Chapter 3
~Riley~
My first morning flies by. Between the demanding workouts, the exacting coaching staff and the world-class skaters surrounding me, I barely have a second to reflect on my rough start to the day or the reasons I made the move here in the first place.
However, when Hannah and I head to the cafeteria for lunch, it all comes rushing back.
I always sat with Trevor for lunch since we arranged our schedules to take our breaks at the same time.
Usually, Evelyn joined us too. I thought I was the link between them, the lynchpin connecting everyone, until they apparently decided they didn’t need me anymore.
Are they eating together today without me there? Are they dating now?
Does anybody even notice I’m gone?
“Riley?” Hannah nudges me from behind, and I realize I’ve completely zoned out. Whispering an apology, I step forward to pick out my lunch.
Once we have our food, Hannah leads me over to her usual table where two men are already waiting.
Though we’ve never formally met, I recognize Hannah’s partner, Lewis, from seeing them skating together on TV.
He’s handsome in a clean-cut way, with short, dark hair that contrasts well with her long, blonde waves. They look great on the ice together.
Sitting next to Lewis is none other than Hudson Baker, the friendly red-headed guy who rescued me earlier, and his warm grin as we join them makes my stomach flutter unexpectedly.
Residual embarrassment from this morning? It must be, because it’s way too soon to be noticing another man in any other way. My last relationship is barely cold in the ground, and I’m just trying to make it through the day without having another meltdown.
“Hey, Pip,” Hudson greets me casually as I slide into the seat across from him, next to Hannah. His plate looks a lot like mine, full of vegetables and healthy grains to fuel our bodies for the day’s activities.
“Pip?” Hannah asks, her eyes darting curiously between the two of us.
“Apparently, they’re old buddies, but he won’t tell me how they know each other,” Lewis complains from his spot next to Hudson. “How do you know her, Han? Why am I the only one who doesn’t already know Riley?”
He holds out his hand across the table to shake mine, offering me a grin that’s almost as friendly as Hudson’s but doesn’t warm my insides the same way.
“Lewis Campbell. Hannah’s pairs partner.”
I give his hand a firm shake as I smile back. “Nice to meet you, Lewis.”
Hannah answers Lewis as our hands separate. “I met Riley at that dance camp I went to in Denver last summer. You know, the one you were too ‘busy’ for.”
She makes air quotes around the word ‘busy’, and Lewis rolls his eyes. “I actually was busy,” he says to me, ignoring Hannah. “And besides, she needed the training more than I did.”
Hannah tosses her wholewheat bun straight at his head, but with quick reflexes, Lewis catches it and takes a large bite out of it while Hannah gapes. “Hey! That’s mine.”
“You know the rules,” Lewis shrugs, his mouth full. “If I can reach it, I can eat it.”
Subconsciously, I nudge my tray a little further away from him and the whole table laughs.
Knowing Hannah before I arrived made me feel a little more confident about joining a new club, but I didn’t expect to feel so accepted right away.
It almost feels too soon to be laughing with the shadow of Trevor and Evelyn in bed together still hanging over me, and I’m torn between needing to nurse the hurt a little longer and needing to move on.
I compromise by taking a big bite of my salad. One step at a time.
“That explains how the girls know each other,” Lewis says after he swallows, ripping the bun in half and handing the unbitten half back to Hannah. “But what about you two?”
His gaze moves between me and Hudson, and my eyes meet Hudson’s blue ones across the table. How does he want to play this? Will he admit that he was just covering for me this morning, or does he want to keep up the charade?
I soon get my answer.
“We met at Sea World,” he states, and I almost choke on the spinach still in my mouth. I’m not sure what I expected him to say, but I definitely didn’t expect that.
Flashing me a teasing smile, he carries on.
“My family went to San Diego on vacation when I was eight, and I was so psyched to see the dolphins. For a prairie kid who’d never seen the ocean, it was a huge deal. We sat in the front row for the show and another family sat right behind us.”
“There was another family at Sea World?” Lewis teases. “I’m shocked.”
Hudson’s eyes narrow good-naturedly. “This particular family sat behind us, and when the dolphins came by and splashed us, the girl behind me was so surprised, she dropped her ice cream cone right on top of my head. I didn’t even realize it at first, I thought I was just cold because of the water.
It wasn’t until chocolate started dripping into my eyes that I figured it out. When I turned around, there she was.”
He holds out his hands to implicate me as the one who dumped ice cream on him, and I can only stare at him in a mixture of amusement and disbelief.
Should I correct him? Tell the truth? I could, but part of me likes the story he’s spun. It makes me feel like I have another connection here besides Hannah, even if it’s fake.
Besides, Hannah’s hooked, devouring every word. “And you kept in touch afterwards?”
“That’s right,” Hudson agrees easily. “We got talking when her dad went to get napkins to clean me up and I found out she skated too. Our parents exchanged email addresses, and we’ve been pen pals ever since.”
He tosses another charming grin my way, unaware of the mistake he just made. Even if his story were true, which none of it is, my dad wouldn’t have been there. However, I’m the only one at the table who knows that, so the other two accept his explanation at face value.
Mostly, anyway. Lewis doesn’t seem fully convinced. “You’ve been writing to each other for years and you’ve never mentioned her?”
The man across from me simply shrugs. “I know a lot of people. I don’t tell you about all of them.”
“He’s leaving out the best part,” I say, jumping in to bolster Hudson’s story, though for the life of me, I’m not sure why I’m getting involved.
I do know, however, that I like the way his eyes light up when I do.
“At my first national competition, instead of sending me flowers for luck, he had a tub of chocolate ice cream delivered to the rink for me. By the time it reached me, it had all melted, and it left a big brown puddle on the locker room floor. Some of the other girls thought it was something else.”
Lewis bursts into a laugh and Hudson’s grin nearly splits his face open while Hannah grimaces, her nose wrinkling. “Ew.”
The conversation moves on to other weird things we’ve seen people receive at competitions, and there are no more questions about how Hudson and I know each other.
When our eyes meet at the end of the meal, we share a private smile, acknowledging the secret we share. It might be silly, but it feels nice.
I wish his story were true, actually. He seems like a fun friend to have, and even though we haven’t known each other since we were kids, there’s no reason we can’t be friends now.
I could use another friend. In fact, I could use as many of them as I can get, and thankfully, coming to Riverbend is feeling like a better idea with each passing minute.