Page 14 of My Last Dance
Kappy cleared his throat. “To answer your earlier question, I’m helping you because I like you, Piper.”
“No, you don’t,” I said, feeling my guard fly up.
He just laughed incredulously and took a sip of his coffee, making me feel more prickly.
“What’s so funny?” I demanded.
He pulled to a stop at the red light and looked over at me. The dark cast shadows on his face, but his eyes still sparkled with their usual mischievous glint. “You’ve been the same person since when we were kids. You know how rare that is? Everything’s alwayschanging, but not you. I like that about you.”
My shoulders slumped and I sunk even further into the seat. “Figures,” I mused, looking out the window again. “The one thing you like about me and it’s completely false.” How could I tell him that the girl he once knew was long gone? My competitive edge and will to win was currently getting squashed by the world.
“I don’t believe that for a second,” he said softly.
I looked at him like he lost his ever-loving mind. This was just so unlike him—saying anythingquietly. I was used to the obnoxious version of him always poking fun at me. This nice, soft-spoken version of him was throwing me all off-balance.
I shifted in my seat and crossed my arms over my chest. “You’re just helping me because Colt and Mer, right? Because if something happens to me then Mer will be upset, and then Colt will kill you, right?”
He barked out a laugh. “I amnotscared of Colt.”
“Then why?” I demanded.
An amused grin touched his lips. “Why can’t you just accept that I like you?”
I snorted. “Yeah, because that worked out so well for me last time.” My eyes slammed closed.Fuck. Whythe helldid I just say that aloud? I had no desire to revisit the past, especially not after the kind of day that I just had. “Never mind. Please drop it.” I added quietly. “Please.”
His jaw tightened and his knuckles went white from gripping the wheel. After a beat, he rolled back his shoulders and said, “My mom will love to see ya.”
Yeah, right,I thought sarcastically. “I doubt she even remembers me.”
Growing up, his mom, Teresa, managed the concession stand and Campioni’s, the restaurant housed on the second floor of Centre Ice. Teresa was always kind, always lovingly rolling her eyes at her son. She was one of the few people at the rink who had any sort of compassion. It was a wonder how a tiny, kind woman like her birthed the large man-child sitting next to me.
“Who could forget you, Piper?” He cracked a grin.
Right. I stared straight ahead and blew out a sigh. She probably remembered me for bad reasons. Because I threw a fit at the rink, or yelled at her son, or better yet—because of my latest mental breakdown splashed all over the internet.
After driving down the brightly lit main avenue, he pulled off onto a dirt road for a couple miles. If he would’ve continued driving north, he would’ve run right into Centre Ice. I always forgot how close he grew up to our old home rink. While mostly everyone else moved across the state or country to skate there, he was born here.
“You ever go back to Centre Ice?” I asked.
He squinted straight ahead. “No, not since it folded a while back.”
“Why didn’t anyone buy it?”
He shrugged. “The roof was collapsing, no one wanted to come in and fix it.” He paused for a beat. “It’s set to be demolished soon.”
I didn’t expect those words to hurt as much as they did. Leaning my head against the window, I squeezed my eyes shut tight, trying to squelch the urge to cry. The thought of Centre Ice sitting there all abandoned was sad, the thought of it being completely demolished, wiped from this earth…it crushed my heart. All my teen years were spent at that rink. It was the longest I lived and trained anywhere. Centre Ice was my home.Ourhome. Mental flashes from the past bombarded my brain: a young Kappy at a lobby picnic table, a math textbook spread out in front of him, teen Mer and Colt sneaking down the hallway to make out during the zam, me teaching Ali how to apply liquid eyeliner in the locker room bathroom. I had to bite my lip to conceal my emotions.
After a few minutes of bumping along on the dirt road through the dark, Kappy finally pulled to a stop. His truck lights illuminated a small log cabin. With its sizable front porch, forest-green shutters on the windows, and well-maintained garden in front, the house had a cute, homey vibe.
Kappy threw his truck in park, but he didn’t make a move to get out, he just reached forward to adjust the heat in his car.
The silence felt suffocating. While I desperately wanted to get inside to a bed, there’s no way I was marching into his mom’s house without him. “I’ll…uh…pay you back for gas money and stuff,” I said awkwardly. “And maybe tomorrow morning you can just drop me at one of my parents’ hotels.”
His brown eyes roamed my face, making it feel like he had some type of x-ray vision and could see the thoughts inside my head. Shifting uncomfortably, I pulled my hat lower in an attempt to throw him off.
“I’m leaving for Chicago in the morning, why not bum a ridewith me?” he asked.
“No,” I automatically answered. “I can’t argue with you for four hours straight, Kappy.”
