Page 38 of Next Thing You Know

“Beau needs to figure that out for himself. We can’t force that on him.” My nose prickled as I blinked away tears. “I’ll be back in Boston soon enough to visit Maverick.”

“Can we still hang out? Even if you and my dad aren’t together?” Cole asked. “I don’t want things to be awkward.”

Neither did I. “As long as your father is cool with it, I’d like to still be your friend. I’ll have to ask him. Make sure he’s okay with it.” Something inside of my chest felt heavy. What if this was Beau’s way of saying we were over?

“I’ll ask him,” Cole assured me. “It just sucks. I was hoping that you’d be my stepdad. I wanted to be able to call you dad, too.”

I smiled, even though he couldn’t see me. “That’s sweet.”

My heart thumped loudly against my chest, and my eyes welled with tears. Maybe part of me had wanted that, too. Even though I had never thought about marriage or kids much these days.

“Was it that K-Pop guy? Did you like him more than my dad?”

“The K-Pop... Do you mean Jun?”

Cole was silent for a moment. “I think that’s his name. The one with the purple hair. Do you like him better? He’s cute.”

“I don’t like him like I like your father. Cole, where did you get that idea?” I poured myself a cup of coffee, took a sip, andtried to wake up. Then I took the cup with me to my office, turned on my laptop and opened my Instagram. Big mistake.

Cole sighed. “People are shipping the two of you.”

“What!” I exclaimed.

I found the picture Jun had tagged us in, and sure enough, they had even given us a name. Dejun. Was this why Beau had stopped responding to me? Did he think I was interested in Jun now? It was a marketing thing. That was it.

“Cole, nothing is going on between Jun and me. That picture was for our fans. Nothing more.”

“Okay,” he answered, but he didn’t sound very convinced.

I couldn’t believe this. “This was the second time I’ve met him. The first time was the Grammy’s. I don’t even know his birthday.”

“When is my dad’s?” Cole asked, and I couldn’t help but smile.

I knew the answer to that. “January 31st.”

“You could have Googled that,” Cole shot back. “You look happy in that picture.”

I shook my head. “I like your dad, dude, not Jun. Jun isn’t the guy I... I like your dad.”

“I gotta go,” Cole announced.

Which sucked, because I didn’t want to stop talking to him. I missed Cole. I missed Boston. I really missed Beau. “Thanks for calling me.”

“I’ll tell him to call you,” Cole said. “I hope you come to visit soon.”

When he hung up, I stared at my laptop for a while before I went to Beau’s IG. He had posted a new picture yesterday, just a hockey picture of the team, and I couldn’t stop myself from liking it. It was a simple picture of the rink, but it made my heart ache for him. I missed him.

What had I done wrong? Did he think I wanted Jun, too? I thought we liked one another. That we were having fun and wanted to see where things were headed between us. Had he changed his mind? The least he could do was tell me to my face.

And before I could stop myself, I booked a ticket to Boston.

Chapter Twenty

Beau

The Terriers had been on a losing streak for the past few games, so when we won this one, I was ecstatic. It felt like we finally came together as a team and had gotten our heads out of asses. Or maybe it was me. I’d been playing like shit since I had decided to distance myself from Dean. Which hadn’t been going well, because I still stalked him on his social media way more than I should have.

Winning called for a celebration. I was buying everyone as many drinks as they wanted until everyone was so drunk they couldn’t stand up. Until we all had to pile into Ubers to get ourselves home. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the bar with my teammates to find Dean sitting with Maverick.