Page 119 of The Lies We Play

The suite at the Merkel is two rooms—a sitting room with a fireplace burning low, a bedroom visible through a half-open door.

The smell of the fire mixes with whatever Halston has put in his hair, clean and expensive and faintly cedar. There’s a tray with champagne on ice and two flutes on the coffee table. The view through the windows is Coal Harbour at dusk, boats sitting in the water with their navigation lights on, thin wet snow falling with no intention of staying.

The room is warm.

Too warm, maybe.

Or maybe that is me.

“I’m impressed,” he says.

“That I made the schedule work?” I cock an eyebrow.

“No.” He closes the closet door. “Three goals.”

“Ah, yes.” I shrug, as if it doesn’t matter.

It matters.

I’m tired down to the bone, and my right hip is going to be a problem tomorrow. I can still feel the third goal in my hands, the release, the sound after. I can also feel the fact that Halston watched.

“Two assists,” he adds.

“Too bad you couldn’t be at the arena,” I say, almost casually.

It comes out cleaner than it feels.

His gaze comes back to mine.

A small pause.

There. He heard the thing under it.

“It was the last thing I had to do for my grandfather before heading out,” he says. “You’d think we were on vacation, but in fact, he had me working. Something about taking a month off and not leaving problems behind.”

“He’s taking a month off?” I arch an eyebrow.

“No. I am.” He says it like he is still surprised by his own decision. “I decided to do some hosting and, when possible, some traveling before school resumes.”

“Traveling? Hosting?” I rub the back of my neck. “I’m confused.”

“Liv and you will be staying with me for a while,” he reminds me. “I want to make sure I’m around. And maybe book some trips to your away games.”

I can’t help the smile. “You’d do that?”

He nods. “She likes to see you play live.”

“And do you?”

His answer comes slower.

Not because he is unsure.

Because he is deciding how much truth to hand me.

“I do,” he says. “Even when most of the time I have to remind Liv that she can't coach you from the other side of the glass.”

I laugh and shake my head. Of course, he has to do that. “Sometimes I imagine her voice cursing at whoever hit me.”