Page 190

I grab his face and whimper, “I want to hear it.”

He thrusts into me. “I love you, Kylie, unfortunately.”

I push him.

He laughs. “Unfortunate for me, because I can’t fucking think about anything else.”

I let my hips meet his. “That’s good news for me.”

I pull his face to mine and kiss him. Our hips keep meeting over and over.

I whisper against his mouth, “I love you, Nash.”

He kisses me. “I fucking love you, Kylie.”

His fingers rub circles on my clit, and I’m already squirming, climbing and reaching my climax. He works hard until I’m trembling, and he comes with me.

Afterward, he pulls me onto his chest and kisses my face.

Tuesday, I have class until four and Nash’s first home game at seven. I spend the entire day useless.

It’s a nonconference thing, some school called Rubin that nobody I’ve asked has heard of, and it’s on a Tuesday, which Nash says happens a couple of times a year and everybody hates. He’s been weird since Sunday. Not bad-weird. Quiet. He ate the exact same breakfast two days in a row, and he’s been sleeping with his phone face down.

At five-thirty, I’m putting my earrings in and Tessa’s at her desk.

“Come with me tonight,” I say, looking at her through the mirror.

“No, thanks.”

“Come on, Tess. You came out to the football game.”

“That was a mistake,” she says.

“We had so much fun, Tess,” I moan. “We could seriously be best friends if you just came around. You’re so much fun. Why are you always hiding in here?”

She shrugs. “I made myself a promise to focus on college when I got here, so that’s what I’m doing.”

“Tess,” I deadpan. “There’s a difference between focusing on college and letting it be your whole life. You’re here. You don’t need to study as much as you are.”

I get my boots on and stand in front of her desk until she has to look up.

“I don’t understand hockey,” she says.

“Neither do I.” I really don’t. “Stop making weird excuses and just come.”

“It’s a school night.”

“Exactly. It’s not a weekend. It’s just two hours. There’s a scoreboard that tells you when it’s over.” I put my hands together. “Kenzie’s coming. Paige’s coming. There’s a thing where they clean the ice in the middle, and we have time to talk. Everybody just sits there and watches it, and I need somebody to be sarcastic about it with me, because Kenzie has Bianca, and Paige’s been really weird.”

She looks at her laptop for a second. “One hour,” she says.

Yes!

“Two.”

“One.”

“It’s three periods, Tessa. One hour gets you a period and a half—”