Page 140 of Off The Ice

“Remember how hard you tried to fight it when I asked if she could stay with you?”

“Would you—”

“And now, look,” she interjected, “I found my brother’s wife for him.”

I couldn’t deny anything. I was grateful as hell.

“Soooo,” she drawled, “What do you have to say?”

I exhaled, blowing out a breath. I looked down at Cassie at my side for a moment before meeting Maggie’s smug gaze once more.

“Thank you, Maggie,” I said gruffly.

“Hey, I guess I did have a say in picking out my sister-in-law after all.” She laughed and then turned to face the TV.

“Ugh, football.” She stuck her tongue out. “Let’s watch the Gossip Girl Thanksgiving episode instead.”

I didn’t get a word in before she reached for the remote, taking control of the television.

But honestly, I was too content with my situation to even care.

Cassie

The sky was an explosion of orange outside the windows of Mrs. Brynn’s house, and I wondered if I’d ever grieved a holiday ending as much as this one.

Who knew if I’d ever have another one that gave me the same warm, Hallmark feeling that this day had.

I could lie to myself and chalk it up to the simple lack of tension or argument that had been so commonplace in my family’s homes growing up, but I knew better.

It wasn’tjustthat. It also had everything to do with the man sitting beside me, looking more like a goofy boy eating his pumpkin pie than the NHL star I knew he was.

“So, you guys,” Maggie started around a bite of her apple pie. “What’s the move?”

“The what?” Liam asked.

“The plan for tonight. Brody wants to see me after and I thought it would be fun if we all went together.”

I stifled a groan. I was exhausted and didn’t really have any desire to go to some loud bar or club in the city after the perfectly quaint day we’d just had. Especially not when the ideaof going back to the place I was living was now such an appealing concept.

But, still. If Liam wanted to go out with his friend and his sister, I would suck it up and handle it. I looked to him as if he could understand with just a look that I was going to follow his lead.

And what surprised me most was that he was looking at me in the same way. As if searching for confirmation of what I wanted to do. I gave him the slightest shrug and a smile, trying to prove that it was up to him.

He turned to Maggie, and when he opened his mouth in what I thought was going to be confirmation of the plan, he shocked me by saying, “I think we’re just going to go home.”

Home.I thought, sagging in relief, dumbfounded that somehow Liam could read me like a book in a way no one ever had before.

“Ugh, boring,” Maggie said. “You guys really are like an old married couple.”

But the way she said it didn’t make it sound like a bad thing at all.

Chapter Forty-Seven

Cassie

Sometimes, I think I became a teacher to hold onto whatever part of my inner child had been lost to me at the expense of my mother’s drinking.

School had always been safe. Predictable. Structured. I didn’t have to worry about what anyone was doing but myself. In fact, there were adults there to worry aboutme.

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