Hearing from my dad should have brought me peace and comfort, but it somehow did the opposite. I found myself wishing I’d taken the time to make more friends when I moved to NBU, that I hadn’t spent all my time either with my books or my internship. I thought about calling Riley, but knew she’d be spending the day after a game win celebrating or resting with Zeke — as she should.

The one person I wanted to call, to be with, hadn’t talked to me since he walked out of my apartment after I threw myself at him.

I was alone.

So alone I felt like I didn’t exist.

“Well, there’s a pretty face I haven’t seen in far too long.”

I blinked out of my haze, looking up to find Shawn strolling toward me. He wore a dark, forest green peacoat and a pecan brown scarf wrapped around his neck. His nose was pink, breath coming in little white puffs from his lips as he took the seat next to me.

Right next to me.

His body heat enveloped me as his thigh pressed against mine. “It’s fucking brutal out here today, eh?” He shook his head, looking over the pond before his eyes flashed down to where my hands were clasped in my lap. “Jesus, you don’t have gloves on?”

Before I could respond — to any of his greetings — he pulled his glove-covered hands from his pockets and reached for me, pulling my hands into his.

He smoothed the warm fabric over my icy digits, and then, carefully, he pulled my hands up toward his mouth, blowing hot breath on them before he rubbed them between his palms once more.

And I must have been about to start my period because my eyes flooded with tears when he did.

“Hey,” he said, frowning, his grip tightening on my hands. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head, pulling my bottom lip between my teeth in an attempt to keep my shit together as I stared down at our hands, vision blurring and fogging up my glasses. Just a few weeks ago, I would have had a stomach full of butterflies seeing that, feeling him holding me in such an intimate manner.

But now, all I could do was think of another pair of hands, larger and rougher and so familiar with me now that they felt like my own.

“Come here,” Shawn said when I didn’t answer, and he tucked me under his arm, wrapping me in a warm embrace and shielding me from the wind. He was quiet for a long while before he finally asked, “It’s Clay, isn’t it?”

I buried my face in his chest more, heart squeezing just from the sound of his name.