Page 91 of Unloved

There’s a pause, Oliver silent for a long moment, before he asks, “And Sadie?”

“Yes,” Freddy and I both say together.

Freddy ruffles his hair, seeming not to mind when Oliver rapidly shrugs away from him.

“My captain iscrazyabout your sister. He’s very serious, and I would trust him with my life. I promise, you can trust him with Sadie.”

I watch the words hit Oliver, knowing he takes them to heart. Oliver is harder to get to know than even Sadie, both in sharp contrast to heart-on-his-sleeve Liam. Oliver is protective, has been since the first time I met him freshman year as an angry, frightened nine-year-old who scowled at me until a pillow fort that I helped build for him and a three-year-old Liam seemed to win him over.

“I’m gonna go to bed now,” he announces a little awkwardly before turning without preamble and heading to Sadie’s room.

Freddy looks at me, an unsure smile spreading for a moment before I shake my head.

“That’s just Oliver,” I say. “He’s fine.”

His face slowly melts into soft concern as his hands come up to cup my face gently. It’s half inspection, half veneration, eyes trailing over every inch of my skin.

“You’re okay.” I think he meant to ask it, but it sounds more like he’s reassuring himself.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I turn around and walk into the main room to start cleaning up. “More embarrassed than anything.”

He frowns, stopping me with a hand to my arm. “No reason for you to be embarrassed, Ro. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

I nod, deciding not to argue with him. “Thank you for coming tonight. Sorry it probably wasn’t what you were expecting.”

His hand drifts down my arm slowly. Fingers dancing together, wrapping and unwrapping until they’re intertwined. My heartbeat speeds up.

I lean toward him and he follows, like a magnet. It’s the same way I felt at eighteen in that dirty fraternity house.

Kiss me, I think, entranced by him.Kiss me. Remember the first one.

I lean back, the realization that hedoesn’tremember hitting a little harder this close to him.

“Don’t apologize. It was perfect. I just wanted to hang out with you, without tutoring.”

We are standing at my bedroom door now, and it would be so easy to lean back into him. To pull him over me with floral sheets cool against the heated skin of my back.

“Yeah.” I nod, swallowing hard. “As friends.”

The word makes his brow dip, like it hurts him. But he manages my least favorite Matt Fredderic smile and hits my shoulder with his.

“Yeah, yeah,” he says, his favorite catchphrase. “Friends.”

CHAPTER 33Freddy

Winning a hockey game is the equivalent of a high, which is one reason I’ve never bothered with anything harder than booze—that and the continuous threat of random drug screenings.

But winning a game with Ro sitting right near the glass, shimmering prettily underneath the arena lights, is somehowmore. Now, I’m antsy to see her, leg shaking and body jittery as I check the sliding door over and over for Sadie and Ro.

Which doesn’t take long. They step onto the back patio as Rhys and I jump up a little too excitedly.

“I like the jacket, Sadie,” I say as they scoot through the mingling crowd into our half circle of friends—mostly our entire first and second line, sans Toren Kane.

“Thanks,” she says a bit offhandedly as she keeps her piercing gray eyes trained on my captain. “Ro made it.”

Sadie passes me by, and Ro stops at my side with a shy little smile.

“Yeah?”

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