Page 49 of Choosing Her
Apparently, finding the girl at Hartwell with the last nameSaylorhad been a good idea—I just found the wrong sister first.
And it took me months to undo all the hurt it caused.
CHAPTER 26
saylor
“Areyou sure I don’t look like an idiot?” I asked, picking at the dark purple Hartwell shirt that I was wearing as we walked down the back halls of the ice arena. It was the first time I’d ever come to a hockey game since starting at Hartwell, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Especially since Poppy had dressed me up in all our team colors and drawn purple lines on each of my cheeks.
“You look amazing,” Poppy promised. She hooked her arm through mine, almost skipping down the hallway and pulling me along with her. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to be sweet by linking arms or if she was trying to subtly tell me to hurry up.When we got to the locker room door, she knocked on it softly, without poking her head in, in case there were any naked guys in there, and said, “Bear! Crossy! Come out.”
I heard some hollering and laughing from the other boys in the room and flushed. It had only been a couple of days since Crossy and I kissed and aside from the day he hugged me in the hallway after he found out he passed his math midterm—with flying colors, I might add—we hadn’t really been public with our relationship. Coming down here like this went against all my self-preservation instincts of keeping Crossy a secret. He’d always been that to me—after New Year’s Eve, in the summer,since the beginning of the school year. I knew how to keep him secret and now I had to learn how to be open with him instead.
The boys appeared a second later, both half-dressed in their hockey gear. Bear barely even spared me a glance before he ditched Poppy and gave her a long kiss. I awkwardly looked away at Crossy, who was standing beside him. He looked over my outfit and grinned. “Nice look,” he said.
“Hey, I came out here to support you,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “The least you could do is be nice about it.”
“I told you that you looked nice. Is that so wrong of me to say to my girlfriend?”
I flushed a little at the word “girlfriend.” I’d never been somebody’s girlfriend before.
“Though,” he said, tapping his finger against his chin, “I do think there’s something missing.”
“What?” I asked, looking down at my outfit as if I knew anything about what I was supposed to be wearing right now. Just because my dad was a hockey coach didn’t mean I knew anything about this. Growing up, I’d been dragged to plenty of games, but I spent most of them buried in a book, determined not to give him the satisfaction of thinking I cared.
“Just wait right here,” he said, and then he ducked back inside. When he came back out, he had a washable marker in his hand. I frowned at it, not sure what he was going to do.
“Do you trust me?” he asked. I nodded slowly, and then he took my chin in his hand and gently wrote something on my cheek. He leaned in, so his lips brushed my ear and whispered, “There. Much better.” I didn’t have a mirror, so I had to pull out my phone to act as a mirror. When I did, I realized he had written 9. I glanced at him.
“Your number?” I asked.
He shrugged, putting the cap back on his marker. “How else is everyone supposed to know you’re with me?”
I rolled my eyes, but before I could respond, he leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to my lips. When he pulled away, his gaze flickered past me, and his expression shifted.
“What?” I started, but then I followed his gaze—and my stomach dropped.
Naomi stood at the end of the hallway, her face tight.
“Sorry,” she said, voice barely above a whisper. “I just—never mind. I’ll go.”
She spun on her heel and ran back the way she came.
“Naomi!” I called. I pulled myself out of Crossy’s grip. “I’m sorry, I have to?—”
“Go ahead,” Crossy said immediately. I glanced at Poppy, but she was mid-conversation with Bear, so I just left and trusted that Crossy would let her know where I went.
“Naomi!” I called again, my voice echoing across the walls. “Wait up!”
I caught up to Naomi just outside the arena, my breath fogging in the cold air. She didn’t slow down, didn’t turn, just kept walking with stiff, purposeful strides like she could outrun this. Outrun me.
“Naomi, wait,” I said, reaching for her arm.
She jerked away before I could touch her. “Don’t.”
I sucked in a breath. “Just let me explain.”
She finally turned, her face tight, like she was holding everything in with sheer force. “Explain what?”
