Page 9 of Break Away
“That means no.”
“It means fine.”
“It means you’re about to do that thing where you pretend pressure doesn’t exist until you look like you want to put your fist through drywall,” Cade said.
“I always look like that.”
“True,” Rider muttered.
Briggs dropped onto the bench across from me and braced his elbows on his knees. His hair was damp from the shower, and his expression finally lost the humor.
“Move back into the house.”
“No.”
“You didn’t even let me finish.”
“Because you said, ‘Move back into the house.’”
“Because you should move back into the house.”
“No.”
Rider tied off his laces and leaned back on his hands. “It’s senior year, man.”
“I’m aware.”
“We’ve got the whole room back,” he said. “Cade’s healed. Briggs is only mildly unbearable. Ryan’s around when Flint lets him breathe. You’re captain. Finish senior year with me and Briggs at Hockey House like old times.”
Ryan’s mouth twitched. “That sounds like a punishment.”
“It’s Hockey House,” Briggs argued.
“It’s a biohazard,” Ryan said.
Cade looked at me instead of joining them. He had always been too good at seeing the bruise beneath the punch.
“Is this about Aura?”
The room shifted around her name.
Nobody gasped or froze or did any of that dramatic bullshit. But every guy in that corner of the locker room knew exactly where the blade went in, and not one of them missed it.
My hands slowed on the tape wrapped around my stick.
“No.”
Briggs sighed. “Easton.”
I looked up. “Stop.”
Cade held my stare without flinching. That was one of the irritating things about Cade Mercer. Almost dying had made him harder to intimidate.
“She’s going to be around,” he said.
“I know.”
“Bliss isn’t dropping Aura because you two decided to turn your unresolved sexual disaster into campus-wide warfare.”
