Page 78 of Saving Forever with the Hockey Captain

It felt alive.

***

Coach doesn't ask where anything goes, he already knows.

Within five minutes my kitchen looks like a grocery store exploded.

Colby unloads bag after bag onto the counter.

One shelf after another fills. Fresh vegetables replace takeout containers. Actual meals replace whatever questionable collection of leftovers I'd apparently been planning to survive on.

Liam wanders into the kitchen carrying one of the pink flamingos under his arm.

"I've named this one Florence."

I blink.

"You named the flamingo?"

"Of course." He points toward the second one standing proudly outside the front window.

"That's Gerald."

I rub my forehead. "I'm almost afraid to ask."

"The little one is Kevin."

Coach closes the refrigerator door. "There is no little one."

Liam grins. "There will be."

Toby laughs so hard he leans against the counter.

Caleb quietly carries another load upstairs. Nobody notices. That's Caleb. He never announces he's helping. He just...

helps.

I watch him disappear around the corner with another box.

"Thanks."

He shrugs. "I had hands."

Typical Caleb. Three words. Maximum usefulness. Minimum conversation.

I look around the cabin. Two days ago, the silence felt heavy. Today I can't hear the furnace, or the wind, or even my own thoughts.

The cabin is full of voices, full of laughter, full of people who somehow decide that my recovery belongs to all of them, and for the first time since I’ve gotten home, I don't feel like I'm carrying it by myself.

***

Liam leans back in the recliner. "You remember the Zamboni prank?"

Coach groans immediately. "I was hoping we'd all agreed never to discuss that again."

"We absolutely did." Liam grins. "But you're forgetting one important detail."

"What's that?"