Page 139 of Off The Ice

“I’m not a sore loser. I played six rounds with you!”

“Well, don’t you want a chance to win at least once? I’ll go easy on you,” she offered in a singsong voice, dangling the Wii remote in front of me.

“Fine, I’ll play one more game.” I gave, in partially because Maggie was impossible to say no to, but also because I wanted to get a chance to talk to her while the rest of her family was occupied elsewhere.

“So,” I started while she set us up for another game. “Not that it’s my business, but you seemed a little off when everyone brought up your dad earlier. I thought things were going good?”

She exhaled. “It had been. It is, I guess. I don’t know. It might be all in my head, but I feel like…”

“Like what, Mags?”

“I feel like he’s only using me to get to Liam. It’s, like, all of a sudden, the only thing he ever wants to talk about. How Liam’s doing, and if Liam’s asked about him, and if he can have tickets to come see Liam play.”

“What?”I asked. “Does he know that Liam wants nothing to do with him?”

Maggie groaned. “I sort of hinted that Liam wasn’t ready yet, but I sort of made it sound like he’d be open to it in the future? I was just so scared of doing something wrong that would send him running again, so I didn’t want to be the one to tell him his son never wanted to see him again for the rest of time.”

“I’m sorry, Maggie. It sucks that you’re in the middle.”

“It’s whatever,” Maggie said.

“I mean, that’s crazy, though, that he thinks you’d get him tickets to see Liam play. That’s kind of nervy of him, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” Maggie said after a minute’s hesitation, but her eyes stayed fixed on the screen. “Maybe it is.”

Liam

I don’t know what my sister did to Cassie, but when I came inside from a game of touch football with my cousins, she was slumped against the couch like she didn’t have the willpower to even lift her head for a second longer.

“Post-dinner slump?” I asked, sliding down beside her.

“That combined with the stress of your sister’s driving.” She groaned.

“What?” I laughed.

“Nothing,” she said. “I just need to close my eyes for a second.”

“Go for it,” I told her, watching the football game flickering across the flat screen in front of us. “We’re not getting kicked out any time soon.”

The den was empty save for the two of us, the rest of my family no doubt congregating in the more eclectic areas of the house. I watched the game with passing interest for the sake of the holiday. I’d never been much of a football guy, clearly.

I didn’t notice how quickly Cassie had fallen asleep until I felt her head fall down against my shoulder. I didn’t really realizeeither that my fingers had been trailing absentmindedly through the strands of her hair, twirling the curls at the end before starting again from the top.

At some point, she shifted, nuzzling closer as she let out a sleepy sigh. My chest vibrated with quiet laughter at the way her face scrunched up in sleep, and before I even thought about it, I leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

Shit, did I just do that?

I froze, waiting for her eyes to open and ask me what the hell I was doing. When she didn’t, I relaxed.

Thank God she was sleeping because I’d have no words of explanation to offer her. I did it without thinking, like my body was acting of its own accord.

“Look at you guys.” Maggie snorted, prancing into the room with knowing eyes. “Practically married.”

I stared at her as she sat in the chair across from us.

“You could thank me, you know.” She flicked her hair behind her shoulder.

“Maggie,” I warned.

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