Page 97 of Save Your Breath

Aleks wanted to surprise me.

Something about that made my stomach flip, that he thought to do something nice for me when I’d been so chilly toward him for months.

“We thought it would besuperfun to do a girls’ brunch before the game later. We booked a private place, no paparazzi — we were assured. And thebestcocktails,” Grace promised.

“We can also completely fuck off,” Livia said, subtly squeezing Grace’s shoulders and backing her out of my space a bit. “Because this was obviously not what you expected, and we don’t want to intrude.”

“But,” Maven said, offering me a genuine smile. “We really do want to hang. If you do. And I promise — with this crew, there will be no shortage of entertainment.”

They all fell silent then, their hopeful eyes on me, and though everything inside me wasscreamingto say, “Thanks, but no thanks,” I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. And, truth be told, I needed a girls’ day. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had one of those.

So, I smiled, tucking my phone inside my purse. “Brunch and cocktails? How could I say no when you’re speaking my love language?”

Grace squealed and bounced up and down while Chloe clapped excitedly. Livia and Maven shared a smirk with me before Maven jutted her chin toward the SUV. “Let’s roll, trolls.”

It was said with love and met with a chorus of laughter.

Then, after a quick conversation with my assistant and security team about the slight change in plans, we were off.

• • •

“I really appreciate you not judging me for fangirling the first few times we hung out,” Chloe said, sucking down the last of her mimosa before Maven was instantly refilling it. The adorable redhead was a giggling mess as she leaned closer to me. “You have to understand, I teach kindergarten. You’re kind of like the queen of everything to them.”

I chuckled, sipping from my own drink as I grabbed my hair in a handful and pulled it off to one shoulder. I never quite knew how to react to statements like that. It was amazing to be loved by children, to see them dancing and singing my songs.

But it was also a big part of why my career hadn’t been taken seriously for so long. It was Garrett Orange’s favorite punchline. It was every powerful man and snide woman’s first hit when it came to trying to knock me down or add abutto any accomplishment I had.

“I can’t even imagine that job,” I said, dragging the attention back to her. “Do you ever just want to… I don’t know, pull your hair out?”

Grace laughed. “I know I would, but Chloe here is a little angel on Earth,” she said, squeezing Chloe in a hug around the shoulders. “Patience of a saint and kindness of a woodland fairy.”

“With the fire of a witch,” Maven added. “Because she’s the only woman in the world who could tame Daddy P.”

Livia lifted her glass in a silent cheers to that before slinging back the last of her champagne and refilling. “Alright, I’m tired of dancing around the question we all want to ask.” She leaned her elbow on the table then, narrowing her dark cat eyes at me with a delicate arch of her brow. “How the hell did you end up engaged to Aleks fucking Suter?”

“Liv,” Maven hissed.

“Don’t act like you don’t want to know.” Livia waved her off, her eyes never leaving me.

I smiled, fingering the stem of my champagne glass. “He asked, I said yes. What more do you need to know?”

“I need to know if that man has you dickmatized, because as much as I appreciate the brute and what he does for our team — I don’t exactly see him as your type.”

“Liv,” Maven chastised again.

But I loved that Livia was unapologetic in her questioning — even if the sentiment in her tone stung a bit.

Was she saying that it was weird that I was with NHL’s bad boy, or that I didn’t seem like the typeheusually went for?

It was phrased like the first, but felt like the latter the longer she stared at me. It wasn’t necessarily that she was sizing me up, but rather like she was a detective looking for cracks in my story.

And there were many, many cracks — so I knew I needed to tread carefully.

Swallowing down the fact that I was well aware I wasn’t Aleks’s type — no matter how well he pretended otherwise — I forced what I hoped was a dopey, lovesick smile, my eyes falling to my champagne.

“It doesn’t make sense, that I will admit,” I said wistfully. “But… I don’t know. It just sort of happened. We were best friends when he lived with my family in high school. He opened up to me about things he didn’t tell anyone else, and I guess that made me feel safe to do the same.”

My throat tightened with the truth of that statement, with how much I cared for that stupid boy.