Page 113 of Three Hockey Hotties

She hesitates and I grip my phone tightly.

Finally, she says, “I love you.”

“We love you too. And⁠—”

She disconnects.

“Dammit!” I swear, barely resisting hurling my phone across the room.

“What the fuck?” Kane asks.

“She’s scared. I’m guessing this kid reminded her that people get sick and die and that it could be her. She doesn’t think we’re ready for that,” I say.

“Bullshit,” Kane says, vaulting off his stool. “I’m going over there. We’re definitely ready. It doesn’t matter what happens.”

“She’s not there. She’s at her parents’.”

“She’s hiding from us,” Benjamin says.

I meet his gaze and nod. “Yeah. At least she knows us well enough to know that we weren’t going to give her space forever.”

“We can find their house,” Kane says.

“Yes. And we will do that if we need to,” Benjamin says. “But we need to show her, not just tell her, that we’re going to be there for her through everything.”

I blow out a frustrated breath. “How? Obviously, if she gets sick, we’ll be there for her, and we’ll show her that nothing can make us leave. But as long as she’s healthy and happy, it’s a hard thing to prove.”

Benjamin shoves a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. We just keep showing up.”

“Yeah, like show up at her parents’ house and we don’t let her push us away,” Kane says.

“You have a game tonight,” Benjamin tells him with a frown. “We can’t do anything right now. Let’s give her a day or two with her parents. Maybe they’ll make her feel better.”

“Maybe,” I agree. “She has a point when she says that we don’t really know what this is like.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Kane insists. “Nothing could happen that would change how I feel about her or that would make me leave her.”

“Of course,” I say. “And somehow, we’ll prove that to her.” I look from Kane to Benjamin and, despite the way my heart is hurting over Abby, I know the three of us can figure this out. “Together,” I say.

Benjamin gives me a single nod. “Together.”

CHAPTER 24

BENJAMIN

I am not in a good mood.

In fact, I’m fucking in a downright terrible mood.

Abby isn’t here.

Even after Dash talked to her this afternoon I had hopes that she would come back to Willow Bay and show up at the game.

Instead, I’m sitting in the stands by myself, an empty seat next to me. I got a ticket for her, just in case, and now that hard plastic seat existing without her occupying it is really pissing me off. I had to fight the urge to snap at a woman behind me who asked if it was free she could put her kids’ coats on it.

I wanted to say that my girlfriend was showing up but that was ten minutes into the first period and my hopes were dashed by that point.

“Sure, no problem,” I had forced myself to say.