Page 95 of Save Your Breath

How much longer would I have an excuse to hold her, to touch her, to kiss her before I’d be asked to fake breaking her heart?

If I was being honest, it didn’t feel like something I needed to fake at the moment. It felt like something I’d already done.

I just didn’t knowhow.

“I still can’t believe you’re getting married,” Carter said, shaking his head as he untied his skates. “To Mia FuckingLove.I mean, look, I know we’re not all best buddies or anything, but… you didn’t tell a single soul.”

“Why would I?”

He shrugged. “To let us share in the excitement with you? To practice your speech? To… I don’t know, have a fucking friend to celebrate with?”

“I don’t—”

“Have friends, yeah, yeah, I know,” Carter cut me off, standing with a sigh as he ripped his practice jersey overhead. He paused for a long moment before turning to face me. “Doesn’t that ever get old to you? Doesn’t it ever get… lonely?”

I couldn’t explain why his gaze felt like a knife through my chest, why my face grew hot the longer I went without being able to pop back a sarcastic or unaffected response. I swallowed what felt like a glob of sandy peanut butter before slapping on my signature smirk.

“I’ve been lonely my whole life, kid.”

Carter’s brows tugged inward, and I couldn’t take the fucking pathetic way he was looking at me. I stood, holding up my fist for him to bump.

“See you in the morning. Get some good rest, because I fully intend to kick your ass on that ice.”

I turned and stripped out of my clothes quickly before heading toward the shower, not leaving any room for further discussion.

In the shower, I overheard one of the televisions from the training room talking about a hurricane moving toward Cuba, its path after that still unknown.

I couldn’t help but feel another storm brewing deep inside me.

Stupid Girl

Mia

It was eerily calm when our plane touched down in Tampa in mid-October.

The way we came in, you never would have known there was a hurricane wreaking havoc in Cuba. Weather experts were anticipating that it would gain strength over the warm waters of the Gulf before swinging up toward Louisiana.

But in Tampa, it was sunny, just some fluffy white clouds coasting over the blue sky in a pattern that swirled if you watched it close enough. It was as if that storm was sucking up all the energy within its vicinity, leaving nothing but sunshine for the outskirts.

And everyone was business as usual.

Isabella swore to me there was nothing to worry about when we made the arrangements for me to come to Aleks’s game before heading up the coast to New York for my first set of shows. She used to live in Florida, and she assured me that everyone would stock up on water and some non-perishable foodjust in casebut that the most that would happen would be a little wind and rain.

Nothing to worry about, nothing that could interfere with my flight out of here tomorrow.

I texted that pink-haired brat as I descended the stairs off the plane, letting her know I’d landed fine and that I’d call when Imade it to the house. We’d been able to secure the same one on Davis Island for the past couple of months of this charade with Aleks, and it basically felt like a second home at this point.

I planned to stay tucked away within its walls until the game started, until I could sneak through the back and be escorted to my suite. I’d put on a bit of a show there, wear Aleks’s stupid fucking jersey, and then let the cameras catch us leaving together.

He’d drop me off at home, I’d get a good night’s sleep, and this time tomorrow, I’d be in New York City with the rest of my band, dancers, and crew.

It was where I should be rightnow. I wanted to be there with them. I wanted to be rehearsing, even though I knew we’d rehearsed so much I couldn’t miss a step of choreo even if there was someone throwing buckets of water at me or buttering the bottom of my high heels.

I’d buried myself in this album release, in this tour, more than ever over the last two months.

Anything to not think about Aleks.

The proposal had messed me up more than I wanted to admit to myself, let alone anyone else. I thought I’d be fine after I got away from him for a while, after I got home to California and dove into work.