Page 11

“Sorry, I’m late.” Ryder storms through the dining room, taking the last empty chair at the table, and it causes me to look around the room for the first time. “Juno and Nebula took a little extra time bathing today.” I tune out his horsechatter as my mind drifts to a certain green-eyed beauty who’s missing from this dinner table. Not that I need any distractions right now, but if I’m going to be here anyway, I might as well enjoy the view of the perky blonde.

“Did Coach Campbell find you?” I face the end of the table, finding my dad’s eyes pointed at me.

“No.” I clear my throat and my thoughts. “Was he looking for me?”

“He came by earlier, said he wanted to talk to you about something. I told him you were probably sleeping but to head on down and wake your ass up anyway.”

“James,” my mum scolds him from across the table.

“What?” She looks around at the guests, with an apologetic smile and a pink blush. “Do you not say‘ass’in America?” he whispers to the woman texting under the table.

“Do you know what he wanted?” I ask, both out of curiosity and to save the woman from having to come in between my parents. My dad shrugs his shoulders and lifts a fork full of meat and potatoes to his mouth. I haven’t talked to my high school coach in years. Great guy, even if he was a little extra hard on Liam and me. I always made it a point to stop by and say hi whenever I was in town. I guess it’s possible he just found out I was back and wanted to check in on me.

After dinner, everyone—with the exception of the American, who might actually be surgically attached to her phone—retreats to the common room. I’m introduced to the Thompsons—the sixty-year-old couple on their thirty-fifth-anniversary trip. The Riccis, an Italian family, is here for their nephew’s wedding. And Arlo, who came in halfway through dinner and is staying for one more night before he continues his backpacking trip across Europe.

“Hey, has anyone seen the new guest, Taylor?”

I sit on the linen-covered couch with an ankle crossed over my knee and silently wonder if anyone has noticed how I stopped swirling the ice around my glass at the mention of her name.

“I saw she got checked in in the middle of the night.” My dad speaks directly to me and all heads turn to me for confirmation.

“Uh, yeah.” I clear my throat and pull the sleeve of my flannel down. “Sometime around there.”

“And?” Liv’s eyes bulge out of her head and she looks at me as if my arm wasn’t in a cast, she would try and pummel the information out of me. I somehow forgot this little quirk of hers—the girl gets so excited whenever any female remotely close to her age stays with us. I get it. She grew up in a house with two older brothers, but as someone who’s hardly left this town, it has to get lonely for her to make these friends, only for them to leave a week or so later. “What’s she like?”

“She’s…”Hot? Cheeky? Has no shame? Maybe a little flirtatious?“Tall.”

A deep crease forms between my sister’s brows. “Tall? Really? That’s it?”

“And blonde.”

“She sounds like a good time,” Ryder coos, and for some reason, it has my hand flexing in my lap. Thankfully, my dad whacks him in the back of the head so I don’t have to. “What?” He doesn’t bother trying to hide his laugh.

“Don’t talk about our guests like that,” my dad scolds him.

Ryder is saved from embarrassment and I’m saved from any more lines of questioning when Sophie and her soon-to-be husband walk through the door.

“There’s our bride-to-be!” my mum beams. The Italianfamily all say hello to their nephew and through all the exchanges, Liv’s curious eyes are still on me.

“Knox Browning! Is it really you?” Sophie stands a whole five feet small with her hands on her hips and everyone parts between us. I push myself to stand, having missed another old friend of mine and I pull her in, wrapping my arms around her petite frame.

“Hey, Soph.”

“When did you get back?”

“A few days ago.” I shrug.

“I’ll pretend like you came home just for my wedding. At least, that’s the rumor I’m going to spread around town.”

“You do that.” I smile at her before introducing myself to her fiance.

After a few hoursof families catching up and friends swapping stories, I make my way over to the front desk. Slowly, guests start to dwindle back to their rooms for the night, and not quickly enough, I’m left downstairs in silence. With nothing but my thoughts—buzz buzz—and apparently a new email from… Coach Henderson?

KB—

Hey, champ. I’ve tried reaching out a few times. Haven’t heard back. Lucky for you, I don’t offend easily. Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I’m working on something over here on my end to hopefully get you back with us in some capacity. It obviously wouldn’t be playing but something has gotta be better than nothing, right?

-Henderson