Chapter Ten
Brody
Ihad a plan.
The logistics were a little hazy, but I felt secure in the fact that I knew what my next step was.
I needed to do three things.
Propose to Maggie
Convince Liam not to abandon the team
Somehow figure out the best way to go about both of those things.
I could only think of one solution.
Cassie.
My favorite little blonde was my go-to person for emotional talks about our mutual Brynns. Shockingly, my girlfriend and best friend weren’t always the best at opening up. Especially when it came to their feelings.
But Cassie? She seemed to have this superhuman ability to clock their emotional states with freakish accuracy, giving me insight that I never would’ve considered.
In a way, she was like my own personal psychic. Only she didn’t charge me for her services.
“Where’s Liam tonight?” I asked, looking around the living room as if he might pop out any moment and yell at me for going behind his back to talk to his wife about his potential career-ending choices.
“He’s at dinner with Maggie,” she said, sitting down in the armchair across from me. “Didn’t she tell you?”
Huh. I thought she had dinner with her dad tonight.
“I guess I mixed up the details.” I scratched the back of my head. Or forgot to listen to them.
That tended to happen sometimes. Especially when I had life-altering plans on my mind.
“I—” I started, hesitating on which aspect of my crisis to dive into before getting distracted by whatever she was pouring into the mug in front of me.
“What is that? It smells amazing.”
“Lavender tea,” she said. “It’s good for stress.”
“Do you think I’m stressed?” I laughed.
She didn’t say anything, just looked pointedly at my rapidly bobbing knee.
I paused mid-motion, clearing my throat before I reached forward for the cup.
“You’re good, Cass,” I shook my head with a smile. “I’ll give you that. And that’s actually why I came here to see you.”
“You came here to see me?” she said, lighting up a little at the notion. “I thought you came for Liam, realized he wasn’t home, and felt bad leaving.”
“What?” I drew back. “No, of course not. Cassie, we’re friends, too.”
She nodded, as if pleased by the words that I thought should be common knowledge by now.
“So, spill.” She leaned forward eagerly. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m here about our SOs.”
She arched a brow in question.
“Sorry,” I amended, realizing I probably spent too much time on Reddit. “Our significant others. Partners. Loves of our little delicate lives.”
Cassie smiled warmly, as if basking in the very thought of Liam. I grinned at her reaction.
“What about them?” she asked.
“Oh,” I sighed, “where to start? Well, for one, can you tell me why Liam’s been so pissy lately?”
Cassie’s face fell.
“You noticed, huh?” She chewed her lip, setting her tea down on the coffee table.
“He hasn’t been very subtle about it,” I admitted.
“I think he’s upset about missing so many nights with Lily,” she explained. “It’s hard on him, being away as much as he is.”
“But he loves hockey,” I emphasized. “I know the away games can suck, but we can’t let him quit the team—”
“He told you he’s quitting?” she asked, eyes widening.
“Insinuated it.”
“I didn’t know he was thinking about doing that,” she admitted.
“It would be a huge mistake,” I emphasized. “You know Liam. He’d go insane after just a week off the ice. I don’t want him to do something major that he’d regret the rest of his life. He still has plenty of years left in him.”
Cassie nodded, considering.
“Plus…” I hesitated.
She met my eyes expectantly.
“Plus?”
To hell with it. I could be vulnerable with Cassie. She wouldn’t judge me.
“Plus, I need him,” I admitted honestly. “I don’t want to spend the next few years without him.”
I thought of practice without Liam, games without him. No one to put me in my place when I was being over-the-top obnoxious. We balanced each other out in a way that was crucial for my sanity.
I knew how the score went. If he left, he’d say nothing would change—that we’d still see each other all the time. But that would be a lie.
People grew apart, no matter their best intentions.
And I wasn’t ready for that.
“I agree with you,” she surprised me by saying. “Liam needs hockey in his life. I don’t think he would know how much he would miss it until it was gone.”
“So, you’ll talk to him about it?”
She nodded.
“I’ll give him my honest opinion, but that’s all I can do. I can’t change his mind if he’s set on it.”
I doubted that.
Liam would jump off a cliff if she asked him to, though I understood the position she was coming from.
“Thanks, Cass,” I sighed in relief. “Now, about Maggie—”
She looked up at me nervously, apparently expecting the worst. I fought a laugh, glad that I saved the Maggie news for last. I was pretty sure that would be a more uplifting note to end the night with.
“I’m going to propose,” I dropped the bomb, and before I even finished uttering the sentiment, Cassie was jumping to her feet and squealing.
“Shhhh,” I grabbed her lightly by the wrist, pulling her back down to her seat. “You’re going to wake Lily up.”
“Good!” she exclaimed. “We should all celebrate!”
“Not yet,” I told her. “It’s still a secret.”
“How are you going to do it?” she asked. “When are you going to do it? Can I be there when you do it?”
“I haven’t figured out the details yet. The idea sort of just hit me earlier and I just knew it was the right thing to do.”
I shook my head, clarifying.
“I mean, I know Maggie still has a few more things she wants to accomplish, and I know I’m still traveling a lot for work and it’s hard for her to travel with me,” I said, listing off a few of the reasons why Maggie had wanted to wait in the past. “But I realized, I don’t care.”
“You don’t?”
“I mean, I care. But I don’t think it’s a reason to wait anymore. There’s always going to be a million reasons why the timing isn’t exactly perfect, but sometimes you just have to jump anyway. Right?”
Cassie responded with a face-encompassing grin that let me know she was on the same page as me.
“So,” I smirked at her, “do you want to help me plan out the most epic proposal, or what?”
Her answer came in the form of another ear-piercing squeal.