“What was that all about?” Aaron asks, and he starts to sit down across from me like he’s been invited to my time and didn’t just crash my meal with Declan, but I jump to my feet, and he raises his eyebrows at me. “Where are you going?”

“I’ve got homework to do,” I say and brush past him before he has the chance to try to talk me out of it. I can’t leave things like this with Declan. He moves just as fast off the ice as he does on it, and I catch a glimpse of him through the window striding around the corner back toward where he parked his bike, so I hustle out after him.

Aaron calls after me, but I ignore him as I push out the door and run around the corner. I spot Declan halfway across the parking lot to his bike.

“Declan, wait!” I call, but he doesn’t stop walking, so I run as fast as I can to catch up with him. He’s just kicking a leg over his bike when I reach him, but I grab him by the elbow. He turns to face me, his jaw clenched, and glares down at my hand, so I let go of him.

“I didn’t know you had a boyfriend,” he says with an edge to his voice as he reaches for his helmet.

I shake my head hard. “I don’t. Not anymore.”

Declan stares at me as if weighing the truth of my words. “Does he know that? He sure wasn’t acting like it.”

“Listen, just let me explain. It’s not what you think. He’s an alumnus of the law program I’m in, and we met at school. We did date for a while, but we broke up like eight months ago.”

“Then why is he still calling himself your boyfriend?” Declan asks as he lifts his helmet to put it on, but I grab it from him and hold it under one arm so he can’t take off.

He looks me up and down and I can’t tell if he’s impressed or annoyed, but either way, it doesn’t matter. As long as he can’t leave without hearing what I have to say, that’s all I care about.

“He’s been wanting to get back together lately and asked me to take him back. But that doesn’t mean we are together. I never said yes.”

Declan dismounts his bike, and I step back to make room, but he moves with me, closing the distance between us and stealing back his helmet. He hooks it on the handlebars, then locks his intense gaze on mine.