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“He’ll be alright,” I say, with a confidence I don’t feel. Corwin looks at me, sharp blue eyes reading everything I left unsaid. They all know about Nico and I, by now, and the real reason for the fallout between Nico and Martin. Corwin knows exactly which direction my thoughts veered.
“He better be.”
“He has us.”
Corwin nods, turning to watch Nigel as he approaches us from the other side of the yard. When he sits down next to Corwin, he runs a knuckle along his forearm before draping his arms casually over the sides of his chair. I tell myself it’s not a good look, being jealous of your best friend, but it’s hard when Nico would rather stroke a rattlesnake than touch me like that in public.
“That croquet course is going to be impossible. I don’t think either of them have played before,” Nigel tells us, and we all look over at Sam, placing a wicket far too close to a planter. “You alright, Lawson? Corwin said things got a little hairy at SCU the other day.”
“Yeah, you could say that. I missed all the action, but apparently my goalie took offense to some locker room talk about Troy and decided to retaliate by beating the shit out of the other kid.” I wince, thinking about Monday. I’d arrived late, feeling harried and exhausted after a sleepless night bent over my laptop watching the comments come in on Troy’s article. The moment I saw Nico, I’d known something was wrong. Two days later, and it has remained wrong. “Assistant Coach quit too, same day. So, yeah, not a great day for hockey, all around.”
“And yet, also a good one. First out NHL player. Something to celebrate, I’d say,” Nigel says, and Corwin gives him a small, sad smile.
“True.” I break off as Sam flops into the chair beside mine and Troy takes the one next to Corwin.
“You guys ready to play?” Troy asks, leg bouncing.
“Sure. Is it playable?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Scared you’ll lose?” He fires back, and I roll my eyes. He stretches a foot out to nudge my leg. “Is this your last week at SCU? I was kind of hoping to go back. Cor and I had fun.”
“Yeah, last week.”
“Maybe we can help out again next summer,” Troy says, smiling and absolutely certain that I’ll still be in a position to bend the head coach’s ear next year.
“Yeah, maybe. We’ll have to see how things go. I’ve been thinking of offering some of my comp tickets to Morgan. I’ve gotten pretty fond of the kid.”
Corwin smiles, and Nigel shakes his head. “This being the Morgan who has designs on my boyfriend?”
“The very same.”
“Give him your tickets. I’ll take the seat next to him,” Nigel says, smiling blandly while Sam snorts with laughter.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I feel a thrum of excitement. The people who contact me the most are all sitting right here, which means it’s either one of my siblings or Nico. I know which of those I hope it is. Standing, I excuse myself under Corwin’s watchful gaze and step inside. The joy I get when I see Nico’s name on the screen is embarrassing in its intensity.
“Nico.” Everything I want to say is tucked between those four letters.I missed you these past couple days—please don’t push me away.
“Hi, Anthony.”
He sounds exhausted. There wasn’t any practice today, just meetings with administration to discuss what happened on Monday, both with Avery as well as Hill and Morgan. I’m almost too nervous to ask how it went.
“How are you?” I ask, which seems a safer question.
“Fine. What are you doing?”
“I’m at Cor’s. We’re going to play croquet.”
“Oh. That sounds nice.” Nico sounds miserable, and in pain. It grates on my nerves like sandpaper, to hear that tone and not be able to do anything about it. “I can let you go.”
“No,” I say, quickly. Too quickly, letting my desperation peek through. “No, don’t hang up. I want to talk to you. I’ve—I’ve missed you.”
Monday, after everything, was the first time all summer that I went home after practice instead of going to Nico’s. On Tuesday, with both of us tired and miserable, and Nico needing to prepare for his meetings today, I’d gone home alone again. Two days of our last week of the summer—both wasted. I missed him so badly it was hard to function.
I can hear him breathing softly. “Do you want to come over, after the croquet?”
“Yeah, I do. You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. If you don’t mind my miserable company.”
