He shrugged. “Told you. I have a low tolerance for frustration, which includes being apart from you.”

60. easy love

CHAPTER 60

EASY LOVE

Bailey

I leaned against a pillar in Northview Arena’s concourse, waiting for Chase to come out of the dressing room while excited Falcons fans poured out the doors, chatting excitedly about the three-one win. One of the goals had been Chase’s—luckily, his time off during his suspension hadn’t hurt his game any.

Coincidentally, Chase’s first game back was at home and against none other than Callingwood. The game was significantly less dramatic than previous matches between the two schools, mostly because Luke was gone. Within a few days of the video leak, his parents flew up and hauled his sorry ass back to Texas. Apparently, they had to make a deal with the district attorney to get permission for him to leave the state.

With his departure, an invisible weight had lifted off my shoulders. I hadn’t realized how keyed up I was about the ever-present chance of running into him until it was no longer a possibility.

Derek told me there were rumors Luke’s parents had him working at one of the fast-food restaurants they’d invested in. It was poetic justice, given how Luke looked down on service jobs. That was in addition to being expelled from Callingwood and essentially shunned by the NHL. No team would even talk to him.

Kristen was gone too—suspended indefinitely, which would surely turn into an expulsion after her hearing.

The scandal was slowly losing its legs, probably because Stewart’s team had been relatively successful in tamping down on the video. Over the past week, things had started to return to normal. Today almost felt like an ordinary day. Almost.

None of it erased the pain, but it was a start.

Scanning the lobby, I found a vacant red bench and made my way over to it. I checked my phone for a status update from Shiv, who was at home scrambling to finish a sociology paper due at midnight. She was the queen of procrastination. It had to be an incredibly stressful way to live, but her grades were solid, so I guess it worked for her. I, on the other hand, would have flunked out of college and been committed for a nervous breakdown if I tried that strategy.

Her latest text reported that she was nearly done and would commence packing for our weekend trip to Dallas’s parents’ cabin shortly. How she’d managed to write a ten-page paper in one day, I’d never know.

I strongly suspected Shiv wasn’t a light packer, though, and that it would be a while before she and Dallas were ready to leave.

I glanced up just as Derek rounded the corner. His gaze fell on me, his expression brightening. Locking my phone, I pushed to stand and met him in the crowd.