Page 36 of Halftime

I leaned back against the fridge and sighed. I couldn’t very well pretend now. And maybe, since he already knew, I could ask him for advice. Things were twisted if I was asking Coop.

“I don’t know if we’ve worked anything out.”

He nodded at my chest. “Looks like you worked something.”

My cheeks were even warmer now. I stared up at the ceiling, not brave enough to look at him while I talked.

“Faith heard today that her grandmother has cancer. She only has a few months to live. We were supposed to get pizza at Tito’s, but I brought her here, and she cried a bit, and…”

Cooper watched me, and from the corner of my eyes, I saw him nod.

“I get it. And after that?”

“She fell asleep. Just now.”

“You didn’t ask her to stay, or—”

I shook my head. “She crashed while I was in the bathroom.” I didn’t finish that sentence, and Coop nodded. He knew.

“When she wakes up?”

“No idea.” I held up the bottle. “Was going to bring her this so she can hydrate.”

“Always important.” Cooper was still staring at me with his eyes narrowed, as if I were far away. “What about you? Did you want her to stay?”

I wanted to say yes. This was Faith. My best friend, and the best sex I’d ever had. We’d taught each other everything. I still cared for Faith. And after what we’d just done, my dick was ready to get right back to where we’d been before the stupid phone call that blew up our relationship. The rest of me? The rest of me was on board with that, too, except… Except I knew Faith. The fact that the two of us were here on the same campus meant the long-distance problem was gone.

The athlete problem was not.

Before, we’d often had away games at the same time, but now, any time her team played at home, my team was on the road. Every time, since our teams shared the arena. Back in Toronto, a lot of games, especially hers, had been local. Sometimes, when I’d been away and she hadn’t had a game, she’d come to mine, and vice versa. Now, every weekend—Friday afternoon through late Saturday or even Sunday—we’d be apart. She’d worried about it before, and I thought I’d understood. There might be some girls interested in even a boring freshman defenseman. I was a sophomore now, and with the ice time Cooper and I were getting, that number was rising. Would Faith be able to trust me? She’d certainly been quick to leap to the wrong conclusion last time. Probably with cause, since I’d been drunk and crying, but I’d had no chance to explain.

“When you’re thinking that long, the answer isn’t yes.”

I shoved my hand through my hair. “It’s not no. It’s just—”

“If you say complicated, I’ll give you a wedgie.”

Right, like he had any idea of what complicated was like. One and done, no complications, no repeats, no problems. Still, he was a sounding board. Maybe he’d have something helpful to tell me. Despite my doubts, he’d certainly been instrumental in bringing Faith and I back together as friends.

“I’ve been happy being friends. I really have.”

Cooper smirked. “Uh huh.”

“I mean, we both moved on after…”

He pointed at me. “Was that what you were doing that got your chest marked up like that?”

I lifted my hands, as if to cover the marks, which was stupid, but stupid and I were familiar with each other. “Yeah, well, sex was never the problem with us.”

Not sex between the two of us. Just the sex she thought I had with someone else. And the sex she’d had with her rebound. I wasn’t in any place to talk, but still…

“So what’s the problem? It’s not as good as it is with other women?” He set his beer on the counter.

I frowned. “No, man. The sex is awesome. The best.”

Maybe it was our history, maybe because we’d learned with each other, maybe other reasons I didn’t want to explore right now, but tonight had been the best sex I’d had since the last time Faith and I were together.

“Then what’s the problem?”

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