Page 66 of Break the Ice
“Hey, Bruce, Finley’s teaching me new words… expanding my vocabulary,” Jayden replies with more cool than I’ve ever possessed in my life while he holds up my notebook. “Do you know what collywobbles means?”
“Colly—what the fuck now?”
“Butterflies in the stomach. How about morosis?”
“Sounds like moron, which you obviously are.”
Jayden laughs, batting the empty can at Auguste, who catches it.
“Stupidest of stupidities, actually,” he says, rolling off the sun bed and pushing to his feet.
With one last glance at my notebook, he closes it and hands it to me with a gentle smile that morphs to a mischievous grin when he saunters towards Auguste.
“How was the community skate?” Jayden asks him. “Anyone get hurt?”
Auguste laughs, like they’re sharing an inside joke. Whatever it is, I’m grateful for it because it instantly dissipates the awkwardness of the moment.
“Nah, not this time. Although, the kids have definitely improved and they’ve brought a coach in from Portland that’s going to set up a training program.”
“Seriously?” Jayden’s voice booms with excitement that pulls on every single one of my pores with a buzz.
I sit back into the cushions and swap my notebook for the Hardy novel while they continue talking about kids’ hockey leagues. It’s only when Auguste mentions Elijah that I tune back into their conversation. Even though I’ve been stealing glimpses of Jayden as the two of them settled on the edge of the pool, I’ve kept myself to myself.
Which surprises Auguste when I ask, “Is Elijah back, too?”
“No, he stayed back. Turns out he knows the new coach from junior league.” A certain heaviness settles on my shoulders at his furrowed expression. “Have to say, given the way he reacted when the guy greeted him, I’m surprised he hung back.”
“What do you mean ‘the way he reacted’?” Jayden asks the question burning on my tongue with a worried glance my way.
“He seemed kind of uncomfortable…? I don’t know. Like, not the usual Sylkes sulk... dude was pale as fuck.”
“He is pale,” both Jayden and I blurt.
“Not like this. He looked like he’d seen a ghost.”
While Auguste continues telling us about the situation, Jayden comes back to me, grabbing his phone from where he placed it on the table earlier, he hands it to me.
“Call him,” he tells me before giving me his passcode. “Zero-four-one-nine. Kailey’s birthday.”
Sitting down beside me, he watches as I ring Elijah and wait for him to pick up only for the call to go to voicemail.
Maybe it’s the nagging memory of the last time he didn’t answer his phone to Jayden. Whatever it is has me on edge when Jayden takes the phone from me and tries again. When it goes to voicemail, he grumbles out a gruff curse while he stabs out a message only to delete it.
“I swear to God if he pulls that fucking incommunicado shit again…”
“He’ll call back,” I tell him, my hand automatically clutching his for support. For comfort.
Although I’m not certain, I’m hopeful. That right there is the blackhole of all my worries. One I spiral down when Auguste sits with us on the sun bed. He and Jayden fall into gameplay conversation, and I pretend to read my book even though I never turn the page.
CHAPTER 20
ELIJAH
Ryker Hallman.
Ryker-fucking-Hallman.
I don’t know how he ended up here, in LA, but my gut is begging me to stay away. To do now what I didn’t in the past—run the other fucking way. Except I can’t. My feet are glued to the ground. My vomit is a rock-hard ball in my throat.
