AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m lying in bed with my phone on my chest, half asleep, when there’s a rap on my sliding door.
“Come in,” I call.
Lovey steps inside and kicks off her sandals. She crosses the room and flops down beside me on the bed. “Hey.”
We’ve been best friends for a lot of years. Many people wonder if there’s more between us, but there isn’t. Although, I’m partly to blame for that since sometimes I flirt with her when I want to avoid awkward interactions with previous hookups. Only once in all our years of friendship did we cross the line. It involved a game of spin the bottle when we were fourteen. Far too many of us were related to each other for it to be anything but awkward and incest-y. And when Lovey and I had to kiss, it cemented our friends-for-life-and-nothing-more status.
“Hey yourself.” I move my phone to the nightstand and fold an arm behind my head.
She rolls to her side and props her cheek on her fist. “Give me the deets on the Winter situation. Rose shared her version of events, but she’s good at embellishing for the sake of an exciting story.”
I explain what happened, from the near miss this morning to inviting Winter to free skate.
She lets out a low whistle. “Wow. Rose wasn’t wrong about the six degrees of separation.”
“A lot of threads pulling us all together,” I agree.
“What happened when you dropped her off?” Lovey asks.
“I met her dad.”
Her eyes widen. “You did? What’s he like?”
“An asshole, as far as I can tell. And she had me drop her at the end of her driveway. She’s close to the Kingstons’ place, but I didn’t even realize there was a house there. It’s kinda hidden. She told me she doesn’t volunteer at the foodbank.”
Lovey nods. “I think her life is pretty hard. She’s a regular at the foodbank. Everyone who volunteers there knows her.”
“Interesting that her dad can afford cigarettes, but they can’t keep food on the table,” I muse. “It must be frustrating to watch someone literally burn away your grocery money.”
“Logan said her last name was familiar,” Lovey murmurs.
After meeting her dad, that’s not hard to believe. “I’m guessing it’s not for their community involvement.”
“He didn’t elaborate, but his facial expression said it all.” She rolls onto her back. “Clover says she’s at the library a lot and uses the computers. And with what I know, it all seems to add up to things being tough.”
“Yeah. I got that impression.”
“So maybe don’t go pulling your usual routine with her.”
I look at her out of the corner of my eye. “What routine is that?”
She pokes me in the ribs. “Don’t act like you’re clueless. Normally you’re the king of random hookups, and then you pull the let’s-be-friends card. But you also usually save that for when we’re in Chicago and steer clear in the summer.”
“Yeah. Because I’m too busy for them.” My summers are dedicated to skating, teaching lessons, and hanging out with friends. I also avoid hookups because I learned the hard way that Pearl Lake is small and everyone knows everyone.
“So Winter’s what? An anomaly?”
“I don’t know how to explain it. I feel like I’m supposed to know her.”
She grins knowingly. “Really? So you like her. Remember, Rose works with her, Clover and I both know her, and our dads are pretty excited about her. If ever there was a time to change how you do things, this might be it.”
“Agreed. I got her number tonight.”
“Unsurprising. You message her yet?”
“Yup.”
“Has she messaged you back?”
