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but some people— wait . You went skating with Josh Blackthorn?”
    I play with the zipper on my jacket, yanking it up and down. Voop. Voop. Voop-voop-voop. “Not exactly.”
    Her eyes narrow. When it comes to my on-again, off-again affair with the ice, Dani knows the highlights, but we don’t talk about it much. She and I got close during the post -skating part of my life, right after Mom, Bug, and I moved to the apartment near her house.
    She taps my foot with hers. “Hud, why are you acting all, like, twitchy? What’s going on?”
    I let out a long, slow breath, remembering how alive I felt today on the ice. I think about the Capriani Cup and the warmth that rises up inside when I land the perfect jump, make the hard turns, nail my favorite moves, even all these years later.
    And then I remember Josh Blackthorn’s hand brushing the hair from my face.
    “Hudson?” Dani asks again, her big, copper-penny eyes searching mine.
    “Danielle!” Trick shouts from the kitchen. “Two steak-and-egg specials up for table three!”
    “Get Carly to run it!” Dani shouts back. “Sorry. Talk to me, girl. I’m freezing my—”
    “Listen.” I grab the front of her jacket, pushing out the words in a half-frozen jumble. “I got an invitation in the mail today … this thing … and after all that stuff from three years ago, and Dad, and Shelvis, and crashing into Josh, something hit me. I think I’ve been … I don’t know. Something’s just … missing. I might—”
    “Oh no. Don’t even say it. You’re totally crushing on the hockey boy, aren’t you? Jeez. How hard did you hit your head?”
    I swat her hand away from my forehead. “I’m not crushing—”
    “Trust me. I know hot and bothered when I see it.”
    “Bothered, maybe. By you . You read too many books, you know that? This isn’t How I Met My Half-Naked Pirate Hottie .” I look down at the pavement. “Not even close.”
    “First of all, it’s called Treasure of Love , and there’s no such thing as too many books. And anyway, you’re totally blushing. What is it with you and hockey captains? First Will Harper, and now his number two? This is bad news, baby. Bad.”
    “Will doesn’t count,” I say firmly. Will Harper became my first kiss when a rousing match of Seven Minutes in Heaven forced us into someone’s basement closet a million years ago—way before his hockey captain days. Honestly, it’s not like the stars aligned or anything. Before my brain could catch up to the breaking news of what was happening on my lips, the closet door opened, the light spilled in, and we broke apart. Some guy high-fived Will and everything smelled like Cheetos androot beer and that was pretty much it. “It was just a stupid eighth-grade party game.”
    “That’s because he never spoke to you again.”
    “Well, Josh isn’t like Will. Josh seems really sweet, and he’s—never mind. How did we get on Josh?”
    “ Who got on Josh? I certainly didn’t. Did you?”
    I smack her arm. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
    “Look, just because your father’s a grade A jackass—”
    “Hey!”
    “Sorry.” Dani tugs on one of her curls, wrapping it around her finger. “I mean, just because your parents’ relationship didn’t work out doesn’t mean all relationships are doomed.”
    “Crashing into someone on the ice doesn’t make a relationship.”
    “No?” She smiles, her cheeks glowing like smooth red plums. “Maybe you just need to get—”
    “Dani!” Trick again. “These cows are well-done, sweetheart,” he calls from over the grill, all sizzle-sizzle, scrape-scrape, metal-on-metal. “Ain’t gonna run themselves. Carly’s got her hands full.”
    Dani waves him off. “As I was saying … wait, you’re bright red! Oh, if Josh could see you now. He’d be all over it.” She belts out a not-so-kid-friendly, not-so-in-tune rendition of the sittin’-in-a-tree song.
    “Highly unlikely,” I say. The impassioned skating speech queued