“We can take mine if it’s not snowing.” My pulse sped up and sweat trickled down my back, but it was the least I could offer. If he were going to go try to win the card, I could give him a cheering section. Or whatever the heck observers did at these things. Maybe it was like golf clapping, but whatever, I’d figure it out.

“Deal. And if it is, I’ll see if I can trade with Katie. She has an SUV now that she’s all employed and stuff.”

“She graduated?” Jasper’s oldest sister had been in college last I’d heard. She’d always been nice. Super smart, like all the Quigley kids.

“Yup. She’s a nurse now, over at the regional medical center.” Pride laced Jasper’s words as he smiled. “Her specialty is outpatient surgery.”

“Wow. All I remember about her is her obsession with that one British band.” It was hard to imagine that the gangly teen Katie had been was now in charge of people’s lives.

“Well, like you said, people grow and change.”

“That they do.” I gave him a pointed look.

Expression more speculative as he narrowed his eyes, he turned toward me. “Tell me one thing different about you. And not the coffee-drinking thing. Something real.”

I knew one thing. One big, giant thing, but no way in hell was I blurting it out right then. Hi. I’d be down with whatever personal favors you wanted to request. Anything. Surprise. And yeah, the news flash that he wasn’t the only one into dudes wasn’t going to go over well. I might not have his genius brain, but I knew that much. So I tried to think of other things.

“Unlike you, the junk food–tarian, I eat vegetables now. And I’ve got a tattoo…” I could tell by his face that he wasn’t impressed by my answers in the slightest. And somehow, I hated disappointing him, wanted to prove something to both us. “Okay. Real talk. I got kicked off the soccer team. That’s how I lost my scholarship and ended up back here instead of being able to rehab and stay in school.”

I wasn’t going to tell him the whole story, not right then, and maybe not ever. But considering that soccer had been the original wedge between us, it felt…significant somehow, sharing my greatest defeat with him.

Jasper whistled low. “Wow.”

“You’re not going to celebrate that I can’t play anymore?”

“No. First of all, you got injured. I’m not going to cheer for anyone getting hurt. Second, I worked damn hard for my scholarships. I know how much losing them would suck. And no matter what you did, I can bet that getting kicked off wasn’t your intention. You lived for soccer.”