Daydream (Maple Hills, #3)(130)
Tired of being verbally abused and hit on by snotty rich businessmen, sometimes in the same conversation, Cami decided that if I was jumping so was she. That jump happened to land in the wine bar next door.
I feel lighter now that I’ve lost some of the responsibilities that don’t make me happy, and every time I put myself first, Henry treats me like I just saved the world. I kind of like that bit the most.
* * *
“I DON’T THINK IT’S NORMAL for you all to be this invested in something that doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“Henry,” I mutter, refreshing the competition portal for what must be the millionth time in the past hour. “Don’t be mean.”
I look up from my screen at all the people watching with interest. The front door flies open and Russ and Aurora stumble through it wearing T-shirts with giant raccoons on them. “Did we miss it? We got stuck in traffic!”
“What are you wearing?” Henry asks, looking them both up and down.
“We’re looking after the raccoon group this year,” Russ explains, pulling at his Honey Acres summer camp T-shirt before closing the door behind them. He sits in the chair across from us and Aurora sits on the arm of it.
“Jenna is punishing us for lying last year by putting us with our last choice of age group. Teenagers are literally so mean; what is their problem?”
“You didn’t miss it,” I say, refreshing my screen again.
“There weren’t this many people in the room when I got drafted,” Grayson says, looking around at my friends.
“Halle, Bobby just texted me and asked when you become a famous author, will you go on their podcast?” Robbie says, looking up from his phone.
My eyebrows pinch together. “Their… hockey podcast?”
He types back, then nods. “Yeah. They’re thinking of transitioning into books.”
“Sure,” I say, nodding slowly. “When I’m a famous author tell them just to let me know when to show up.”
Henry leans in, his mouth millimeters from my ear, voice low. “Refresh it again.”
“Hey!” Grayson snaps from the recliner on the opposite side of the room. “Get back onto your own seat cushion.”
“Finally,” JJ says, reclining the seat next to my brother. “Some code of conduct in this house. It’s been a lawless land for years.”
“Shut up, Jaiden,” Emilia says. “You’d break any code of conduct for fun.”
“You don’t even live here anymore,” Aurora adds. “You have no authority here.”
“You’ve never lived here! Oh, I just gave myself déjà vu. Have we had this argument before?” he says. “Has someone else had this argument before?”
He thinks about it for a minute, looking at the other guys for them to weigh in. “Probably.”
I’m about to tell the guys to shut up as well until I notice the warmth leave me as Henry shuffles away to his own designated cushion. “You can’t be serious,” I groan.
“He’s huge, Halle. He looks like he doesn’t think fighting is for fools anymore. I love you, but I also like having all my ribs intact, which is going to be my main focus when we play football tomorrow.”
Grayson is in town for a meeting with a prospective team now that his contract is up. He’s been trying to visit more before the season starts to ramp up, and he’s back at training camp, whichever team that ends up being on. He says it’s because he misses me, but in reality, he heard I have a new boyfriend and he wants to check him out. He thinks he’s a good judge of character since he was the “OG Will hater.”
So far, he has no complaint about Henry other than he stands too close to me and he’s too affectionate.
“What if they actually hated my entry and it was so bad that they don’t know how to tell me?”
It’s the one thing that silences the room. Everyone looks at each other for someone else to answer.
“You got through to the final ten,” Henry says, my forever voice of reason. “You’re catastrophizing.”
Cami taught Henry what catastrophizing was recently, and now he loves to point out when everyone else is blowing things slightly out of proportion. The irony is that she was explaining what it was to him because he was talking about how his natural response to conflict is to spiral.
“If it hasn’t updated when I refresh one more time, I’m throwing my laptop out of the window,” I say, silently seething. “They told me it would definitely be today.”
“Maybe the system is just updating,” Aurora adds. “Maybe their building got evacuated.”
“Maybe Halle is just impatient,” Henry says, causing every person in the room to stare at him. “Fine. Maybe we’re all a little impatient sometimes. No big deal.”
I click the refresh button one more time, and unlike all the other times, the screen turns white. “Something’s happening! Something’s happening!”
About ten people all jump onto our couch to get a look at my laptop screen. It’s a ridiculous attempt to show support, and I know it’s because Henry reminded them all to be supportive, but it makes my heart feel warm all the same.
The white screen lasts a lifetime.