talk."

"Please."

"Every girl on this campus is into you. You know that, right? Like, you've never had a problem."

"I know."

"You walk into a room and girls notice. That's just your life. It's annoying, honestly."

"Thank you."

"The problem isn't that you don't know how to talk to women. You're fine at talking to women. You're good at it, even." He points at me again. "The problem is that Sienna makes you stupid."

I open my mouth.

"Specifically stupid," he adds. "You turn into a completely different person. All that confidence you have with everyone else just goes away and what's left is the version of you that knocks drink displays over."

I can't really argue with that.

"So stop turning into a different person," Knox says, like it's simple. "You want her to like you, right? Then she needs to meet you. Not the nervous version. You."

"It's easy to say that."

"It's also easy to do. You just have to actually do it." He leans forward, elbows on his knees. "What you need is time with her. Real time, where she has to actually be around you and gets to see that you're not just a guy who runs people over with kickballs."