Page 18 of Breakaway Hearts

“Yeah, this won’t do,” he murmurs after a moment, stepping back as I turn to face him again. He gives me his signature lopsided grin. “Luckily, I brought you one of my current jerseys. Here. You can change into this.”

He hands me the jersey I didn’t realize he was holding until now, and I glance around the hallway as I take it.

“Um… righthere?”

“Yeah, sure. Nobody’s around, and you’re not naked under that thing, are you?”

I roll my eyes. “No. But turn around anyway.”

“’Course,” he says with a smile. He does as I say and covers his eyes for good measure. I strip off his old jersey quickly, and even though I’m wearing the green tank top underneath it, I still feel very exposed for some reason.

I smooth out the new jersey once I’ve pulled it on. It’s a bit bigger than his old one, and even though I’m not a tiny girl, it’s baggy on me. It falls almost to my knees, and the sleeves fall a few inches past my fingertips.

I roll the sleeves up on my forearms, then fold the old one neatly as I tell him, “Okay, you can turn around now. But don’t you dare laugh.”

Reese turns back to face me, and instead of laughing, his jaw clenches. Something flashes in his eyes, something that stops time and halts my blood flow—but then a half second later, it’s gone, so fast that I’m barely even sure I saw it. He nods in satisfaction, walking around me once before taking the old jersey from me.

“That’s better. You look good in my number,” he says.

“Thanks.” I shift my weight, not sure why my skin feels so hot. Is it warm back here?

“I should get going.” Reese glances over his shoulder. “We’ve gotta hit the ice soon for warmups. Are you ready for this?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“You’re gonna do great, Firefly,” he promises, reaching out to give my shoulder a squeeze.

I nod, trying to look more confident than I feel. “Thanks. So are you. Kick ass out there, and show the Glaciers what the Denver Aces are made of.”

“I’ll do my best.”

He walks me back out of the door and past Michael, then disappears to the locker room to get ready. I make my way to the concession stand to buy a snack for the game, and the crowd is starting to thicken by the time I finally go to find my seat.

As I head toward the seats nearest the glass, Margo stands up and waves at me, gesturing for me to come join her. She looks me up and down, and the bright smile on her face turns into a knowing one at the sight of Reese’s jersey on my back.

“Hey,” she says just as both teams take the ice for warmups. The crowd cheers, already fired up for a heated match. “Nice jersey you’ve got there.”

By sheer force of will, I manage to keep the heat climbing up my chest from reaching my face, but I can only manage to stutter out athank you, which makes her chuckle.

“I’m just teasing you,” she assures me, adjusting some of the recording equipment she’ll use to get footage of the game for social media. Noah skates by, grinning at her, and she grins back before turning to me. “But Iamserious about you giving me all the details. Please. I’m dying here.”

That draws a genuine laugh out of me. I’ve been friends with Reese long enough that I know the entire team decently well, and I’ve always liked Margo. I think she and Noah are great together, and the two of us hit it off from the first moment we met. I can only imagine the wild speculating she and Noah were doing after they saw me and Reese getting so cozy at the bar on Thursday night. I don’t love lying to her, but this feels like a good way to ease into this charade Reese and I are trying to pull off. Margo is on our side, and she likes both of us.

“We only just started dating,” I begin slowly, drawing on the background that Reese and I sketched out for ourselves so that our stories will match up. “It’s super new. And it kind of just happened naturally, you know?”

She nudges me, her blue eyes shining with excitement.

“I totally know. Sometimes the best kinds of relationships start that way. I’m really happy for you two. Reese is a great guy, and he deserves the world. It was so hard to see him struggling after the breakup.” She winces as if she regrets mentioning Sienna, but I give her an encouraging nod. “Anyway,” she continues. “We all want to see him happy. And we love you and think you two were a long time coming. A much better couple than Reese and Sienna.”

“Oh, yeah?” I say, although it’s not a huge surprise to hear her say that. The team was always lukewarm around Sienna, and I was too. Does that make me a bad person for doing this? Trying to get Reese back together with a woman I don’t think is good enough for him?

But she seemed to make him happy, and if that’s what he wants, I feel like I should help him as a friend.

I push those thoughts away, deciding not to worry about any of that for the moment. I’ve got enough on my plate tonight, just making sure I don’t do something awkward or embarrassing, or accidentally expose our lie.

There’s a short break after the warmups end, and then the players return to the ice. We stand for the national anthem, and before the puck is dropped, Reese glances in my direction—or at least I think he does. Something lodges itself in my throat, and my stomach flips over.

And just like that, the game starts.

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