Playing for Love at Deep Haven Read Online Free PDF

her head, dreamy and besotted, whispering the words from so long
ago. Her pulse fluttered uncomfortably in her neck as she suddenly felt the
imprint of his lips pressed against it. She wondered if he remembered too,
because he flinched before quickly recovering to smirk at her.
    “How’s Joni
Mitchell working out for you?”
      “I still love her.”
    He snorted, then
looked away, rubbing his thumb over his bottom lip, like he sometimes did when
he was thinking. Or maybe remembering. She couldn’t recall the exact reason why
he did it—but it was distracting as hell. “Yeah,” he said. “I guess she’s
okay.”
    Violet didn’t add
that despite her love for Joni Mitchell, she hadn’t been able to listen to her
for nine years. Even now, when “The Circle Game” came on the radio, she changed
the station before old, unwanted feelings could swirl into her consciousness
and hijack her uncomplicated life.
    Zach shifted his
weight, crossing his arms over his chest, staring at her with narrowed eyes. If
she didn’t know him, he’d look casual. But she did, so he looked brooding. “So,
what’s it going to be? You staying?”
    He was right. It
was dark and getting late, and it’s not like he was a stranger. In fact, for
one brilliant, intense, way-too-short time in her life, he’d been the person who
mattered most, the person she’d fallen in lov —
    No. No, Violet. Don’t go there. Back it up.
    She rephrased
her thoughts: he’d been her friend. A very good friend, even … until she’d said
the wrong thing. Until that one, crazy October weekend that never should have
happened. They shouldn’t have ended up stranded on a mostly empty campus, in an
almost empty sophomore dorm together. The trees in New Haven shouldn’t have
been on fire in breathtaking reds and oranges and yellows that made them forget
reality and feel invincible. The days shouldn’t have been so warm and perfect,
with bright blue skies and nothing to do but write songs and bask in their
newfound, unarticulated feelings. And the nights shouldn’t have been so packed
with lust, so achingly full of beautiful murmurs that had, ultimately, meant
nothing. It had all been a fluke, a mistake, an anomaly. It had left her heart
broken in half.
    “I don’t think
it’s a good idea,” she said, walking to her car.
    When she snuck a
glance at him, he was running his thumb over his bottom lip again, then bit it
before calling out to her, a slight edge in his tone. “Time was, Vile, you
could make a bad idea work for you.”
    His words made more
forgotten memories surface—of his hand in hers as they ran, barefoot and drunk,
over the plush grass of the Old Campus green. It made her feel light-headed for
a second, and she reached up to rub her forehead. She needed to get away from
him.
    “Like I said
before, long time ago,” she called over her shoulder.
    She opened her car
door, sitting down and feeling around for her glasses on the center console.
She put them on and reached out to shut the door, but her fingers touched denim
instead. Zach was suddenly standing beside her, blocking her from the door
handle. She jerked her fingers away from his jeans like she’d touched fire. His
body took up the entire space between her and her door, and she was eye level
with his abdomen, which she had a feeling was as hard and muscular as his arms.
She put her hands firmly on the steering wheel just in case they decided to
find out, and tilted her chin up to look at him.
    With her glasses
on, she could finally see subtle nuances like how his gray eyes were harder now
than they’d been then, harder and more intense, more unsettled, if that was
possible. But also cooler, like he could laugh if he wanted to, even if nothing
was funny. She focused on the little brown mole under his eye and found herself
wishing desperately—for the first time in years—that things had gone
differently between them, then hating herself for such foolishness.
    “I’ll be