Page 17 of 10 Things I Skate About You

“Well, darlin’, that’s gonna take me a lot longer than two hours.”

She squeezes my hand.

Here we go.

I’m gonna gift her a custom-made jersey with the new Icebreakers logo and my number on it. I’ll present it to her live on her podcast. She’s gonna love to hate it so much.

9

KATE

I’m not saying I like Adam Foley now, but I do like that he hates Phoenix so much.

I also like that he’s using his thumb to stroke the palm of my hand right now.

And the way he circled the edge of his wineglass with his fingertips earlier.

And the fact that he worked so hard growing up and that he has a nice relationship with his billet parents. It shows that he has good character. When he’s in, he’s all in.

But that’s it.

I hate everything else about him.

Especially the way he’s making me feel tonight.

In front of all these people.

The bastard.

I really want my ex to see how over him I am, but I am not going to let Adam Foley win this stupid date.

“Well…” he says, glancing down at our joined hands. “I mean, I could go on all night, but the main thing—aside from the fact that his name is Phoenix… The thing that initially pissed me off about your ex is that I never saw him at the rink when you wereskating. Not at Kincaid Arena when you were practicing. Not at the outdoor rink. I never saw him at your competitions. And that told me a lot about him. If he wasn’t showing up for you when you were skating, then I knew he wasn’t showing up for you in other ways either.”

Well, that was unexpected. I thought he was going to say that he hated how Phoenix doesn’t give a shit about hockey. Or that he has long wavy hair. Or that he didn’t like his music.

“So, were you okay with that?” Foley asks. “No judgment. I get how fucked up relationships can be. I’m just wondering why you stayed with him for ten years.”

“I was only with him on and off for ten years,” I correct him. “There were always months when we’d be on a break.”

“But did you ever date anyone else?”

I’m not going to answer that. He knows the answer to that. That’s just rude to ask. “To answer your original question—I wasn’t okay with it, exactly. I didn’t like that he was never there. But back in high school he told me it made him nervous to think of me falling. Or not winning. And he didn’t want to make me nervous if he was there. So he thought it would be better for both of us if he didn’t watch me skate. So he never did.”

Foley closes his eyes and shakes his head. Not like he’s passive-aggressively making fun of me. Like it actually pains him to hear this. Which is so much worse. “That is…” He opens his blue eyes again and looks directly at me. Like he’s mad. Notatme, butforme. “In Fort Worth we used to call that a steaming pile of horse shit. Didyouthink it was better if he didn’t watch you skate?”

My cheeks are getting hot. I feel attacked. What is he playing at? “I thought Phoenix was hot and I liked that he was in a band. Okay? He wrote two songs about me. So. He wasn’t a totally horrible boyfriend all the time.” No judgment my ass. All he’s doing is judging me right now.

Adam Foley slow-blinks at me. I never noticed how pretty his eyelashes are before. What kind of world do we live in? Why does that jerk get to have long eyelashes? “You deserve a lot better than a not-totally-horrible boyfriend, Kate.”

I wait for him to add a joke, but it never comes.

Just likeyouwith your ex-boyfriend,mumbles my uterus.

Bah-dum-bum.

Wow, I really need to stop drinking this delicious wine,she told herself while reaching for her wineglass.

“Oh yeah?” I say, as if I’m not mentally referring to myself in the third person while my uterus teases me. “And what exactly do I deserve?”