Page 121 of While You Were Trending

The face he shows me.

Knowing I wouldn’t find it because the guy he is on his channel, the guy he is on podcasts—that’s the same guy I saw when he was with his teammates and friends.

“She got spoiled,” Declan says as I take kisses and rub all over her fur.

“So, a normal trip then?” I ask between licks.

“Yeah. A normal trip.”

It sounds like he’s smiling, but I don’t want to look.

I don’t want to know.

Sometime in the past month, Declan’s smiles became dangerous.

Attractive.

The word I haven’t wanted to say.

To acknowledge.

If I acknowledge it, I have to deal with it.

“And another zinger by Alley-oop, this one barely deflected by Nashville’s goaltender,” the guy on the TV says.

“It’s hard to believe we were sitting here two years ago, asking if Alex McMaren would be able to play as well without his best friend on the ice with him,” the other guy says.

Declan reaches behind the door as I dart a glance up at him, but I don’t ask what I’m thinking as the first guy starts talking again. “If anything, Alley-oop’s been even?—”

The sound cuts off.

I glance at the bag of food he’s holding. “Shrimp fried rice and crab rangoon?” I ask.

It was the meal he’d have every year when their team was kicked out of the playoffs. The meal he had when his grandfather died. The meal he had when a sixth sponsorship opportunity in a row fell through.

Most of the time, he prioritized healthy eating.

But when he’d had a particularly bad day, it was shrimp fried rice and crab rangoon.

He quirks a half smile at me. “Yep.”

“Maybe you wouldn’t need it if you didn’t listen to guys who are rude to you.”

“Not rude if they’re right.”

I bite my lip as I study him. “Did you guys—you and Alex—have problems?”

He shakes his head. “Just that he deserved a better defensive line than what I could bring to it.”

I bristle.

Can’t help it. It’s habit.

Because even when he was a jerk, I rooted for him as a player with everything I had.

I would’ve defended any of Alex’s teammates.

“He did,” Declan says. “I was good enough to go pro, but I didn’t have the same raw talent and instincts as most of the other guys in the league. Just a fact.”