“How was soccer practice?” I asked, attempting to distract her from what had happened today. The TV was on, but it was obvious Hailey wasn’t seeing anything on the screen. Not unless she’d suddenly developed an interest in spiders after years of freaking out whenever she saw one.
My best friend, the girl I’d secretly been in love with for the past two years, shrugged. “It was okay, I guess.” The rough sound of her voice made my heart sink. Hailey lived for soccer practices and games.
“I talked to my boss and managed to switch the Saturday schedule around, so I can see your game.”
That got a small smile out of her. To get him to say yes, I’d had to agree to take the closing shift at the music store every Friday night for the next month. And there might have been something about teaching his fourteen-year-old niece to play the guitar.
“Do you want to see a movie tonight?” I knew Hailey was free. Kayla, her other best friend, had a date. Tonight Hailey was all mine.
She shrugged again. I took that as a yes.
“Wanna see Firewall?” The new gangster movie sounded good but wasn’t her thing.
She gave me the look, the one that said I knew exactly what her opinion of the movie would be.
“Tell you what,” I said. “Winner picks the movie. Deal?”
One corner of her lips curled up. It wasn’t the beautiful smile that always warmed my heart, but it would do. It meant my plan was working. I was about to distract her big-time. “Deal.”
I jumped up from the couch and pulled her to her feet, her soft hand in my callused one. I clicked the TV off and followed her downstairs to the game room. The foosball table, which her parents had owned for like a hundred years (because they didn’t believe in video games), sat in the middle of the hardwood floor, waiting for her to whip my ass. Even off the field, Hailey was a soccer superstar.
“You can pick the color,” she said.
I snorted. As if the color of my team would make a difference. “Blue.”
I sent my goalie a mental message that I would melt him in the fire pit in Hailey’s backyard if I lost. I didn’t want to see the movie I knew Hailey would pick. I was okay with chick flicks if they meant I’d get laid, but with Hailey, there would be no getting laid, no matter how much I might’ve wanted it.
Smiling, Hailey got into position. The air of confidence clung to her like the red-hot bikini she loved to wear. Realizing I would lose if I didn’t get my head back in the game, I focused on the plastic dudes on the foosball table.
“You want to go first?” Hailey asked.
I gestured at her. “Ladies first.”
“Okay. Three…two…one.” She pushed the small ball through the hole in the side of the table, aiming toward her row of players.
I twisted the handle, forcing my stiff-bodied players to kick the ball.
But Hailey was faster. She got one of her players into position, and it nailed the ball with its feet. The ball rushed past my players faster than I could move one to block the kick.
Hailey gained possession of the ball, and with the sharp clank of plastic hitting plastic, the ball flew toward my goal. I attempted to prevent her from scoring, but instead clipped the ball and scored on myself.
I hung my head in utter shame while Hailey laughed the warm, sweet sound that always made everything all right—even when the stakes were this high.
I retrieved the ball from the return hole at my end of the table and poked it through the game-play hole. For a few glorious moments I had ownership of it, until Hailey stole the ball away. Her players expertly maneuvered it back to my goal. This time I didn’t score on myself. I didn’t have to. Hailey hammered the ball past my goalie.
And for the first time since I’d come over to see how she was doing, Hailey grinned.
Which made losing to her worth it.
Chapter 3
Nolan
“What do you mean?” I barely got the words out, ice pushing through my body with each beat of my heart. Brandon couldn’t have been any clearer when he said Hailey was in a coma, but it didn’t stop me from hoping I’d misheard him.
“Sorry, dude. I don’t know all the details, other than she was attacked and it was bad.”
“What do you mean, attacked?” Somebody put their hands on my girl?
“That’s all I know. Right now her parents aren’t saying much, not even to Kayla. I only know ’cause Kayla called me.” Hailey’s parents would’ve called me if I had kept in contact after I left Northbridge. But I hadn’t kept in contact with anyone other than Brandon.
Not even with Hailey.
I dragged my fingers through my hair, pushing the messy strands out of my eyes. If I thought the energy in the hallway had been sucked dry before, that was nothing compared to now. Even the overhead lighting failed to buzz with life. “Is she going to…?” I couldn’t finish the sentence because I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to know the answer. Especially not when I still had to perform tonight. “I’ll be there as soon as I can get away after the show.” The elevator door pinged open, and I stepped inside the empty space.