Page 45 of Blueline Baby

“Yeah,” Lorelei says sympathetically. “Rink coffee is a crime.”

“I’ve never had a problem with coffee before.”

Her eyebrows go up. She considers me over the top of her plastic lid as she takes a slow sip. “Mm-hmm.”

It takes my brain a full three seconds to hear the unspoken question she’s asking. And then my face goes hot all the way to the tips of my ears.

“No. God, no. It’s absolutely not that.” I laugh, a little too quickly. “Jack’s so careful.”

“I bet,” she says into her cup.

“He is.”

“I didn’t say he wasn’t.”

“Your eyebrows said something else entirely.”

“Then my eyebrows apologize.” She takes another sip, completely unbothered, and motions for me to follow her back to the stands.

We settle into seats away from the gossip group for the last shift. Jack wins a faceoff clean. He does something aggressive down low in the corner that the coaches whistle at. Coming off the ice, he finds me in the stands and points. One heavy, padded finger. Right at me.

Then I gather up my things. I grab the math textbook I was supposed to study but never even opened.

And for the entire drive to class, the only thing my brain repeats on a loop is: Fastest way to go from a girlfriend to a wife.

23

JACK

WE CAN ALL SEE IT

I’ve been trying to casually steal Chloe’s ring off her dresser for nine days.

That’s not an exaggeration. Nine full days. It sits in a little ceramic dish next to her earrings, two hair ties, and a necklace I’ve literally never seen her wear. It’s silver and thin. She hasn’t put it on since the semester started because she hates taking off her jewelry to put on the sterile gloves for her science labs.

I walk past the ring every single morning. I think, today’s the day. And then I absolutely don’t do it. Because if she actually notices it’s missing, I have zero acceptable excuses prepared.

It’s not a problem I’ve ever had before. I once convincingly explained to my mother why there was a mountain bike sunk in the deep end of our pool. (It certainly wasn’t because I tried to jump it off the roof).

The problem is Chloe. If she looked at me with those dark, assessing eyes, I’d panic. I’d fumble the entire play. I’d end up blurting out every single thing I’ve been holding onto since July.

Like the fact that on our very last day at the lake, my mom came downstairs, handed me my grandmother’s engagement ring, and when I tried to argue with her about it, she just covered my hand and said, Jack, it’s her. We can all see it.

But that’s beside the point. The point is that I have to find a way to be sneaky about this, and Chloe is entirely too smart for me to be sneaky.

So on Tuesday, I wait for her to get in the shower.

I give it a full sixty seconds after the water starts running. I cross the room, pluck the ring out of the dish, and close my fist tightly around it. I’m out the front door in exactly twelve seconds.

I sit in my truck with my heart hammering against my ribs like I’ve just come off a two-minute shift. It’s started. Nine days of obsessing over it, and now I’ve actually started the clock. There’s no putting it back.

I’ve enlisted Dean to come with me for this. What I absolutely do not expect is for Lorelei to be standing on the sidewalk in front of their house when I pull up.

“Rory wanted to come with us,” Dean says as they climb into the truck.

“You’re going to need me,” she says.

Lorelei is actually the only thing that saves this whole operation. The jeweler takes one look at my grandmother’s ring and immediately starts using words I’ve never heard in my life. Lorelei translates the entire conversation so smoothly that the tightness in my chest finally starts to ease a little bit.