Page 36 of Off the Edge

The lighting of the Olympic flame over the cauldron would happen soon.

Cam glanced over several times. I kept my gaze ahead and stayed with the GB team. If he came over, I’d be polite but short. Hopefully, he wouldn’t come over, so we didn’t have to go through that.

Some pin swapping started up again.

A lot of people sat on the floor in small groups.

Then there was nobody and nothing but space between us and the Canadian team.

I saw Cam begin to walk over and my heart lurched. No, no don’t.

Casey waved him back, probably showing him a pin.

I didn’t look over, didn’t let him see how I’d been watching from the corner of my eye. It was wrong, so wrong to shut him down like this.

It would be over soon.

Please let this be over soon.

SIXTEEN

CAMDEN

Casey threw an arm around my shoulder and nodded toward the red, white, and blue clad GB team. “We should go get some pins off the Brits.”

“I uh—I don’t think⁠—”

It was too late. He was hauling me over there, and Zoe was involved now too, bounding along beside me, eager to collect the colorful GB pins.

Ren had made it clear he wasn’t going to acknowledge I existed, after the thirtieth time I’d tried to catch his eye and he’d determinedly not looked over. Well, now neither of us had a choice.

“Hey, chums!” Casey announced in his awful English accent. Thankfully, he let it drop immediately once all of Team GB looked our way, except Ren. “How are you doing for pins over here?”

Their faces all lit up. Even Tamsyn Ward huddled with us and whipped out her little collection of pins.

Ren was left on the outskirts, looking away, up at the unlit cauldron atop its grand steps. His cheek flickered, jaw set.

What the hell had happened to make him go cold on me? What had I done?

I’d tried to think back to the skate-sharpening room, but I hadn’t started anything. It had been him. He’d kissed me first, he’d said he wanted us . . . For once, I hadn’t been too much, too pushy, too loud. I’d done everything I could not to scare him off.

“Hey,” I called. “Ren?”

He looked over. He had to.

His cheek twitched.

“You want a Canadian pin?” I had one in my hand to give him.

“No.”

Casey looked up. Some of Ren’s teammates did too.

“No, thank you,” he said, after noticing the air get colder, and it had been freezing to begin with.

“Fine.” I shoved it back into my pocket, feeling the anger rise again. This was obviously not the place to get into anything with him, especially with TV cameras watching. But you know . . . apparently this was the only few minutes I was going to get with him on one of the most significant nights of our lives. “Nice squirrel.”

He lifted the squirrel and looked at it as though he’d never seen it before, like someone had stuffed it into his hand without him knowing. Why bother bringing it if it didn’t mean anything? If we didn’t mean anything.