Page 46 of Lose You Twice

Wren: Jealousy is ugly.

Holden: so is hockey gear probably.

Mom: We’ll celebrate tonight. I can grab ice cream on my way home.

Wren: Don’t. We have ice cream.

We do not have ice cream.

Mom: Let me be proud with sprinkles.

My chest aches.

Wren: Fine. Sprinkles accepted.

I close the messages and stand there for another minute.

Then I open Harlow’s thread.

Wren: Got it.

Her response comes instantly.

Harlow: I KNEW IT! Congrats girl. So now are you going to tell Kai? Or should I? Do you want me to?

I laugh under my breath.

Wren: Please do not text your brother about my employment status like a town crier.

Harlow: Fine. But he should hear it from you.

I stop smiling. The part I’ve been trying not to think about since the second I applied.

If I actually got the job, how would I tell my ex that we are now going to be seeing even more of each other?

Regardless, Kai should hear it from me.

Not from Harlow. Not from Grayson. Not when he walks into the rink and sees me labeling practice jerseys or hauling a laundry bin.

From me.

Wren: I know. I’ll take care of it.

Harlow sends back a heart.

I stare at the screen until it dims. Then I unlock it again and open my contacts.

I don’t have to search hard for his number.

That annoys me.

Three years of not using it, and I still know exactly where it is. I never deleted him. Deleting felt dramatic. Keeping him felt worse. So I removed the heart from his contact, hoping that would help.

It didn’t.

My thumb hovers over his name.

I can still picture the last text thread we had before everything went quiet.