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“I think I’ll have my hands full in Milwaukee for a while anyway.”

Briggs looks at me. For the first time since breakfast, something inside his expression loosens.

“Not sure I’m going back yet,” he says.

“You are, if I have to fly back to ensure you get on that fucking plane, I will.”

His mouth pulls at one corner. “Bossy motherfucker.”

“You need distance from Lyric, and I need someone willing to eat the shit I cook without asking what it is.”

“You cook four meals.”

“I cook them well.”

“The rest is awful.”

“At least I own a pan,” I say. “You’ve lived in Milwaukee for a full season and still eat cereal out of mixing bowls.”

“More efficient.”

The laughter comes quietly, but it gives Briggs enough room to breathe. Cade lets it last before returning his attention to me.

“Why tonight?”

“Because if I stay until tomorrow, it becomes a dramatic shit show. I know Charm. The second she realizes I’m leaving, she’ll panic because it scares her. She’ll ask for one more conversation, one more night, one more chance to explain something we’ve already explained until neither of us has skin left.”

Rider studies me. “So, you aren’t telling her?”

“I’m telling her when my Uber is close enough that there won’t be time for dramatics.”

“That’s cold,” Easton says.

“It’s necessary.”

“It can be both,” Cade tells me.

I meet his eyes. “Yeah.”

Nobody pretends otherwise. They know me well enough to understand this isn’t revenge. I’m not trying to punish Charm or recreate the brutality of the first time I left her. I’m trying to get out before loving her convinces me to accept less than I need simply because walking away hurts.

Briggs taps his stick against the ice. “We should walk out with you.”

I look at him.

“Me, East, and Rider,” he continues. “Cade will be occupied. If Charm panics or it gets messy, you shouldn’t have to manage it alone.”

“You think three giant hockey players surrounding my Uber will make it less dramatic?”

“No,” Rider says. “but we’ll be emotionally supportive.”

Despite myself, I laugh.

Easton’s mouth twitches. “He’s right. We’ll walk you out.”

I nod because arguing would only waste time. “Yeah, probably for the best, but if it gets bad, make sure she understands why this has to happen. Don’t let her turn it into proof she’s unlovable or destroy herself over it. I need her to know this is about what I require to stay, not some verdict on whether she deserves to be loved.”

Cade watches me for several seconds. “You’re protecting her again.”