Page 29 of Game on, Love
“I don’t,” he replied, glancing at me as if he was tryingto be careful, and my heart raced. “But Rihaan has forced me to go onenough morning runs that I’ve learned to just tolerate it out of habit.”
“Sounds more like Stockholm Syndrome,” I muttered.
He grinned and turned towards the stove, leaving me feeling a little off-balance.
It all seemed a bit too easy with him. Nothing about it was a weird one-off fluke, but like it was just another day for him.
I’d already been letting him pull me into his easy back-and-forth and enjoying it more than I wanted to admit, but the little voice in my head—the one that kept me in check, the one that told me to keep my distance—was getting quieter, and that realisation sent a flicker of panic through me.
Oliver glanced at me then, a half-smile on his face. “Well, are you going to tell me how your eggs are now?”
“Uh, I really meant it’s too early for food.” I stood up abruptly, the bar chair scraping against the floor louder than I intended. “Plus, I need to get ready. I’ve got today off to run errands and get the rest of the things I need after the leak.”
He paused mid-motion, egg in hand, and raised an eyebrow. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, I was already halfway out of the kitchen. “Thanks for the hoodie, by the way,” I called over my shoulder, forcing my tone to sound casual.
“Wait—”
But I didn’t let him finish. I was gone, mug in one hand, my phone in the other, as I took the stairs two at a time. Both my cats are right on my trail.
Upstairs, in the quiet of my room, I leaned against the door and let out a long breath. The weird feeling in my stomach was still persistent.
I silently chided myself.
This was why I kept my walls up. This was why I didn’t let people get too close. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
He wasn’t supposed to feel… different. But he did, and it scared me more than I cared to admit.
10
Oliver
THE BAT FELT HEAVIERin my hands than it had in years. For the first time in my life, it felt like I couldn’t turn off the world, that the weight of everything else and the things I couldn’t control or fix were looming over me as if everything deepened on it, and not even cricket could be my escape.
Rihaan’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Mate, focus. You’re swinging like you’ve never seen a ball before.”
I clenched my jaw at his assessment. It wasn’t unusual for us to be at the nets. He and I had been running drills together for years, but something about today felt… off.
I shook my head, attempting to shake off the lingering thoughts as I got back in position. I tightened my grip on the bat and Rihaan started his run-off, spitting another ball towards me.
This time, my swing was clean—sending the ball straight into the net—but we both knew it wasn’t my best work.
Rihaan frowned. “What’s with you today?”
“Nothing,” I replied with a bite I hadn’t intended.
He raised an eyebrow, putting his hands on his hips as he watched me. “Right, and I’m the Queen of England.”
“Whatever are you doing here then, your Majesty? Go back to the diamond kingdom you’ve run away from,” I smirked, and he rolled his eyes before walking back to pick up the ball.
He paused, eyeing me for a second like he wanted to say something but thought better of it and reset in his position. I managed another clean hit, but my mind was still elsewhere.
Not on the game, not even on my dad.
But on Raina.
It was like since the day I met her, she had claimed an unknown place in my head that I didn’t even know existed before her.
It had been two days since she’d walked out of the kitchen with some abrupt excuse about errands. Two days of me going over each detail about that morning to figure out what I did or what I said that made her pull back so fast, it made my head spin faster than a red ball.