Page 24 of This Could be Love

“Thanks,” I grumbled.

We walked on in silence.

“How’d that happen?”

The question was so out of the blue that my head snapped to the side. But it was too dark to make out his expression.

“I twisted my ankle at a match. Almost one year ago exactly. I tore six ligaments and had to have an operation.”

He uttered a simple “hmm” that was hard to interpret. I didn’t count on him saying anything else, but then he surprised me once again. “That sounds heavy.”

“Yeah,” I replied and was amazed at how skeptical a single word can sound. But because we were having an unbelievably normal conversation, it was warranted. “That’s why I haven’t played in almost a year.”

“I think I’d lose my shit if I couldn’t surf for a year.”

“Do you surf…professionally?” I asked and wrinkled my nose at how awkward that sounded.

“Like Chip? No. It’s just a hobby. Together with terrorizing my neighbors.”

It sounded more like a crack than a sneer, and a smile darted across my face.

“You forgot to add coming up with conspiracy theories.”

I thought I could hear him grinning. In the meantime, we’d reached Kay’s gate. The motion detector made the lights come on, and for a moment it felt like any second someone would shine a flashlight in my face.

“You should get inside before she sees you conversing with the enemy.”

“She’s not even home. On top of that, tomorrow morning I’m going to tell her where I was.”

“Will you ask her if she got all the other neighbors to join in her boycott?”

“Yeah,” I replied without any ado. “But the answer will be no. That’s simply not her style.”

“Not like filing a complaint, you mean.”

He sounded bitter, and I sighed. “That was a spur-of-the-moment reaction, I’m sure of it.”

When he began to say something—most likely that that didn’t make any difference—I added, “I’ll speak with her again. Maybe… Maybe I can get her to withdraw it or something.”

“And why would you do that?”

For a moment I wondered whether the question shouldn’t have been whyKaywould do that. My answer tothatwould have come a bit more easily. Instead, I said, “Because you’re right. I don’t want to stay out of it.” I tried to tone down the importance of my words a bit with a shrug, even if there wasn’t anything gloating in his expression.

A passing car broke the stillness.

“Thanks for walking me home.”

“No problem,” he mumbled. For an instant he looked as if he wanted to say something else, but he didn’t. He just dug his hands into his pockets, turned, and disappeared into the dark.

Chapter 11

Kay was sitting out on the terrace typing away on her phone when I got back from my morning jog. The sun was still hidden behind a string of clouds, and the air was a shimmer of muggy heat.

“Morning,” I said, stretching my arms over my head.

“Good morning.” She put her phone to the side and smiled. “And? How was it?”

For a second I wondered if she was referring to yesterday evening, before I realized that she didn’t know where I’d been.