"Great save tonight," Tyler said, extending his hand. "Though I don't really follow hockey. More of a golf guy myself."
Liam shook his hand on autopilot, his mind still processing the wordfiancé. "Thanks."
"We should get going," Tyler said to Phoebe. "Early flight tomorrow, and you know how Mom gets when we're late for brunch."
"Right. Of course." Phoebe glanced at Liam, something unreadable in her expression. "Great game tonight. Really."
"Thanks," Liam managed. "Have a safe flight."
He watched them walk away, Tyler's hand possessive on Phoebe's lower back.
Months. He'd spent months working up the courage, months of thinking maybe she felt something too, months of his teammates telling him to make a move.
And she'd been engaged the whole fucking time.
"You okay?" Oliver's voice came from behind him.
Liam turned to find his teammate watching him with sympathy. "Fine. Just tired."
"That why you look like someone just told you Santa isn't real?"
"Something like that." Liam started walking toward the team bus. "You know she was engaged?"
"Phoebe?" Oliver fell into step beside him. "I had no idea. Heather might have known. They talk sometimes."
"Doesn't matter." But it did matter. It mattered that Phoebe had never mentioned Tyler. It mattered that she took her ring off during games. It mattered that sometimes he caught her looking at him with something that was a lot like longing.
Or maybe he was just seeing what he wanted to see.
But as Liam settled into his seat for the long ride home, he couldn't stop thinking about the way Phoebe had saidfiancé. Like the word tasted wrong in her mouth. Like she was trying to convince herself as much as him.
His phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number:It's not what you think. But I can't explain right now. Please don't hate me. - P
Liam stared at the message, his thumb hovering over the reply button. What was he supposed to say? That he'd been falling for her all season? That seeing her with another man was like taking a puck to the chest? That he wanted an explanation but was terrified of what it might be?
He deleted the text without responding and turned his phone off.
Some saves you could make. Others were lost before you even saw them coming.
But as the bus pulled away from the arena, Liam couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't over. That whatever was happening with Phoebe and her fiancé, whatever had prompted that text, was just the beginning of something that would either break his heart completely or give him everything he'd never admitted he wanted.
Either way, he was already in too deep to back out now.
