Page 19 of Center Ice

“And second?” I asked.

“I don’t believe in love.”

7

Jake

I knew I’d said or done something wrong when Dani suddenly remembered she had an event she had to set up for. I watched her shut down when I said I didn’t believe in love, but I couldn’t feel bad about it. It was the truth, and better for her to know now than waste time hanging out with me.

I still felt weird about how we’d left things. I liked talking to her up until I got a little too honest.

“You’re back early,” Mikey said in greeting as I walked into the hotel room. “We thought you’d be gone all night.”

“She was just showing me a cool part of the beach.” I headed into my bedroom.

“Right,” Lance said from the couch. “And that’s code for what?”

I closed the door, blocking them out. I didn’t want to tell them what happened. How, for a minute, it felt like she saw right through me. Like we were connecting. How she made the sun feel a little brighter, the water a little bluer, as if the fog around me was lifting.

Then it slammed back down.

Talking to her was different. I thought I could be honest, but I crossed some invisible line.

I really hadn’t meant to laugh so hard, but she’d built an idea of who I was and it was so far from the truth, it actually shocked me. She thought I was getting over a relationship, not grieving the death of my mom. If only something so trivial could have been the cause. How easy it would have been to move on.

Was that what people thought when they saw me? They could tell I was broken, so they thought it was because a woman broke my heart?

Well, there’s the punch line. A wonderful woman did shatter my heart into pieces. My mom left me alone to put things back into place, and I needed to decide if I wanted them to fit back where they were before.

What if this was my chance to make a change?

I showered and lay on my bed with a towel wrapped around my waist, Dani still on my mind. It was stupid. I shouldn’t care what she thought, but maybe if I explained why I didn’t believe in love, she would understand. I didn’t expect her to agree, but I couldn't push away the need to find her and tell her why.

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew there was knocking on the door. “We’re going to get dinner. Do you want to come?” Lance asked.

“Sure, give me a minute.” I rubbed my face as I searched through my bag for clothes and dressed. I checked in the mirror to make sure my hair wasn’t too rumpled before meeting him and Mikey.

“Which restaurant do you want to go to?” I asked as we headed down the stairs.

“There’s a Japanese hibachi place or a steakhouse that specializes in seafood.” Mikey ran through our options.

“I’m so hungry they all sound good,” Lance said with a laugh.

“Hey, guys!”

We paused and looked over to where about half of our group was coming toward us.

“Where are you guys headed?” Noah asked.

“We were just deciding,” I told him.

“I reserved two tables at the Japanese restaurant, so you should come with us,” Chloe said.

“Sounds good,” Lance agreed, and we joined them on the walk to the far side of the resort. The paved paths were busy with other guests making their way to dinner or to the shows that took place in the amphitheater in the center of the resort.

Far past the pools, a head of golden hair caught my eye. Dani was wearing a fitted tan dress and heels, back to being the person she was when I first met her. Seeing her holding a folder and directing the hotel staff made me wonder if this afternoon had even happened.

She put her hand on someone’s arm, then nodded and walked away.