Page 103 of Cross Ice

Nico was quiet for a moment. Something in his face settled. Not into an answer, just into listening. Like he’d decided not to reach for a solution this time. “I don’t know how to help with that part,” he said.

“I know.” I looked at my hands. “I’m not sure there’s a way to help with it. I just… Danny said to tell you something honest, so…”

“So,” he echoed.

We sat with it for a moment. It was uncomfortable, and neither of us pretended otherwise.

It was the most honest the evening had been.

Then Nico said, “Wednesday’s game. Will you come?”

I’d been waiting for this question since Sunday.

“I don’t know yet,” I said.

“That’s not a no.” He studied me for a moment. “Okay.” He didn’t push. Didn’t offer logistics, reassurances, or a plan for making it easier. Just accepted it, which was somehow harder to sit with than if he’d argued.

“I’m not saying no,” I said.

“I know.”

But when he left at ten-thirty because of an early skate the next morning, I didn’t ask him to stay, and he didn’t offer. I sat alone in my apartment and opened the browser tabs one more time.

The plan was good. The conversation had been real. Neither one had touched the part of me that was still here at eleven o’clock, tabs open, checking.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Nico

Wednesday morning, I texted Evan before practice.

Nico

No pressure about tonight. Just let me know.

He responded forty minutes later.

Evan

I can’t. I’m sorry.

I stared at the message. Two games now. The arena had felt like something we were building toward together—his jersey, the family section, Chloe and Naomi, all of it. Now it was somewhere he couldn’t go. I put my phone in my bag and went to morning skate.

The ice helped, the way it always helped. An hour of not thinking about anything except positioning, passes, and the problem of our power play, which had been leaking chances all week. I worked the drills hard and let Coach’s corrections land without defensiveness. This was the part I could control.

In the locker room after, André sat down beside me while I unlaced my skates.

“You good?”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve been saying that a lot.”

“Because people keep asking.”

He let that sit for a moment. “Evan’s not coming tonight.”

Evan’s not coming tonight.