Page 137 of What Are the Chances
I shook my head. It had now been four days. Four days of eagerly checking my phone when it went off. Four days of hoping to catch sight of him on campus. Four days of almost cracking and driving over to his house.
I missed him so much it hurt. I was familiar with this feeling, and unfortunately I knew it wouldn’t pass anytime soon.
This time I couldn’t distract myself looking after my mum or training for a marathon. I was being forced to face these feelings head on, and they freaking hurt.
Dad must have told Richard about my injury because he’d phoned to give me the week off. Though I didn’t need it, I’d gone with it. The hockey arena was Will’s sanctuary. I didn’t want to take that away from him while he figured things out.
Grace sighed. “If it makes you feel any better, he’s been a mopey mess. Levi’s had to drag him to training most mornings. And I don’t think he’s been to class all week.”
That didn’t make me feel better, not in the slightest. I didn’t want my mistake messing with Will’s grades or hockey.
“You’ll work things out,” Grace said with certainty. “I’m sure of it.”
I slowly picked up my tablet but made no attempt to power it up. My motivation was at an all-time low.
“How did you forgive Levi?” I asked, hoping the question wasn’t too personal.
“It took some time,” Grace admitted. “But once I reminded myself how good we were together excluding that one mistake, it was easy to get over. Plus, being home made me realise how hard it was being apart from him. It sometimes felt like I was literally missing a limb.”
I could relate to that sensation.
I finally kicked into gear and began working through Grace’s assessment. Her body was like a well-oiled machine. There was literally never anything wrong with it. Not a niggle. No compartmentalised tension. This girl could go all the way if she wanted to. It’s like her body had been nurtured to swim.
Once the assessment was complete it took just as much time for Grace to slip her layers back on.
“Are you coming to the game Friday night?” she asked, smoothing down her hair to resecure her beanie. “Both Ava and Stella are going to be out of town, and I have a spare ticket.”
“I don’t know.”
I hadn’t been planning on it. I didn’t want to invade Will’s space or take his head out of the game.
“Come on, Riley. Come to my rescue here. I hate going alone.”
I couldn’t say no to Grace, especially given she was literally here right now as part of a favour for me.
Besides, Friday would mark one week since Will spoke to me. I wouldn’t be able to cope much longer than that.
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
I love your daughter
WILL
I’d been skating around the empty arena for goodness knows how long. I’d told the guys I was hanging back, only I had no clue what that was to do.
I’d been off all week. Coach had picked up on it. So had Levi. Most of the team had as well. We had a pivotal game tomorrow night. The GM for the Bobcats was flying in for it, then on Saturday he was driving up to watch Tanner’s game.
News was a deal was getting negotiated. The franchise was eager on Tanner, and he was starting to become equally as interested. We’d been speaking all week. First it had started off about Riley, then it had become about hockey, and now it was about anything.
I liked the guy.
There. I’d said it.
He wasn’t a dick like I’d always thought. Funny how things worked out. First impressions could be so wrong. What we saw was only a glimpse of people’s lives.
Like when I saw Coach, I used to see a successful man with an impressive career and a record-holder still to this day. But now I saw his son who’d almost lost out on his dream, and his daughter who’d also lost out on something equally as important, all because he’d prioritised the wrong thing.
I’d picked up my phone more times than I could count this week to call Riley. The anger had tapered, but in its place was concern. I wanted to move past this but I was scared. Scared that I would fulfil all the fears she had.
