Page 81 of Falling Back to You

She snorted. “Who?”

“Juliet. But don’t tell her that. She gets easily offended anytime I liken her personality to an animal, especially the cute ones.”

“All right. I’m in. Let’s strategize.”

Today was the day for visitors. First Greyson and then my closest teammates decided to descend on me like the dwarves popping into Bilbo Baggins’s house for tea without warning. I’d never felt such kinship to the uptight little fella.

“Hey, hey, hey! The Van is in the house!” Van hollered, stepping through the front door. Sans knocking, of course.

“Dude, knock!” Jamie smacked the back of Van’s head. Our youngest teammate had spent eight months living with Myles and Juliet after they’d gotten married and thus had acquired a great appreciation for personal space.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded, shooting a look at Noelle in my kitchen with Khia beside her. If they see her—

Van stopped in his tracks, staring. “Is that—?”

Jamie bumped into him from behind. “What’s—oh!”

Too late.

Noelle glanced up from the pot of soup she was stirring and smiled. “You have company.”

I sighed. “Not by choice.”

Van smacked a hand to his heart. “You wound me. We wanted to cheer you up, but clearly you didn’t need us.”

“Sorry, I’m late. Jerry cornered me outside the café—” Max blinked at the scene in front of him, then smiled. “Well, hello there.”

I gritted my teeth together. My friends were two seconds away from embarrassing me, and I’d never hear the end of it.

“Mr. Max!” Khia leapt off the counter and ran towards him.

Max swung her up, tossing her over his head before she perched on his arm. “Hey, missy, have you grown again?”

“One whole inch!”

Max shook his head dramatically. “You’re gonna be as tall as your dad.”

Khia grinned. “Taller.”

“You might change your mind about that later,” Noelle said wryly. She’d always struggled with feeling awkward about her height. My being taller than her was one of the things she loved best about me.

Jamie nudged me, a little starry-eyed. “Dude, you said she was pretty. You said nothing about gorgeous. You need a dictionary!”

I did not, in fact, need a dictionary. I already had a thesaurus of Noelle curated in my mind. Smart. Thoughtful. Witty. Stunning. Kind. Competent. But they didn’t need to know how much real estate she took up in my head.

“And you let her get away?” Max asked with a huff.

Was nothing sacred amongst friends? Clearly not mine.

Pink crept up Noelle’s cheeks. “You told them about me?”

Yeah. Because teen girls everywhere had nothing on a group of hockey players when it came to getting the scoop on a good gossip sesh.

“He’s a verbal processor,” Jamie offered with a shrug.

I rubbed the back of my neck. I needed new friends, ASAP.

“Oh, I know.” Noelle bit back a smile. More than once she’d ended up on the receiving end of my thought processing. But she always had good insight. She got me.