Page 19

CHAPTER 19

ONE TOO MANY HALVES

EMORY

"What are you doing?" Lily looks up as I wrap my scarf around my neck and pull my coat on. She's not moving, and I wonder if there's some after sport ritual I don't know about. If there is, I'm not sure why I need to be here for it. I came for Family Night, just like I said I would. But now I can leave.

"That was the end of the second half. They even played that happy victory horn thing, which doesn't sound happy at all. It's very blarey. You used to work here," I tell her. "You should talk to whoever is in charge of that and suggest they do something more festive. Music. Or an old video game sound effect maybe."

"Em." She shakes her head. "This is the second intermission. They play another period."

I freeze. "There's more? Please tell me there's not more. I can't take any more of these seats."

She nods.

"Three halves? Scientifically, that's one too many halves." I drop back down in my seat, my hips catching on the armrests. "Why did I agree to this? I hate sports. They make no sense."

I slip out of my coat as I watch the Zambonis drive across the ice. If tonight were three halves of Zamboni races, I would be more than happy to stay. I know I should pretend to support my pretend fiancée, but the other team is barely letting him get the puck. The two times he's tried to goal it, the puck just bounced off the other team's net man. It's hard to cheer when there's nothing to cheer for.

"Do you think they would let me drive one of the Zambonis?" I ask her. "Since I'm engaged to the Sting's star player?"

She scoffs. "Kayden's ego is infecting you."

"I mean, he is a star, right? I researched this. There's a statistic called 'goals above replacement,' and he's leading the league in it. He's more than a point higher than the player in second place."

"You looked up Kayden's stats but not the basics of the game?"

"Why would I look those up? I don't care about the game."

Lily raises her eyebrows. "You supposedly don't care about Kayden either. Right?"

My throat catches, causing my pause to stretch for a beat too long. "Right. I can't wait until all this fake stuff ends. Maybe you could do me a huge favor and bump your wedding up to next week instead of February? Then we can end this even sooner."

She puts her hand on my shoulder and gives me a look of false pity. "Sorry. The All-Star break is the only time Brant and I are both off long enough to do it. Being my maid of honor brings much suffering."

"So much suffering, but at least there's…"

I let my words trail off as a woman makes her way down the row and stops at the seat next to me—the seat that had been blissfully empty for the first two halves. She takes her coat off, revealing a number 13 jersey—Kayden's jersey. Just like the one he tried to get me to wear today. Something in my chest coils when I see it on her.

It can't be just a coincidence that she's wearing his jersey and sitting right next to me. Right next to the seat that Kayden set aside for me. Did he think I wouldn't notice? Did he forget he invited her too? Is this his way of letting me know he didn't really want to invite me at all?

I feel myself squinting as I examine the new woman. She's skinnier than me. Much closer to Lily's size than to mine. All athletes have a type, and it's always the skinny girls they go for, isn't it? Never the ones who look like me.

Not that I want to be Kayden's type. In fact, I'm glad I'm not.

As the new woman turns around to drape her coat over the back of the seat, she drops a mitten. For just a second, I think about stomping on it before realizing what I really need is to stomp out this irrational jealousy springing up inside me.

It's all pretend. I don't care who else he invites here, or what he does when I'm not around. I don't.

I look out toward the ice just in time to see Kayden skating a warm up lap in front of us. He smiles as he looks up, probably expecting to see the woman beside me, but she's bent over picking up her mitten. So he's stuck smiling at me.

"Em?" Lily nudges my shoulder. "You look like you're trying to melt the ice with your glare. Are you seriously that angry about staying for the third period?"

I notice that I'm gripping my armrest so tight my hand is trembling. "I know I'm being stupid. He never promised me there would only be two halves, but I thought it was implied. Now there's an extra half, right here, and I'm supposed to just be okay with that? Shouldn't he have told me if he was going to have extra halves? Isn't that the kind of thing we should have discussed, so I'm not just left to find out on my own like this?"

"Em, I have no idea what you're talking about, but we can leave." The concern is obvious on her face. "I'll text Chloe and tell her to wait in the family lounge so Brant can bring her home after the game."

Maybe it is time to go. I can already feel the burn of rage tears threatening to spill. But when I twist to get my coat from behind me, the new woman gasps.

"Oh my god, it's you! The girl in the picture. You're Emory!"

We're both staring at each other now. She's blonde and pretty, and her blue eyes are so familiar, it feels like I've spent hours looking at them.

"I'm Michelle." She pauses like the name should mean something to me. "Kayden's mom."

"His mom?" Heat rises up my neck as the realization hits. This is the woman who made me so angry I was calculating how much force it would take to knock a piece of plexiglass onto Kayden as he skates by? Now my jealousy feels even more ridiculous.

She smiles, but it's one of those smiles that doesn't quite reach all the way it should. "He hasn't said a word about me, has he? I don't blame him. We're not exactly close."

"That's not true!" I put my hand over her wrist, suddenly feeling the need to comfort this woman who I hated five seconds ago. "He really has told me… things." I can't tell her that the only thing he's mentioned is that she used to have frequent panic attacks. That's not a great conversation starter. Hi, I hear you freak out for no reason sometimes. Me too! It's the worst, isn't it! "What are you doing here now? The game's almost over. The third half's about to start."

"Period," Lily hisses from my other side as she settles back into her seat. She's apparently figured that we're not leaving.

"I mean, period. You know, three periods like they have in almost all hockey games." I give a quick look to Lily to confirm that most hockey games really do have three periods. She nods.

Michelle chuckles. "Bless your heart. You don't like hockey, do you? Me either."

"Oh thank god. No." It's like a weight is lifted from me to finally find someone who shares my completely correct opinion about this inane sport. "I mean, who dreamed this up? A bunch of adults chasing each other on skates while they try to slap a frosty little circle into a fishing net? All while other people try to hit them at full speed! You know the only part I do like?"

"For me, it's the Zambonis." Michelle smiles again, but this time it's genuine. "You know, I was terrified to meet you, but you're nothing like I expected. I was shocked to read that Kayden was engaged. That's why I had to come tonight. I just had to know about the girl who finally landed my boy. I expected to meet you after the game, though. I had no idea I'd be sitting right next to you."

The girl who landed her boy. As if he's not just using me to get a new contract.

"He hasn't told you anything about me? About us?" My stomach turns to lead. Of course he didn't tell his mom about me. I'm his pretend fiancée. I'm nothing to him. But he didn't even tell her that our whole engagement is a sham?

"We don't exactly talk a lot. Every once in a while I share a funny video I find online, or he'll send me a philosophical quote, usually about how the patriarchy has corrupted society. That's about it."

"So you don't know anything at all about me and him?"

Her eyes gleam, "The only thing I know is that I'm thrilled he's finally settling down with someone. He swore he never would."

I feel my body sink. What am I doing? Lying to his team is one thing, but now I have to lie to his mom?