Page 204 of While You Were Trending

Hilarious and full of heart like she always was, but with a readiness to call me out when I’m an ass.

On purpose.

To test her to see if she’ll keep calling me out.

I scoop her into my arms and make a show of stepping over her mess as my phone lights up against the sheet.

Ten missed text messages, and my agent’s callingagain.

“I think you need to get that,” Ginny says.

I settle us both on the bed, her in my lap, and grab the phone. “’Sup, Yvette?”

“Are you sitting down?” she says.

My heart thumps hard. “Yes. Why?”

“Eddie’s here on the line with us.”

“Afternoon, Foxy,” my producer says.

“Eddie. You get the latest from Shade?”

“You’re terrible at wine-making.”

Ginny huffs.

I grin. “People love watching a guy make a fool of himself.”

“Initial testing suggests you’re not wrong,” Eddie says.

“My three million followers suggest I’m not wrong,” I reply.

“Be that as it may,” Yvette interrupts, “the Thrusters’ GM is banking on younotmaking a fool of yourself in your return to the ice.”

I choke.

Actually choke.

One minute, I’m breathing fine, my pulse humming in anticipation, and then the next, I’m wheezing through a coughing fit.

Ginny’s staring at me wide-eyed.

She heard that.

She crawls off me, barely missing my nuts with her knee, and dives for my water bottle.

Flow whines from the foot of the bed.

“If he’s coughing like that, you’re doing it wrong,” Dori calls through the door.

“Foxy?” Eddie says. “Did we lose you?”

“Give him a minute,” my agent says. “This is how he reacts to startling news.”

“Is it really?” Ginny murmurs to me while I gulp water.

I shake my head and put my phone on speaker. “I’m here,” I rasp out.