Page 31

I let loose a wild-sounding laugh.

Standing under the hot spray, I couldn’t stop shaking. I lathered up with the industrial-smelling shit in the wall dispenser and breathed through the adrenaline crash, willing my body to calm the fuck down. It did, slowly, my heart rate eventually settling somewhere in the vicinity of normal.

When I got back to my stall, Cally was there, grinning—the type I’d only ever managed to drag out of him once or twice before. It was almost too big for his face, his lips tipped more to the right than the left, and nothing like the polite version he gave most everyone else.

“Well?”

And that was when I knew.

“You’d already talked to Coach.”

He nodded, his grin growing wider. “Yup.”

“You asshole.” I stepped forward, pushing against his shoulder with the heel of my palm. “You should’ve told me. I almost threw up.”

He chuckled as I dropped my towel and snagged my boxers from the hook in my stall. When I had them halfway up my legs, I glanced toward him. His smile was gone, and he was staring at something past my shoulder, his face blank.

“What?” I said, turning to look behind me, finding nothing there of note.

I spun back around in time to see him give his head a little shake.

“Coach made me take a vow of silence,” he said, dropping his head forward to look down at where he was picking at the skin around his right thumb with his left. “I wanted to tell you, I swear. But he said if I did, he’d make me do a bag skate every day for the next two weeks.”

I snorted and finished pulling my boxers on, reaching for my shirt and bringing it to my nose to make sure it didn’t stink to high heaven. It wasn’t great, but I was only going back to my room.

“He wouldn’t have known if you clued me in.”

“It was a very credible threat.”

“You would have survived.” I shoved my shirt down over my head, pushed my arms through the sleeves, and grabbed my sweatpants.

“I didn’t want to risk it,” he said, the grin creeping back in.

We walked back to the hotel together, and I did most of the talking, which was on brand for me, but today I genuinely could not stop my mouth from moving. Words just kept pouring out of me as I told Cally how sure I’d been about being cut, how I’d been mentally drafting the text to my mom to let her know, and how I’d been trying to figure out how to ask for my job at the marina back.

I turned, walking backward as I spoke. “I had a whole speech for you, too. I wanted to make sure you knew you were a good teacher—a good coach—even if I was a lost cause.”

What I did not tell him was that I valued his friendship more than I ever thought I would. How I hadn’t wanted to say goodbye.

He scoffed. “You’re not a lost cause.”

“Well, obviously.” I smiled, feeling my cheeks lift high on my face, my eyes squinting.

I felt loose and stupidly happy.

At the entrance, I pulled the door open, gesturing for him to go through before me. “I don't feel like sitting in my room tonight. Wanna get dinner somewhere? Go grab a beer to celebrate or something?”

“Uh.” Cally scratched the side of his head. “I can’t. I have plans.”

The elevator dinged, and we stepped in, turning in unison to face the doors. The space was small enough that I caught the scent of cologne, something he didn’t usually wear. It took me an embarrassingly long time to register that instead of his usual track pants, sweatshirt, and running shoes combo, he had on dark jeans and a black button-down, the sleeves rolled up to show off his forearms. And on his wrist, where his Apple watch usually sat, was a fancy silver one that probably cost more than my truck.

This was a version of Cally I’d never seen before. He looked …

I felt a small jolt in my gut and immediately pulled my eyes away.

“You got a date or something?” I asked, my voice strangely rough.

He stared straight ahead, mumbling, “Something like that.”