Page 38 of Gap Control

I'd called so many things jokes over the years. Crushes. Kisses. Almosts. It made people laugh and made me feel safe.

Nobody dug deeper when you were funny about it, but Mason wasn't funny.

He was quiet and clear. When he said,Not when it's you,he meant something real.

I thought about that first hug—how he'd leaned in once I did and how he didn't flinch. How we fit without even trying.

And now, all I could think was that maybe I don't want to return to pretending.

Maybe I never did.

The door opened behind me.

I knew the footsteps. Quiet, deliberate.

"Hey," Mason said.

I looked over my shoulder. He stood in the doorway, still in his practice gear but with his skates off and sneakers on. He'd messed up his hair, pulling his helmet off.

"Hey," I said back.

He let the door close behind him. We looked at each other. No cameras. No teammates. No audience.

Only us.

"You disappeared," he said quietly.

"Needed some air."

He nodded and sat down beside me on the bench. We breathed the cold air and watched cars pass out on the road.

I blurted, "Walsh asked me if I was in love."

Mason froze.

"In the interview. She asked if this was my first time in love, and I..." I barked out a hollow laugh. "I couldn't joke my way out of it. For the first time in my life, I had nothing funny to say."

Mason turned his head to look at me, but I kept staring at the crack in the sidewalk.

"What did you tell her?"

"Nothing. I froze." I swallowed hard. "But I think... I think she already knew the answer."

Another stretch of silence. Mason was so quiet I nearly missed his question. "Did she get it right?"

I finally looked up at his face. His eyes were storm-blue in the afternoon light, and there was something unguarded in them I'd never seen before.

"I don't know," I said honestly. "Maybe."

He held my gaze for a long moment. Then, his phone buzzed, breaking the spell. He glanced at it and sighed.

"Team dinner in twenty," he said, but he didn't move to get up.

"Right. Team dinner."

We sat there a few seconds longer, both knowing we should go inside but neither of us moving.

Finally, Mason stood. He paused, looking down at me.

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