Page 54 of The Rebound Plan

CHAPTER 21

SHANNON

That afternoon, only the team goes to the rink.

Whatever the reason for that decision, I’m grateful, because I’m not up for playing cheerleader—even if means spending the afternoon with Emery, who couldn’t leave fast enough this morning when I said I didn’t want to watchCutting Edge.

Now she looks wounded all over again. Spare me from the emotional seesaw of a twenty-four-year-old youngest sibling, I think. Except I know my cattiness is coming from a place of inappropriate jealousy.

So much for being kind, Shannon.

Fuck.

This morning, Ani had been with me in wanting to skip the movie and just hang out at the lake. And Kiley had been easily distracted with podcast talk.

I know how to sway a group decision so everyone sides with me. But I wielded that like a weapon, and that was wrong.

“Do you want to watchCutting Edgethis afternoon?” I ask her.

Her expression brightens. “You wouldn’t mind?”

I’m planning to disassociate through the entire movie. But making Russ’s girlfriend happy might be the only good thing that comes out of this weekend. “I don’t mind.”

While we make popcorn, I call a few beauty spas in the area. And by the time the movie is over, two aestheticians have arrived to give us all matching pedicures.

This is what I do best. I take care of others. I see what people need and I make that happen.

Ani can’t stop raving about the movie. “You were right. It’s not really a love triangle at all,” she gushes to Kiley.

“I told you.”

Across from us, Harper is sitting next to Emery and Becca, and they’re talking about dinner tonight. And cooking in general.

“It’s a shame you aren’t in Hamilton,” Becca says. “I’d love to take cooking lessons from you. Right now Hayden does most of the cooking when he’s home, based on what he’s learned from the team nutritionists, but it’s pretty basic.”

“More chicken and sweet potatoes than you know what to do with?” Harper asks, laughing.

“Yes!”

The newlywed puts her finger to her lips. “Let him just keep doing that. If he’s going to be one of the clean-eating players like Kieran, that’s a Him Problem, not a You Problem.”

Kiley snorts. “Says the girl who eats ice cream for dinner.”

“Second dinner, come on,” Harper teases. “Sometimes it’s the only thing I want at the end of a long shift.”

“Do you have to hide it?” Emery asks.

“Nope. I don’t know where his willpower comes from, but Kieran literally doesn’t care that our freezer is stocked with six kinds of ice cream. There’s a tub of sugar-free raspberry sorbet in there for him, too, and that’s all he touches. And only if his macros allow it.” Harper smiles fondly. “He did eat a fair amount of good cheese in Italy, though.”

Becca giggles. “And Italy goes higher on the list for our honeymoon.”

Emery leans in earnestly. “If you like those kinds of Mediterranean flavours, there are a lot of chicken dishes you can do that satisfy both your desire for something new and tasty, and Hayden’s need for dinner to primarily be protein and complex carbs. You can email me his nutrition notes from the team and I’ll make some easy dinner suggestions.”

Unexpectedly, I’m taken back eight years, to when I first moved in with Max before our wedding.

It was the end of the season, and his team was on the cusp of not making the playoffs, although they did in the end. In hindsight, it was the worst possible time of the year to disrupt his routine, but I thought we were in love, and my lease was up.

To celebrate, I went grocery shopping and bought everything to make a nice meal. I was a working model at the time, so it wasn’t like it was unhealthy at all. But Max had gone off on me, accusing me of trying to sabotage him.

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