Page 53 of Game on, Love

“Hey,” Oliver’s soft voice pulled me out of the spiral I was about to fall down in. “How was your tour?”

I met his eyes, and the same crashing and forceful feeling of a tide meeting a rock I experienced the first time I saw him filled me. I knew he could read me like a book, and it was evident in the creases that formed at the corner of his eyes. He wasn’t frowning, though his grin was slowly dropping the longer he watched me.

I don’t remember the day or the moment I realised it, but somehow I’d managed to understand that when it came to Oliver, he didn’t need me to tell him what I felt, or what I needed in the moment. Somehow, he justknew.

I’d convince myself that he was just more intuitive or that knowing what to say or what to be came naturally to him. But it was more than that. And as he watched me, his amber eyes glowing in the cloudy sky, I saw the same awareness run through him as though a sixth sense.

“What do you need?” He asked in a whisper, and a soothing chill ran through me.

“I’ll be okay.”

“I know, but what do you need right now?” He asked, his eyes connected with mine.

My fingers pressed tightly on the palms of my hands, applying soft pressure as I tried to steady myself. “Air.”

He didn’t question the fact we were standing in an open-top stadium, didn’t tease me like he would’ve if I’d said it on a different day, but instead just gave me a nod.

The concern in his eyes never dropped as he turned to look at Rihaan. I followed his gaze to notice that he was now sitting on the bench with his head hanging low, his elbows resting on his legs, and I looked away.

But when Oliver’s eyes met mine again, his expression was now a mix of conflict and concern.

“I get it,” My voice was a lot softer than I’d intended, but when his brows pulled together, I knew he heard me.

“Get what?”

“Alright, so now—O…Oliver!” Ethan’s voice washed over me like cold ice water, and I gulped.

“Raina,” Oliver’s eyes never left mine, his voice laced with the evidence that he could feel me pulling back.

“You guys know each other?” Ethan asked, and Oliver nodded instantly, almost as if he knew I wouldn’t have been as forthcoming about knowing him.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Ethan take a step back hesitantly, but I turned to look at him, and he paused. “We do,but I’ve never actually seen him play, so I was just about to tell him that I get that craze now.”

Turning back, I continued. “I only saw a couple of shots, but you were amazing.”

My phone rang before he could say something, but the look on his face told me that he knew that wasn’t what I was planning to say, but how could I have told him that I saw the same look in his eyes that I’d seen Vedant and Dev wear a thousand times before? He already looked like he saw pieces of me that I hadn’t realised I was wearing on my sleeve, but to tell him that I understood the conflict I saw in his eyes and that he didn’t have to worry about choosing sides felt like a lie.

When it came to my brothers, I alwaysgotit.

They had this special bond with each other that they’d managed to grow when I was no longer a part of their lives, and it never felt like I was a missing piece in their puzzle.

They all just… fit.

But I’d known Oliver for a short while, and yet each day we spent together, it felt like there was something beyond us that pulled us towards each other, and maybe for the first time in my life, I didn’t want to get it. I wanted to be the first choice.

But how could I ask someone to fight for me when I was the one always abandoning myself? Because no matter how hard I tried, I always made one person choose.

Me.

And I was always the one losing.

16

Oliver

IT WAS LATE WHENI unlocked the front door.

I knew I was coming back home to a quiet house, but as I removed my shoes by the rack, the silence was deafening, and that triggered the already ringing alarm bells in my head to go even louder.