Page 101 of What Are The Odds?
Grace shot me an apologetic smile. Fucking Luke and his nice family.
“Do you live with your brothers?” Lana pressed.
Grace nodded. “They became my legal guardians until I turned eighteen.”
“Are they hot?”
“Lana,” I groaned, exhaling exasperatedly.
“It must have been hard leaving them to come here,” mum said.
Dad nodded in agreement. “I’ll bet you’re looking forward to seeing them.”
“Definitely,” Grace answered. “I miss home a lot.”
Dad shot me a look over the top of his wine glass. I purposely avoided his gaze.
“Why Phil-U?” Will’s mum asked.
“It’s where my parents met,” Grace explained. “On mum’s exchange year. Dad was from Philadelphia.”
“How wonderful,” Mum said. “Though I hope you don’t plan on stealing Levi back to Australia, too. That’s way too far for me to live from him.”
And there it was. The first small dig.
“Not possible,” dad chimed in. “Levi’s future is here. With the Colorado Eagles.”
Second dig.
“What’s everyone having?” Will asked, shutting that down stat.
Thank fuck. I owed him. Now the attention was off her, Grace picked up her water and took a long sip. Beneath the table I squeezed her leg. She’d handled that well. I hoped talking about her parents and home hadn’t upset her too much.
Lana stood, dropping her napkin on the table. “I need the bathroom. Come with me, Grace?”
Grace’s leg slipped from beneath my hand as she slid back in her seat. I watched her follow Lana to the bathroom, kind of envious I hadn’t used that excuse myself. I couldn’t wait to be alone with her. Sharing her with my friends was one thing, but sharing her with my family was another. We were together, but we weren’t. I was craving unfiltered Grace and Levi time. Lana was already team Grace. She’d hung around us non-stop this afternoon, and had tried to sit beside Grace at dinner tonight. Not on my watch.
“Levi? Will?”
Will and I both tensed. Serena, the queen of our high school, sauntered over. She was dressed in a fitted, knit dress and knee-high-boots that gave her more height than my hockey skates. She walked with the same confidence she had in high school. Serena and I had lost our virginities to each other, and we’d lapsed plenty of times since then. One of them being last Christmas when I was home. Someone had thrown a party with the old high school group while we were all in town. I hadn’t given Grace the head’s up about Serena because I hadn’t thought we’d run into her. I had no intention of going to whatever party was being thrown this time.
“The dynamic duo is back,” Serena squealed.
After sharing a look, Will and I reluctantly got up. We weren’t rude savages and going to pretend she didn’t exist, as much as I wish I could. Mine and Serena’s hug was awkward and stiff. She held on a little while too long.
“You’ve beefed up,” she said, resting her manicured hand on my chest.
It made me shiver, for all the wrong reasons.
“Are you both coming to AJ’s Friday night?”
Her eager eyes moved between us.
“We weren’t planning on it,” I answered.
“Why not?” Serena pouted. “Everyone will be there.”
“You should go,” dad chimed in. “All your old hockey buddies will be there. I’ll bet they want to celebrate the Eagles with you.”
