Page 87 of Home Ice

I started the video again.

Max’s half played the same, but I heard it differently because I knew where it was going. He wasn’t trying to clear his name. He was preparing the path for Niko.

When I watched him the second time, I caught something I’d missed the first time around:

“Nobody’s asked him about me. He doesn’t know I’m saying this, and I’m not saying it to ask him for anything.”

I played that part a third time.

Ever since the truth of the arrangement came out, people had been asking me for things: confessions and apologies. Niko didn’t ask for anything.

The phone buzzed in my hand and reminded me that the team chat was running.

Varga: THE CARPENTER. That’s a plot twist.

Trier: you didn’t see it coming? I knew in January. and Peaches knew before either of us.

Heath: we like Niko. this is now official team policy.

Kieran: and nobody bother Rafe tonight. let’s pretend he’s sleeping and this doesn’t wake him up

Varga: one more thing and then I sleep. the brother is RIGHT. Rafe, if you’re reading this, call me tomorrow. not tonight. tonight you have somewhere to be

I had another message outside of the team.

Mom: Marlene sent us Max’s video. Dad watched it twice and said the man means it. That’s all he said, and you know your father. We love you. Go to sleep or go to him.

It was nearly 1 a.m.

I started typing a text to Niko, but I realized that every minute that took would mean a minute later getting to his shop. I grabbed my keys and headed for the truck.

The light was on in Niko’s shop, with the blinds pulled. I wondered if Max was still there.

I parked across the street and turned the engine off. My pulse raced.

I was halfway across the street when a shadow moved behind the blinds. By the time I reached the door, I heard the bolt slide.

The door opened before I touched it.

Niko stood in the doorway, wearing a T-shirt without an apron. The bench light was on, and the rest of the shop was dark.

Neither of us said a word.

He stepped back to let me in, and I came in out of the cold. He shut the door behind me and threw the bolt.

“Niko, I should have—“

I didn’t get any further. He pressed a finger to my lips. Then he turned and walked back toward the bench, and I followed.

There was a chair upside down on the bench. It was an old kitchen chair, and beside it, a coffee can holding screws.

“Somebody loved this chair,” Niko said. “She brought it in to have it repaired properly because she couldn’t part with it.”

He reached out and took my hand. His fingers curled around mine and held on. He led me across the shop to the stairs. I followed him.

The bedroom was bathed in the same amber glow from the streetlights as the first time. I stood in the doorway, not sure what to do next.

“You saw the video,” he said. “Come join me.”