Page 2 of Good as Gold
“Nothing. Ready?”
Rory doesn’t move. He just frowns at Matteo. “You can’t have her, you know.”
“What?” He heard Rory just fine, and he knows exactly what he means. It’s just that he’s surprised to hear it said out loud.
“The Golden Girl will never go for you.”
“Hey, no kidding.” He understands it on a gut level—the same way he knows that a leaden sky over Vermont means that snow is coming.
But that’s not the only thing he knows. “She’d never go for you either,” he points out.
Rory snorts. “No kidding. But still—it’s a deal, right? Neither one of us tries to get with her, and it doesn’t get weird.”
“Yeah, sure,” Matteo agrees. He can’t even picture either of them with Leila. She and her siblings win all the awards at school. Her family practically runs the town of Colebury. Their name literally meansgold maker.
It isn’t just family connections that set Leila apart, though. It’s herfire. There are probably better words to describe it. But he doesn’t know those words and wouldn’t articulate them even if he did.
But it’s Leila who pushed them both to compete in their first freestyle competition last month. Matteo won a bronze medal and an invitation to compete at the state level in March.
Leila won a silver in a slalom race, too. And now she’s crafting a whole practice plan for both of them before the state competition.
Rory didn’t win anything, and he’s still salty about it. “We need a pact or something,” he says. “Nobody dates Leila. It would wreck our whole vibe.”
“True,” he agrees. If his only two friends became a couple, he’d die. He really would.
“So it’s a deal? You don’t touch her. I don’t either.”
“Sure. Of course.” Besides, as Rory already pointed out, she’d never go for the guy in the second-hand snow pants. The guy whose father is such a piece of work that he skips town for weeks at a time, forcing his mom to work two jobs and visit the food pantry.
Leila had been at his house once when the cops had called to say they had his dad in lockup. Matteo had wanted to die of embarrassment.
Making a pact with Rory is an easy decision. He’d never try anything with Leila. And this way, Rory won’t either. He likes this plan.
So that’s settled. “Let’s go,” he says. “Bet you can’t get any air off that jump.” He points at the spot Leila had soared from only a minute before.
“Bet I can.”
And off they go.
CHAPTER1
MATTEO
TWENTY YEARS LATER
APRIL
The speed limit on the narrow highway is fifty miles per hour, but I slow down as my rental car approaches Colebury. The sky is dark and cloudy, making the unlit road hard to see. And since I haven’t been home in fourteen years, I’m not confident that I’ll recognize the turnoff for my brother’s bar.
I’ve almost reached the outskirts of town when my phone rings to the tune of “I Knew You Were Trouble.” The rental car’s screen saysLissa calling.
For a second, I consider declining the call. I only have two bars of service, and I’m in a hurry.
But I just can’t do that. When a teenage girl who recently lost her dad calls, you answer. Day or night. Even if you’re literally fourteen years late for a party.
I tap the screen. “Lissa? Can you hear me?”
“Omigod, Matteo. Whereareyou? I was going nuts! You didn’t answer your phone. Forhours.”
