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I roll my eyes. “No.”
“I’m her best friend,” Lucy says. She comes over and stops in front of Miles, her hands planted on her hips. “You can’t kick me out.”
“I’ll be the reserve. Backup.” Knox kicks his legs out and winks at her. “You’re all the way in New York, after all. And I just bought a condo in the same building as Jacob and Melody.”
I whip around. That warrants a response. “Excuse me?”
He spreads his arms wide. “Meet the new center for the Colorado Titans, baby. This is why we’re best friends. Because your soon-to-be-husband and me are teammates once more.”
Lucy groans. “Knox.”
I’m stuck on the soon-to-be-husband part.
“Miles, Knox ruined the surprise.”
Knox’s younger brother hurries over and rips Knox out of his seat. He shoves him out of the suite, following close behind.
Lucy smiles. It’s so fake. “You didn’t hear that.”
I don’t think I’m breathing.
“Mel?”
Is Jacob proposing? “When? Why? Where?”
She grabs my hands. “Take a deep breath.”
I cannot.
“Melody Cameron.”
“I’m fine.” I’m so not fine. I’m hyperventilating.
I turn back to the painting, trying to slow my exhales. My chest hurts, my throat is tight. Jacob proposing. He was just going to spring it on me?
I have trust issues. All caps. Bolded. Underlined. Italicized.
TRUST ISSUES.
And he’s just going to spring a proposal on me?
After the way my last marriage went?
Yeah, focusing on the painting isn’t enough. I stand and go to the wall of glass, so close my nose almost touches it. The Titans are ahead by two. Jacob’s skating his best, according to his friends. They’re on the edges of their seats, too.
The clock ticks down.
I glance back at the painting, the urge to run bubbling up inside me. My muscles twitch with the need to give in to the instinct.
Run and never come back.
Then I remember the first time I saw Jacob. That dream I had, which is really more of a memory than anything else. Seeing him for the first time. Feeling… something.
Something potentially good but also addicting.
So I guess I could run. I’d run, and I’d miss him, and I’d try to piece together a life outside of him. The same way I tried to build a life without my ex-husband.
But I really don’t want to.
