Can't Help Falling by Kara Isaac Read Free Book Online

she’d come to the right place. Allie had the amazing ability to make people feel like they’d been friends since they were missing front teeth and drinking out of juice boxes.
    â€œShe’s a rower too, so I’m sure she’s not going to go all gaga on you like the last one.” Allie studied him through critical eyes. “Though I’m not sure if I want her to meet you like this. You look like a total dork. What is with that sweater?”
    He looked down at his green-, blue-, and red-covered torso. “Don’t go knocking the jumper. My grandmother knitted this.” And he was only wearing it because, between training, the horrible weather, and not having a dryer, he hadn’t done laundry in weeks. It was the ugly jumper that only came out in times of desperation. Not that he’d ever admit it to Allie now.
    â€œIs your grandmother coming to this party?” Allie made a show of looking around. “Because that is the only acceptable reason I can think of on God’s green earth for you to be wearing that monstrosity.”
    He couldn’t hold in his laugh. Jackson was never going to have a boring life with this girl, that was for sure.
    â€œThere she is.” Allie waved at someone over his shoulder. “Stay right there, don’t move.” She ducked around him. Peter stayed where he was, as ordered. The room was so packed that even if he’d wanted to make an escape he wouldn’t have been able to before Allie caught him.
    She appeared beside him, a petite blonde trailing behind her. Peter’s whole body tensed. It couldn’t be. Surely not—
    â€œPeter, this is Sabine. Sabine, this is Peter.”
    It was. His ex-girlfriend’s blond hair hung around her face like a golden sheet, her blue eyes big. This was about to get as awkward as the blind date Allie had set him up on. “Sabine.”
    â€œHi, Peter.” She looked as weirded out as he felt. No surprises there. Months of no contact and the first time they saw each other was like this. “Look, I had no idea it was you. That you’d be here.”
    â€œYou two already know each other?” Allie tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as she directed the question to Peter.
    Peter fidgeted. Shoved his hands in his pockets. “Sabine and I used to date.”
    Allie raised her eyebrows while Sabine gave him a look he couldn’t quite interpret. Then she turned to Allie. “For three years. Right, Seven?” She used his old nickname, after his rowing position. He hadn’t heard it in months.
    Allie glanced between the two of them as Peter tried to beg her with his gaze to save him somehow. Of all the things he’d come prepared for tonight, the second face-to-face post-breakup conversation with his ex was not one of them.
    Allie either didn’t see his plea or ignored it. “So, um, I’m just going to go and top up the snacks.” Traitor. The girl moved faster than a speeding snowball as she turned and disappeared into the crowd.
    The two of them studied each other for a second, both trying to find their bearings.
    â€œSeriously, what are you doing here, Bine?” He switched to her nickname. As far as he knew, since their breakup, she’d stayed ensconced in London or wherever the women’s rowing team was training. Both of them staying out of each other’s turf. Her presence now in the middle of his was a clear breach of the unofficial settlement they’d drawn up. After three years together, a decent geographical distance between them seemed sensible.
    Sabine shrugged a slender shoulder. “The team is on break for a couple of weeks so I came down to visit. Annabelle was coming to this and suggested I tag along.”
    He studied her feigned nonchalance, letting his eyes linger on her perfectly coiffed blond hair, immaculate makeup, and clothes that made the most of her figure without being ostentatious. He checked his