Page 83 of Empty Net

Good boy.

Lilah’s words ring through my head, and I try to push them away. I don’t need to be having thoughts like that right now. The only thing I need to be focusing on is this game. That’s it.

“As long as you don’t let whatever this is get in the way of your game, I don’t give a shit what you do in your free time, Fox. Even if I do think you’re playing the biggest game of chicken I’ve ever seen and think it’s going to completely bite you in the ass. That’s your game and your ass. I’m staying out of this one.”

Even though his words aren’t entirely encouraging, mainly because he thinks what we’re doing is monumentally stupid, they still comfort me.

“Thanks,” I mumble.

“But I will say this.” Hutch takes a step toward me, so close now that I can smell the fancy Armani cologne I know he spent entirely too much money on. “If you hurt Lilah in any way at all, I will break every bone in each of your legs and laugh while I do it. I will hurt you so fucking bad you’ll never play a game of hockey again. Understood?”

His words piss me off, and probably not in the way he expects.

“I would never do anything to hurt her.Ever.I’m doing her a favor, okay? Iwantto do this for her. So you don’t have to worry about me hurting her. Lilah is…” I shake my head. “I would never hurt her, Hutch. Ever. I swear it on everything that I am.”

His thick brows slowly inch upward, surprise coating his features, and I don’t like it one bit.

“What?” I bark at him.

Yet another fucking grin as he shakes his head. “Nothing, Fox. Nothing at all.”

Then he plops down in his stall next to mine and begins his all-too-familiar routine to prep for the game, leaving me gaping after him. I don’t know how long I stand there, but it’s so long that Coach comes into the room and asks me what the hell I’m doing.

“Sorry, Coach,” I say, finally taking a seat and beginning my pregame process.

“You good?” he asks.

I nod as I start taking off the fancy dress shoes I changed into in my truck, the same place I put my suit on. I should have probably just taken it back up to Lilah’s place to change, but I was too scared if I went up there, I wouldn’t be able to leave again. “Yeah, I’m good.”

He gives me one last look before continuing through the room, and I try my best to focus on the task at hand. It’s hard, though. My thoughts are jumping all over the place, from Lilah to Hutch to Locke to Coach and back to Lilah again. Round and round they go.

And that’s where they stay, even as we dress and hit the ice for warmups, all throughout the national anthem and even through the first period. It’s not until we hit the locker room after the final buzzer and the guys going wild to celebrate my forty-one-save shutout that I realize I haven’t once panicked about the game. It was the first time in a long time I wasn’t completely stuck in my head and didn’t force the team to play on their heels the entire time.

When I climb into my truck, my mind still reeling, I don’t steer toward home. I go to Lilah’s…and I think it’s exactly where I’m meant to be.

CHAPTER 15

LILAH

“Sadie is going to be so sad she missed this.”

“I thought she was mad at you because she had to hear about your engagement from your mother.”

“Well, yeah, but you know how it goes with sisters. We’re mad, but if there’s a common enemy, then…”

Auden nods, understanding perfectly. “Did youtell hertell her? You know, about thefakeness?” She mouths the last word, not that it was needed. I knew exactly what she was getting at.

“I did. She thinks it’s brilliantly stupid, whatever that means.”

Auden makes a noise I can’t quite decipher, but I don’t indulge her on it. I’m too busy watching my mother plan my whole life before my eyes. I sigh, and Auden follows my gaze.

“Remind me again why we’re doing this?” she asks.

“Because it’s fun?”

Auden’s eyes slide right to where my mother is about thirty feet away, browsing through invitation options for my engagement party. “There are a lot of things I would say are fun, and going wedding shopping with your mother is not one of them. Especially for a fake wedding.”

“Shh!” I admonish, glancing at my mother, who is paying us absolutely zero attention. That’s pretty much been what the entire afternoon has been like, and I’m starting to wonder why I’m even here.

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