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“Maybe you were ten when you first learned. I was seven.”

“Quit lying to impress your boyfriend,” he teases, earning him another—harder—punch.

“Shut the fuck up.”

Jesus. We haven't even… officially labeled ourselves or anything. Though I did tell my best friend earlier that we were exclusive.

Dev just laughs and kicks snow at us. “You guys think I can go higher?”

Taylor’s resounding, “yes,” interrupts my bark of, “No!”

They both turn to blink at me in confusion.

“You can,” I sigh, dragging a hand down my face. “But not yet.”

Devon studies me for a moment, tilting his head. “You scared?”

A little.

But not of the jump.

“I don’t want you rushing it,” I tell him.

Something soft passes over his face, an expression I've gotten intimately familiar with over the last few weeks. “Okay,” he says quietly. “We’ll build up to it.”

We.

My heart somersaults, making me choke on the cold air. “Alright.”

Taylor claps his hands together. “A few more clean runs, then hot chocolate. I can't feel my toes.”

“Deal,” Dev grins, sliding his helmet on before thumbing his throttle. He hits the ramp again, lifting into a spin, and lands confidently as snow sprays from his tires.

Tay whistles low. “Damn. He really is doing better than I thought he would.”

I don’t answer. My eyes stay glued to him as he circles back around and lines up for another run. Then another, all clean landings with no wobbles. As old as Huckslee's bike is, it seems to be riding really well. I should probably still tune it up, though. Maybe get some new snow tires. And there's a thicker moto jacket buried in my closet somewhere, so that he's warm. It's got more padding. Much safer than the one he's wearing⁠—

“You know you can’t do that,” Taylor sighs, blowing out a breath.

I glance at him briefly before giving my attention back to Dev. “Do what?”

“Protect him from everything.”

That hits me straight in the gut, and I turn to frown at my best friend. “I’m not trying to.”

Devon launches again, higher this time. My stomach drops instinctively until his tires stick the landing without fail.

“You tense every time he jumps,” Tay continues, smirking.

“So? He's new at this shit, man. I wanna make sure he's safe so he doesn't—” My throat tightens, and I have to look away to hide my expression. “So he doesn't crash.”

The smirk vanishes from Taylor's face.

Dev rides back around, laughter cutting through our silence. “Okay, I felt that one in my soul.”

I force myself to give him a smile. “That's that serotonin, baby. Gets the blood pumping.”

He takes off again, nearly at top speed, fist in the air. My teeth sink into the grooves I've carved on the inside of my cheek over the last few days watching him get faster and faster at this. Maybe asking him to join us was a bad idea.