Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 102607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
I gape at them, glancing from one to the other, then back again.
Huh?
“I’m going to kill you,” I say at last.
Luca gnaws on his bottom lip. “Is that the only thing you’re going to say?”
I…
Don’t know.
I don’t know what to say.
My brother hefts himself up off the rug, dusting himself off as if he’s been rolling in pig shit.
“Told you she wouldn’t fess up to it.” He claps Luca on the back. “Sorry, dude. Worth a shot.”
Luca sighs. “I seriously thought the headlock would do the trick.”
Gio shrugs. “She’s stubborn. It’s genetic.”
“You two are insane.” I gawk, trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’ve just been emotionally ambushed by the two people I care most about.
Luca turns toward me, hopeful. “So? Any final verdict?”
I open my mouth.
Close it again.
Gio smirks, reading the glitch in real time. “That’s not a yes.” He turns toward the door, pulling his car keys out of his back pocket. “C’mon, Babineaux. Let’s go.”
Luca blinks. “Wait—what?”
“You’re coming with me. I love her but I can’t let my teammate sit here with emotional blue balls because she refuses to give it up.”
Luca lets out a soft, humorless laugh. But he doesn’t argue.
He looks at me.
Really looks at me.
Like he’s hoping for a last-minute buzzer beater. A miracle. A reason to stay.
But I’m silent.
Frozen.
Traumatized!
Luca nods once, slow—like it physically pains him to do so.
His smile falters for the briefest second. Then he covers it with a shrug that’s not fooling anyone in this room.
“Alright,” he says quietly. Resigned.
He moves past me, giving me one last chance to stop him.
I don’t.
Can’t!
And then he’s at the door…
…Hand on the knob.
He turns his handsome face and gives me one last look. “For what it’s worth, I really did try. But you can’t always get what you want.”
The words hit like a punch to the chest because I know for a fact he did try. So hard. Luca is amazing—the most amazing man I’ve ever had the privilege to know and I’m letting my pride and ego and fear get in my way.
I open my mouth. Try to speak. To stop him.
But Luca’s already backing away, jaw tight, eyes on the floor like looking at me might break him.
“I’ll go,” he says quietly, voice rough. “You two need to talk.”
And then he’s out the door.
Gone.
It clicks shut behind him and the silence rushes in, loud and suffocating.
Gio doesn’t follow him.
He just stands here watching me, face unreadable. Disappointed.
But he stays with me—of course he does.
He’s my brother.
I turn away from him so he can’t see the tears about to spill from my eyes and I inhale a steady breath; my apartment that still smells like Luca’s cologne. Ramen.
The candle.
The bouquet of flowers on the counter are wilting slowly in their plastic wrap and I’m filled with the sudden urge to throw them in the trash.
I hate them.
I love them.
But mostly?
I have no one to blame for this mess but myself.
34
nova
Idon’t look at him—not yet. I can’t. If I do, I’ll start bawling like a baby. Once that train leaves the station, it’ll flatten everything in its path.
Luca’s footsteps are gone.
My apartment, once warm and loud with his presence, feels like a vacuum now. Like the oxygen has left the building with him.
I stare at the flowers on the counter, not seeing them. I should put them in water. I should do a lot of things.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” Gio is calm. No more shouting. “I want to hear it from you.”
He wants the version from my mouth, in my words, so I can’t pretend anymore that I don’t know what I’m doing.
So I turn.
I face him.
And I say the words that make it real.
“I’ve been seeing Luca.”
He nods once, slow and quiet. “How long?”
“A while.”
My brother hums inside his throat, bracing his hands on the kitchen counter. “Why were you afraid to tell me?”
I exhale slowly, twisting my fingers in the hem of my sweatshirt.
“Because I didn’t want to lose you.”
His entire face drops into a frown. “You thought that would happen?”
I shrug, even though everything inside me is shaking. “You warned me not to date anyone on the team. You warned your team to leave me alone. Luca…” I pause. “Didn’t want to lie. I asked him to wait. I was scared of this.”
Gio studies me. Like he’s trying to see past the words to the part of me that’s been quietly unraveling behind closed doors. Like he’s trying to understand me the way I understand him.
“I didn’t say all that to control you,” he says finally. “I said it because I’ve seen what this league can do to people. The idea of you getting caught in that crossfire…” His voice goes quiet. “We’ve already lost so much, Nova, but it was selfish of me to tell you how to live your life and who to fall in love with.”