Chapter 24
THE OTHER SHOE
Winter
“Okay, you need to tell me what’s going on.” Rose blocks the door to the kitchen so I can’t get by her with the tub of dirty dishes from the early-morning rush. We have half an hour before the second wave.
“Nothing is going on,” I lie.
She props her fist on her hip. “Yesterday you were all smiles and giddiness and in love with BJ’s peen, and today you’re all frowny and serious and you’ve barely said six words since you walked through the door two hours ago—unless you were dealing with a customer, and then you were all forced-friendly. ”
“I’m having an off day.” That part is not a lie. I’m definitely off.
Rose crosses her arms. “You were half an hour early for your shift, and I know I’m awesome to be around, but no one willingly shows up to work early just to hang out with me.”
Scottie peeks his head out of the kitchen. “I would come in early to hang out with your awesomeness.” When he sees I’m holding a bin of plates, he skirts around Rose, giving her his best smirky smile, and takes them from me.
“That’s because you’re a walking hormone, and I flirt with you all the time. This conversation isn’t for your ears, so go back to making sandwiches,” she says.
“There’s nothing wrong with dating a younger man,” Scottie says. “Look at Maverick Waters and his girlfriend. He’s like, what? Early twenties? And she’s thirty.”
I frown. “I thought Maverick was mid-twenties and she was late.”
Rose shakes her head. “Nope. Mav turns twenty-two in the fall, and Clover is either almost thirty or already thirty. She was his professor last year.”
“What? How did I not know this?” I never would have guessed there was that much of an age difference between them. Maverick has always seemed so together, but I guess I’ve only known him for a couple of months, and I mostly see him when he’s coaching boys’ hockey.
“I don’t know, but we can come back to it later since it has nothing to do with why you’re in a mood this morning.
” She arches a manicured brow. “Lovey has messaged three times to ask if you’re okay, but she won’t tell me why she’s asking, so that right there tells me something happened.
Might as well spill the beans. It’s going to come out eventually.
We’re too tight-knit a group, and you’re a member of our weird little family now, where everyone knows everyone else’s business. Lucky you.”
I sigh. She’s not wrong, and I need a point of view that isn’t mine, Lovey’s, or BJ’s on this really fucking weird situation. “Lovey slept in BJ’s bed last night.”
“And BJ slept in yours with you?”
“No.”
Rose frowns. “Can you expand on this, so I understand?”
I explain what happened, glossing over our conversation in the kitchen and what we had planned to do when we went back upstairs, and fast-forwarding to the part where I found Lovey asleep in his bed.
“What am I supposed to think? He was about to bring me back up to his room for fun times, and Lovey had just spent the night there.” I drop my voice to a whisper.
“And we had sex for the first time the night before. Tell me it’s not fucked up. ”
“Yeah, it’s fucked up.” She sighs. “I didn’t realize they were still doing this.”
“Still doing what?” I hate the way my stomach twists.
“Talking each other to sleep.”
“This is a regular thing for them?” I lean against the counter. I don’t know how to deal.
“Keep in mind that I’m a few years younger than most of the crew, and I’ve only been around in the summers because I went to school out of state until I got kicked out—not that that detail is important or anything.
But for as long as I can remember, they’ve been super tight.
Sometimes they’d disappear down to the dock or wherever when we were having a campfire, or up to one of their rooms if it was a movie or hang-out night.
I guess everyone assumed they were fooling around, but when we’d go to surprise them, they’d either be talking or they’d have fallen asleep—but not in any kind of compromising position.
They’d just be lying there next to each other. ”
“So what? This is just something they do?”
Rose gives me a sympathetic smile. “They’ve always been really close. But as far as I know, they’ve never been more than friends.”
“They told me they’d kissed twice. Both during a game of spin the bottle when they were teenagers.”
“I can’t believe they brought that up. It was supposed to be in the vault forever.”
“You know about it?”
“Yeah. I was there. Laughlin came up with the idea, and I don’t know why everyone jumped on board.
He probably goaded them into it. It’s totally something he would do.
I must have been eleven or twelve maybe?
” She thinks a moment. “It was awkward since so many of them are related. The Buttersons and Waters are cousins, and then the Waters and Ballistics are cousins or half-cousins—whatever. Blood is involved. People were tapping out left, right, and center. Lovey had to spin the bottle three times before it landed on someone who wasn’t a direct relative, and obviously that was BJ.
