My heart seized as I realized what had come out of my mouth. “Ah, it was just a joke.”
Yikes!It was me who needed to relax.
“Right. Obviously.”
The blush darkening her cheeks brought out her bright blue eyes.Wow.This girl…she was surprising. And actually, I was getting kind of mad at myself for taking so much notice of her.Shewas the reason I was done with hockey. Well, part of the reason. No way should I be noticing how hot she was.
“Picture time!” Sam yelled, pulling out her phone.
“No! Put it down.” Oliver batted at Sam’s phone. “Quit it!”
Sam stiff-armed him and leaned toward Grace, whispering something into her ear like they were best friends. I’d watched them talking while they’d stretched out after their run. They’d easily logged about thirty minutes and they were going at a fast clip.
I guessed Grace could do worse than Sam as a friend. She was awesome. Junior, really fast. She was pretty with blond hair, blue eyes, and had a killer smile. She had a kindness that radiated off her and that showed when she interacted with her twin sister, Stephanie, who had cerebral palsy as a result of being born without enough air.
I shifted my focus back to Grace. I’d seen her in a different light today as she helped clean up as best she could with only one functional hand. She beamed while chatting with Sam and looked right at home as she ran laps in the gym.
Everything with her felt like dueling opposites.
One minute I was admiring her, enjoying her company, heck, even checking her out. The next, we were pissed and blaming each other for the disastrous outcomes of the accident.
Today, I was happy, and despite her splinted hand, Grace seemed happy, too.
That was admirable.
Or maybe the hangover fog had distorted my view of Grace. I rubbed my temple, thankful the headache had finally gone away. Jogging a few laps at the gym helped. Last night at Pax’s had been so wild I barely remembered anything other than slamming cup after cup of beer from a keg.
“What leg do you run?” Oliver asked Grace, and I perked up at that question.
“Normally the first.” She held up her hand. “But,” she paused, “that won’t be a possibility anymore.”
My stomach clenched, and it felt like a heavy weight had settled on my chest.
“Anchor.” Sam clapped her hands. “Maira is gone. Aanya, you need a new anchor, right?”
Aanya nodded, her straight black hair falling into her eyes. She flipped it out of her face and grinned. “What are your times?”
Grace gulped. “Just under twelve.”
“Holy shit!” Oliver about jumped over the back of our booth.
Under twelve seconds was fast. Like full ride to college scholarship fast.
“That’s unbelievable,” Aanya said, her brown eyes huge, staring at Grace in disbelief. “Where are you running next year? College coaches must be calling you left and right? Holy crap.”
Grace grinned, and a flush took hold of her pale skin at the cheeks again. “I’m actually already enlisted in the Air Force.”
“What?” Oliver’s face scrunched up with what appeared to be confusion.
“Third generation. I’m going to be a pararescuewoman.”
“Seriously?” Aanya asked.
She nodded. “As soon as school is over and this injury has healed, I’m headed off to basic training.”
A pang of guilt streaked through my stomach and ricocheted off my ribs so hard I grunted. Hoping to cover it, I leaned forward and snagged my Coke.
After an awkward pause, Mateo’s stomach grumbled so loud the people in the next booth overheard it and laughed.