Page 3 of Breakaway Goal

She flips her hair, propping her hip against the kitchen island. “I’ll be looking forward to it,” she coos in response.

She doesn’t miss a beat. Jasmine’s always been a hoot, and I’m glad Maddie has a friend like her.

With my arm still slung over her, I guide Maddie through the crowded living room and up the stairs. I look down at her with a grin on my lips and a glimmer in my eyes—and then I step into my bedroom with my best friend’s little sister, and close the door behind us.

2

RHYS

Maddie and I double over in laughter.

Being here in my room, the door closed behind us, our laughter bouncing off my walls contrasting with the muffled sound of the music still pounding downstairs … damn, it feels good. More than good, it feelsright.

“What the hell wasthatabout?” Maddie asks, lifting her black-framed glasses to wipe the tears of laughter underneath her eyes.

I straighten up and take a deep breath, my stomach muscles still sore from laughing so hard. “I was trying to sneak up on you and heard the shit those girls were saying. Couldn’t resist shutting them up.”

“I’m pretty sure one of the girls is on my dorm floor,” Maddie answers. “Now you’ve made me an enemy for the whole semester.”

“Trust me, you don’t want to be friends with people like that.”

She sighs. “Guess you’re right. I mean, who would—” she stops mid-sentence, her eyes going wide at a spot on the wall behind me. “Oh my gosh, you got it framed!”

I turn around, following the direction of her eyes, and a smile immediately stretches across my face.

It’s the picture she painted for me for my birthday last year. A gorgeous oil painting of a pond in the town where we grew up, a place I always used to go when I needed a moment to myself. She never even told me she was working on it; she just showed up here on the afternoon of my birthday after classes and handed it to me.

For a while, I just had it hooked by the piece of string on the back of the canvas to a nail hammered in my wall, but last week I took it in to get professionally framed in a nice, wooden frame worthy of the piece of art that it is.

Spent way more on it than I can afford, but it was damn sure worth it.

“Sure did,” I say. The smile on her face as she looks at the painting makes my heart squeeze.

For a moment, I’m totally lost in looking at her—her hair that looks so fucking soft tied in a ponytail that sweeps over her shoulder and hangs in front of her chest; her blue eyes caught on the painting she made me; her rosy cheeks; her plush, pink lips; the creamy smoothness of her neck …

I force myself back to reality. “Notice anything else about the room?” I ask.

She glances around, and her jaw drops. “You decorated!”

A chuckle vibrates in my chest. “About time, right?”

Last semester, Maddie was giving me shit about havingatotal guy room, as she called it. Grey sheets, one pillow inside a pillowcase that was a slightly different shade of grey, all my clothes folded in a laundry basket sitting in the corner, a desk with a plain black chair in front of it.

No decorations, no extra furniture, nothing on the walls other than the picture she painted.

I mentioned to her that I’d been feeling kind of gloomy lately after the hockey season ended, and she suggested I spruce up my room. Fill it with things I like, things that make me happy just looking at them.

Finally, I decided to take her advice.

Maddie walks around, marveling at the new vintage bookcase I bought so that I’m not stacking my books in a pile against the wall anymore, the square end table in front of my window with a leafy green plant on it, and the new standing lamp next to my desk.

I got them all from a thrift store here in Cedar Shade that Maddie recommended. They didn’t even set me back much money. And she was right, I do feel better just hanging out in here now that the room isn’t so bare bones.

She turns to my bed and lets out a gasp. “You have more than one pillow now! And your sheets aren’t prison-bar grey!”

“I’m turning over a new decorative leaf,” I quip.

“Hmm, those pillows look fluffy,” Maddie says as she approaches my new bedspread.

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