Page 71 of Playing for Keeps

Chapter18

Luke

The next morning it was barely nine o’clock when my phone rang.

Ethan.

A mixture of happiness and despair ran through me.

I answered the call. “Hey.”

Ethan’s voice was slightly breathless. “You still free to hang out today?”

“Yeah.”

“I was thinking you need a change of scene. You up for a road trip to Wanaka?”

I hesitated. I wasn’t sure if spending time alone with Ethan was what I needed right now. But getting away from my parents, and their subtle probing about what had gone wrong between Jonathan and me, was definitely appealing.

“We have to be back for training on Tuesday,” I hedged.

“Don’t worry, I’m not trying to entice you into playing hooky. I value my life too much. I just thought we could do a road trip.” I could hear the hopeful note in his voice, and it was all over. I was never going to disappoint Ethan when he sounded like that.

“Okay. Sounds like a plan.”

“You good to take your car or do you want to take mine?”

“Mine’s fine. We might as well travel in style.”

“Want to pick me up in half an hour?”

“Sure.”

I ended the call and ran a hand through my hair.

I was currently staying in my parents’ guest room until I found myself a new place. I’d gone back to the apartment last week to grab more of my stuff and to discuss with Jonathan how we were going to split up our joint possessions. We were working through our breakup like grown-ups, which I guess wasn’t surprising. Everything about our relationship had been so grown up and mature. Maybe that was part of the problem.

I threw some stuff in a duffel bag, grabbed a set of keys to the holiday home in Wanaka, and sent a quick message to my parents letting them know where I was going.

Then I drove around to Ethan’s house.

Just seeing him on the doorstep, waiting for me, had my heart giving a special thump. Ethan was a good-looking guy by anyone’s standards with his messy blond hair, bright green eyes and trim, muscular body. But for me, it was next level attraction because I knew the person underneath.

“I made a special playlist for the trip,” Ethan announced, getting in.

“Why does that worry me?”

“Nah, you’re going to love it.”

It turned out the playlist was all the songs we’d listened to as teenagers. We competed to see who could guess the name of the song and artist first. Ethan was beating me easily, but then some extremely familiar bars started to play.

“We found love,” I said quickly. “Rhianna with Calvin Harris.”

Ethan quirked an eyebrow. “Impressive.”

Ha. When the song had first come out I’d spent months listening to it on repeat while I’d agonized about my crush on my best friend.

Fuck, I’d been an emo teenager. Such a contrast to my offsider, who’d had all the reasons in the world to be dark and sulky but instead had been brightness and sunshine personified.