They both looked so freaked out afterward.
We all agreed that it was a bad idea and we wouldn’t talk about it again. And we haven’t, until now anyway.”
“So they really have no chemistry?”
She shakes her head. “I think there was good and bad in it for BJ and Lovey, because they didn’t have to wonder if there was more to their friendship anymore.
And we’ve all been exposed to it for years, so to us, it’s just BJ and Lovey being BJ and Lovey.
I think it ramped up a lot at the end of high school when all that shit went down with BJ’s previous pairs partner. ”
“What shit is that?”
Rose chews on the inside of her lip. “Has he ever mentioned Caroline before?”
“In passing. This is the first time I’ve heard her name. When I asked what happened, he said it was a story for another day. And I got the sense it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.”
“It wasn’t.” Rose blows out a breath. “I think you should ask BJ what happened with Caroline. There’s a reason his relationship with Adele is what it is.
They only spend time together on the ice.
Even if they meet to talk about their routine, it’s always at the arena, and most of the time Lily is there, which makes sense because she’s their coach, but BJ needs those boundaries.
” She taps on the edge of the counter. “Sometimes I wonder if BJ and Lovey are so close because it means he doesn’t have to bother with anyone else.
Except you came along and turned that all upside down. ”
“We’re not a couple or anything.”
Rose shrugs. “Label or not, you two are a thing. You’re an anomaly where he’s concerned.”
At my confused expression, she continues.
“BJ has always been this super-chill guy. And he never gets involved with anyone during the summer. All he does is skate and hang out with the crew. That’s it.
It’s some unwritten rule he has. But from the moment he met you, he’s been all about you.
” She gives me a small smile. “I know this summer has been a real roller-coaster ride for you, Winter, but BJ isn’t stringing you along, and I guarantee he and Lovey both feel like shit about this morning.
You have every right to be pissed off, and take whatever time you need to process it, but when you’re ready, talk it out with BJ. And ask about Caroline when you do.”
“You’re being awfully cryptic.”
“All I know is that he went through a rough time when he had to switch pairs partners before university. I can’t pretend to know what it’s like for you to have your world turned upside down like this. But I think you’re turning BJ’s world upside down too. And that’s not a bad thing.”
I spotted BJ by the boards during practice, so I’m unsurprised to find him by the bike racks when I leave the arena that afternoon.
“Hey.” He shoves his phone into his pocket and pushes to a stand. His stubble is already turning back into a beard—a short one, but it’s dark, and it grows quickly. His hair looks like his hands have been in it a lot today. He runs his palms over his thighs. “How are you?”
“Okay. You?”
He lifts a shoulder and lets it fall. “Not gonna lie, today was fucking shitty.”
I huff a laugh. “It was definitely that.”
“Can we talk?” BJ is usually confident, so his uncertainty is surprising.
“Yeah. We can talk.” I’m used to being unsettled, but it’s better to just have the discussion and move forward.
“Should we go for a drive or a walk on the pier or something?”
We spend a lot of time making out in BJ’s Jeep, so a drive is probably not the best plan. “The pier is good.”
“Okay.” He nods. “Want to put your bag in the Jeep?”
“It’s okay. I can carry it.”
He bites the inside of his cheek but doesn’t try to persuade me otherwise. I fall into step beside him as we cross the open field that leads to the beach.
“I’m sorry about this morning, Winter. I feel shitty about what happened, and so does Lovey.
I know it’s not okay, and you have every right to be upset, but if there’s a way I can fix this, tell me and I’ll do it.
Whatever it takes.” He stops and turns to face me, running a hand through his hair.
“I just… I really like you, and the thought of losing this, you… I’ve felt sick all day.
And anxious. My stomach has been in knots, and my mouth has been dry, and I can’t eat, and you’re all I can think about.
I don’t want to fuck this up, Winter. So if there’s something I can do to make this better, I will. Just tell me what to do.”
He’s practically vibrating with anxiety.
“I don’t have a whole lot of relationship experience to draw on here, so I don’t know what I should be asking for, but do you see how messed up that whole situation was from my perspective?” I ask.
He nods. “Yeah. It shouldn’t have happened.”
“But it did, and you can’t take it back, so now we need to figure out how to move forward.”
“It won’t happen again. I promise.”