9781250209153

Danielle swallows and looks away, embarrassed.
“Try it,” I plead, my arms shaking in the cold. “Just try the essay. I
promise I’ll tell you if it’s too braggy. But, like, imagine if me or Kevin or
Gunther wrote it! We’d brag about you the whole fucking time.”
“You think Kevin would brag about me?”
I roll my eyes. “You tell me.”
She gives me a crooked smile. “Yeah. He would.”
“So you’ll try it?”
She takes a deep breath. “I’ll try it. I’ll probably hate you the whole
time, but I’ll do it.”
“Happy to be hated. It’s kinda my thing lately—”
We’re interrupted by a loud beeping over my shoulder. Someone is
remote unlocking their car. We turn to see Irene pulling her duffel bag off
her shoulder. She’s wearing a ridiculously long parka.
I look back to Danielle. “I think I’m gonna—”
“Yes. Go.”
She doesn’t need to tell me twice. I hurry across the parking lot, my
duffel bag bouncing over my coat. “Hey! Irene!”
Irene looks around. Her expression turns softer than I could have hoped
for. “Hi. What are you still doing here?”
“Helping Danielle. It’s getting pretty intense with the Candlehawk game
coming up.”
Irene stiffens, and I feel like an idiot for saying the C-word.
“Intense because it’s the end of our season,” I clarify. “Not because I
care about winning anymore.”
She tips her head, studying me. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I smile at her. “So … nice coat. Aren’t those for people in, like,
Minnesota?”
She narrows her eyes. “They’re for cold weather, asshole.”
“Arctic weather, Georgia girl.”
“I guess there’s no chance of fixing your dumb sense of humor during
this healing process?”
“Unfortunately, that wasn’t part of the deal.” I grin until she rolls her
eyes. It warms me to my bones. “Hey, so how are you? Are you ready for