Leo looked like he wanted to swallow his own tongue. He shifted his weight, his sneakers squeaking on the wooden porch steps. Jackson just let out a long, heavy breath and rubbed his temples like he was nursing a sudden headache.
"...Since Zoey used to hang around the football team," Jackson said, his voice forced.
Leo blurted out, "Because she dated Captain, Audrey. Years ago. It was a whole thing."
Silence settled over the porch, thick and heavy. A crow called out from the pine trees, the sound jarringly loud.
Audrey felt her stomach give a dull, painful twist. It wasn’t a sharp shock. It was more like a puzzle piece suddenly clicking into place. The way Zoey knew the kitchen. The way she knew the coffee. The way she acted like she owned the cabin.
She didn’t feel like crying. She felt cold.
"I see," Audrey said. Her voice sounded perfectly normal, which surprised even her.
She turned around and walked toward the front door.
"Audrey?" Leo called out, his voice tinged with panic. "I didn’t mean—"
"It’s fine," she said, not looking back. "I’m just going to go check on my stuff."
She slipped inside the cabin, leaving the two boys staring at each other in the twilight. She didn’t head for her room, though. She just leaned against the wall inside the living room, listening to the muffled sounds of the lake.
A moment later, the door opened. Mason stepped in, his eyes scanning the room until they found her. He took a few steps closer, his brow furrowed.
"Hey," he said. "Leo looks like he’s about to have a heart attack out there. Everything okay?"
"Yeah," Audrey said. She kept her gaze fixed on a scratch in the floorboards. "Everything is fine."
Mason stopped in front of her. He was close enough that she could feel the heat radiating off his skin. "You’re lying. You’ve got that ’I’m about to hide in a hole’ look on your face."
"I’m not lying, Mason."
"You are."
"I’m just tired," she said, side-stepping him to head toward the kitchen. She wasn’t lying about that part. She felt like she’d been running a marathon for three days straight.
Mason didn’t push. He just watched her go, a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Twenty minutes later, Mason found Leo near the fireplace, trying to look very busy with a stack of wood.
"Leo," Mason said, his voice low and dangerous.
Leo froze. "Uh..."
"What did you tell her?"
"I accidentally told Audrey," Leo squeaked.
Mason rubbed his face with both hands, letting out a jagged, frustrated breath. "Told her what?"
"About Zoey."
Mason stared at the ceiling. "Nice going, Leo. You’re a genius."
"She didn’t react!" Leo defended himself. "She just nodded!"
"That’s exactly why I’m worried," Mason muttered. He knew Audrey. She didn’t just ’nod’ at things. She either fought back or she retreated into her shell. If she was acting like it didn’t matter, it meant she was already building a wall.
The rest of the evening was a blur. Audrey tried to stay invisible, but it was hard when Zoey was hovering.
At one point, Zoey walked past Mason as he was grabbing a soda from the cooler.
"Still hate coffee?" Zoey asked, a playful glint in her eye.
Mason didn’t even look at her. He popped the tab on his soda. "No. Still do. Don’t touch my stuff, Zoey."
He walked away, leaving Zoey standing there.
Audrey noticed. She saw the way Zoey’s smile flickered, just for a second. She saw how Mason didn’t even give her the satisfaction of a real conversation. They were close. But they aren’t anymore.
Later, she heard another player mention, "Captain hasn’t seen her in forever."
She kept collecting these little scraps of information, like a squirrel preparing for a long, cold winter. She didn’t know what they meant, but she felt like she needed to keep them.
"Alright, everyone!" Coach Miller roared. "Canoe race! Two to a boat! Move, move, move!"
It was absolute chaos. Audrey tried to hide behind a stack of life jackets, but Mason spotted her instantly. He grabbed her by the life vest and hoisted her into a bright yellow canoe before she could even protest.
"I can’t paddle," she said, sitting down stiffly.
"I’ll teach you," Mason said, taking his seat behind her.
He didn’t.
They pushed off the dock, and within seconds, they were spinning in a perfect, dizzying circle.
"Paddle left, Audrey! Left!" Mason shouted, laughing.
"I am paddling left!" she shrieked, splashing water onto his lap. "Your left or my left?!"
"The left that moves us forward!"
They spun again, the canoe bobbing dangerously. Leo went paddling past them in a red canoe, laughing so hard he didn’t see the incoming wake. He tipped, did a full somersault into the freezing lake, and surfaced sputtering like a dying engine.
Audrey couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing, the sound bubbling up until her stomach ached. Mason was laughing too, his head thrown back, looking more relaxed than she’d ever seen him.
For a few minutes, they were just two people in a boat, not a fake couple or a football captain and a journalism major. Just two people trying not to sink.
As the sky turned a bruised purple, the team began packing the canoes back onto the trailer. Audrey stood by the dock, wiping water off her sweater.
Zoey wandered over, her sunglasses finally off. She looked at the lake, then at Audrey.
"So," Zoey said. Her voice was quiet. "You know."
Audrey didn’t look at her. "Know what?"
Zoey smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. "That Mason and I dated."
Audrey forced her expression to stay completely neutral. She had practiced this face in the mirror for years. "It’s none of my business."
Zoey studied her, her gaze sharp, like she was trying to read a book in a language she didn’t quite speak. "Good. Because it wasn’t much of a relationship."
Audrey turned, ready to ask what that meant, but Coach Miller’s voice boomed from the shore.
"Zoey! We need a hand with the trailer!"
Zoey tossed a quick, unreadable look at Audrey and walked away.
Audrey stood on the dock alone, the wind biting at her skin. She had another piece of the puzzle. It wasn’t much of a relationship.
What did that mean? And why did it feel like she was the only one playing a game that she didn’t know the rules to?
She looked up. Mason was standing on the shore, watching her. He looked worried.
Audrey just turned around and started walking back to the cabin. She had a lot to think about, and for the first time, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the answer.