Page 134 of Off The Ice

“I see the vision you’re going for.” Cassie nodded along with my mom’s excitement. “It’s very cohesive.”

“Thank you!” Mom beamed.

“You don’t have to suck up to her, Cassie.” Maggie giggled. “She’s going to like you on account of you being the only girl Liam has brought home, ever.”

“Anyway,” I jumped in. “Here’s my old room.”

And I opened the door which I was hoping was a portal to another dimension.

But then, I saw that nothing had been changed. It was as if I’d just left last week and not almost ten years ago.

“No redecorating in here?” I asked, voice thick.

“Of course not,” Mom said. “It’s your space. I wouldn’t touch it.”

“I just want you to always feel like you have a room here if you ever wanted or needed to come home.”

Considering I was an NHL player with a couple of million dollars cushioning me, I knew that Mom knew I would never have to come home.

But still, something about the sentiment touched me.

“Thanks, Mom,” I told her, looking around at the time capsule that was my past life.

“Well, now I’m going to be personally offended if you kept Liam’s the same and turned mine into a home gym or something.”

“Yours is the same too, sweetheart,” Mom soothed while she and Maggie walked off down the hallway together.

Cassie trailed behind, lingering with me in the silence of my childhood room.

Posters of hockey players I’d admired still hung on the walls. Trophies lined the shelves. Pictures of me with old high school teammates.

I went over, picked one up, then put it back down with a sigh.

Hockey had been my whole world. It still was… before Cassie entered the scene.

She came up behind me silently, looking over my shoulders at the memorabilia of my life.

“You know,” I said, “I spent my entire life praying and working and wishing for what I have right now. And then I spent the entirety of my career scared as fuck to lose it.”

“You made it,” she said, squeezing my arm encouragingly. “And you’re not going to lose it.”

“No?” I asked her, suddenly desperate for reassurance. “Do you think there’re some things in life we get to keep?”

“I do,” She said breathily, staring down at the space between us that was barely existent. “Especially you.”

“Why me?” I asked, feeling breathless as I looked down at her lips.

My hands weren’t even on her, but I knew in one second they could be. I could grab her and kiss her and make her mine.

Her eyes fluttered, and I could swear she glanced at my mouth, too.

“Because you don’t seem like the type to let things you love go easily,” she said, and I made up my mind.

I took her by the arms, holding her in place. I let my forehead fall against hers and felt the warmth of her breath against my skin.

I tilted my head, moved toward her, lips hovering an inch away from hers, and—

“Guys?” Maggie’s voice came from down the hall, and Cassie jumped away from me as if a bomb had erupted.

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