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Josh nods. “Yeah, I figured that. Never took you for the overbearing type, Elliot.”
“You could havekilledher!”
“Not much to hit on the lake. Besides, Auden was the one who did most of the reckless driving.” He gives me a conspiratorial wink I’m too surprised to respond to.
“You think this isfunny?”
“If you’re so worried about yourgirlfriend, maybe you should have been spending time with her. She was alone down here. I asked if she wanted to go out, and she said yes. End of story.”
Elliot opens his mouth to respond, but I jump in before he can. I wasn’t expecting this reaction.At all.If anything, I hoped he’d be happy I was bonding with his friends.
“It’s fine, Elliot. I’m fine. I wanted to go.”
“You should have known better, Auden.”
I rear my head back in shock. “Excuse me?”
“It’s practically dark out.”
“It’sbarelydusk.”
“You’ve never even been on a boat before.”
“We went canoeing,” I counter.
“A canoe doesn’t have a motor that can chop your arm off.”
“You’re being completely ridiculous right now. You know that, right? I had fun, and I returned with all appendages still attached. I know for afactyou’ve done far stupider shit than go out on a boat with a beer at dusk, so get off your fucking high horse before you fall.”
He stares at me, eyes blinking with shock. Yeah, I sass him plenty, but I’ve never spoken to him like that before. I don’t apologize, though. If he thinks he can dictate what I do and who I talk to just because we’refakedating, he’s in for a rude awakening in the form of verbal warfare.
I brush past him and start walking back toward the house. Plenty of people are staring at me, which I’ve learned to expect in Canmore. The annoyance and anger coursing through me are an effective deterrent to any self-consciousness, though. I’m more concerned about the other emotions Elliot’s response elicited in me than teenagers gossiping about me. Yes, I’m irritated with him. Yes, he completely overreacted. But…it was also sweet. It preys on the dangerous hope that maybe things between me and Elliot aren’t as hopeless as I’ve conditioned myself to believe.
Luke approaches me as soon as I enter the house. “How is your hand-eye coordination?”
“What?” I glance at him questioningly.
“I need a partner for ping-pong,” Luke clarifies. When I don’t say anything, he repeats his initial question. “So…how is your hand-eye coordination?”
“Um, decent?” I tell him. Years of tennis lessons should mean something, right?
“You seem like you’re the modest type, so I’m going to take that to mean you’re good,” he replies. I shrug my shoulders since he’s not wrong—about the modesty, at least.I’m not about to oversell my skills. Half of my serves still hit the net.
“Evans,” Luke calls toward a crowd of people, and a guy with floppy brown hair makes his way over to us.
“What’s up?” he asks.
“I got my partner,” Luke replies. “You ready?”
“Sure,” the guy answers, looking at me. “You’re Reid’s girl, right?”
Don’t smile. You’re mad at him. Don’t smile. Don’t smile. Don’t—I smile. “Yeah. I am.” At least he’s not here to see it.
But minutes later, he appears. His eyes find me immediately, already in position next to Luke and across from Evans and a guy named Johnny, I’ve surmised is also on the hockey team.
Luke serves first. I don’t really remember the rules for ping-pong, or more like I didn’t know there even were rules, so I mostly follow everyone else’s lead and try to pretend Elliot isn’t still here, watching.
Evans and Johnny are both good. I feel like I’m holding my own, but the game is moving so fast I can hardly process anything that’s happening. More importantly, I can’t analyze or overthink anything involving Elliot Reid.
