Page 75 of My Last Dance

He chuckled incredulously as he shook his head and mumbled to himself, “Always evens out.” With a sigh he looked over at me. “How’d you sleep?”

“Good.”Great, actually,I thought.I’m not sure if it was knowing that I wasn’t alone or the fact that I had a day from hell, but I slept like a baby through the entire night. “You?”

He smirked as he flipped a piece of toast. “You snore.”

My eyes widened. “No, I don’t.”

He nodded. “You do, almost as bad as Colt.”

I gasped. “Why didn’t you stop me?”

He shrugged. “It’s not as bad when you do it.” I swatted his chest, but he just stared at my hand with an amused little grin.

“Wait, are you playing me?” I demanded.

“Maybe.” He smiled, making lines appear around his eyes and his mouth, like his whole face worked to create it.

It was a great smile.

A smile I missed.

My heart tripped over itself.

Whoa, wait. Slow down, Piper.

“Thanks, I needed that laugh,” he tacked on.

“Dick,” I said, but there was no bite behind it.

He just laughed as he plated the French toast and handed it to me.

__________

After a tearful hug goodbye, Teresa stood alone on her porch with watery eyes and a smile as she hugged herself against the morning chill and waved to us.

We sat in comfortable silence in his truck. Kappy seemed lost in thought, a little worry line appearing between his eyebrows, and I think that’s why he missed the turn to the highway.

“The highway.” I craned my neck to look back at it. “You missed it.”

“We’re not going to the highway,” he said, driving one-handed while he rested his other elbow on the door.

Uneasiness swelled in my chest. “Then where the hell are we going?”

With a chuckle, he lifted his glovebox to take out somesunglasses. “Just relax, Piper.”

“I can’t,” I said through gritted teeth. “I thought we were going home.”

“We are.” He shrugged and the corner of his mouth tipped up. “Eventually.”

He was loving this way too much. “Kappy,” I huffed, “I need to get back to—”

“To…” he drawled, giving me a questioning look.

I angled my jaw to the side. “You were much nicer last night, you know that?”

He laughed as he ran over a huge pothole, which jolted me, and that’s when I finally looked up.

He pulled into Centre Ice, or…what used to be Centre Ice. The large, cracked parking lot was completely empty. The block letter sign that used to read the name of the arena was dull and missing letters. With chipped paint, broken lobby windows, and crumbling brick, the building we used to call home was completely abandoned and falling apart.

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