Page 27

Silence.

“Ollie?” I say, checking the line is still connected.

“I’m here, Kendra,” he replies after a few more seconds. “But I gotta ask, are you sure you aren’t sweet on him? It’s a pretty big deal to just accept something like that. From a guy’s point of view, it’s an even bigger one for him to offer.”

I pause, not knowing how to answer. I know what I should say, what my head is screaming internally, but there’s something else stopping me from denying that I don’t feel something between us.

Crazy thinking, Kendra.He’s a nice guy, helping a girl out.

“No,” I reply. “He’s being a gentleman, and I’m simply grateful, nothing more.”

My brother exhales a long breath when I hear the engine on his Maserati fire up again. “All right. Can’t say I’m not a little gutted about it, but that’s just me being selfish. Tell him I said thanks for helping my stubborn, secretive baby sister out.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

KENDRA

“That’s him, isn’t it?” Jenna peers over my shoulder.

With a towel wrapped around me and my freshly showered hair dripping down my back, I flatten my phone to my chest. “Yes.”

“Knew it,” she sings, coming to stand beside me after our two to one win at home.

Somehow, I clinched the game with a winning strike on the full volley. Never in my life have I mastered that shot, but as the ball floated through the air on a corner, I thought,Why not start here?

Although my left knee is not thanking me for it right now.

As Jenna rummages through her change bag, I take the opportunity to read Jack’s WhatsApp message.

Jack

Nice volley, Hart. That Pilates is paying off.

When I showed up for practice the morning Jack left for Colorado and Jenna immediately asked me how the hotel was, I broke the news to her.

Unsurprisingly, her reaction was similar to my brother’s, but with added squealing and, “I told you so,” thrown in.

She will no longer accept any other argument than he likes me, but I won’t even entertain the idea.

“So, what did he say?”

On an eye roll, I accept that resistance is futile, and I show her my screen.

“Okay, so I take two things from this.” She ponders, still staring at my phone as if the one line he wrote were more like a Shakespearean sonnet I studied in college.

“One, he’s thinking about you, and two, he’s already watched the highlights of our game.”

“One,” I counter, “he’s my roommate and the main occupier of the apartment he just entrusted me with, and two, he likes soccer.” I keep my face straight and fight back the smile tugging at my lips when I think about his hatred of that word.

“You know I’m really enjoying this, right?” Jenna’s face tells me she absolutely is.

“Well, maybe you are, but you’re going to be left disappointed. He’s a nice guy, and I guess I enjoy his company, but I’m also not about to jump into anything.”

“Oh, so you’ve thought about it then?”

“No!” I announce louder than I wanted. “All I’m thinking about is getting my ex-boyfriend off my back and my ass into an apartment of my own. If I make a friend along the way, then great.”

Jenna zips her bag shut with force and looks at me, the freckles along the bridge of her nose prominent with mischief. “Not convinced.”