Chapter Twenty-Four
Brody
How was I supposed to think about hockey when my heart was shattered in more pieces than a jigsaw puzzle?
And not the kid version. Hell no.
The only reason I felt somewhat decent as I skated onto the ice for the home game that night was because I had hope.
I had to, didn’t I? In order to keep functioning in any semblance of the word, I had to believe that the love of my life really wasn’t gone from me forever.
No way.
Maggie and I were meant to be. I knew it the first time I saw her and felt that certainty deepen each time I was with her.
We were going to be just fine. It was only a matter of time.
And doing what Mr. Waterman suggested—letting her miss me. Letting her come to me.
Giving her space? I could do that, right?
It was sort of easy, having Liam around. He was like a walking reminder of Maggie. A way to be closer to her.
“Stop staring into my eyes like that,” Liam snapped, shifting to skate away from me. “It’s creepy as hell.”
“Sorry,” I muttered, skating over to the net.
I had to focus. Get into game mode.
Especially because my sister Tara was somewhere in the stands tonight.
I’d texted her about the… incident with Maggie, and even though I certainly wasn’t labeling it a breakup, that’s exactly how Tara was treating it.
Full of sympathy and a dire need to tend to my emotional wounds, she booked a flight to Boston, telling me we could go out to dinner after the game.
I wasn’t really up for it, but I guessed dinner with my sister beat yet another tea party with Lily. I couldn’t watch her cry again when the rubber bands of the fairy wings she tried to force onto my back snapped.
The rush of the crowd filled TD Garden. I felt that pre-game electricity as the screams and thud of the music surrounded me.
I shook my head and blew out a breath, getting into game mode.
I could get through this. I could get through this because I had to, so really there was no other choice. The team was depending on me and I couldn’t let them down.
Liam skated by, not looking me in the eyes when he dropped the news.
“Just so you know, Maggie’s here,” he said. “And Cassie said she wants to talk to you after the game.”
My heart pounded.
“Cassie wants to talk to me after the game? Or Maggie does?”
“Maggie, obviously.”
“Well, I just had to be clear.”
He muttered something and skated away, getting ready for the start of the game.
But all I could think about was that my beautiful girl was somewhere in the stands, waiting for me at the end of all this.
Had Mr. Waterman been right? Did she just need some time and space to think it out? I saw light at the end of the tunnel.
Everything was going to be okay.
Maggie was here. She was here for me.
With that knowledge tucked securely in my heart, I played the best I’d ever played in my life.