Page 24 of Three Hockey Hotties

Sure enough, there’s an older lady sitting on Abby’s other side, also wrapped in a blanket.

I’m not trying to be a dick, but this hallway and the floor of this hallway are not places people should be sitting, especially women old enough to my grandmother. Hell, my great-grandmother. There aren’t rats scurrying around, at least not at the moment, but it hasn’t seen a soap bubble or a vacuum cleaner in at least a decade.

“Hi, I’m Kane by the way.” Kane gives the woman a smile.

“Oh my God,” Abby says. She shakes her head almost as if she forgot the woman was there as well. “Mrs. Litwinski, this is Kane. And Benjamin.” As she looks up at Benjamin, her cheeks get pink. Then she looks at me, and I swear her mouth drops open for a moment, and she might even suck in a breath. So that seems weird. And I’m not close enough to her to confirm. “And Dash.” She swallows hard. “This is my neighbor. Mrs. Litwinski. My neighbor,” she repeats, which tells me how rattled she is.

By the situation? Or by the three of us?

“How do you know Abby?” the woman asks Kane.

Is this really the time for this? They’re sitting on the fucking floor instead of inside their apartments.

“We just met her today at the hockey rink. She was there for work. We gave her a tour.”

“Why are you here right now?” Abby asks as if it’s just occurring to her that it’s strange.

“You forgot this.” I finally speak, holding up her water bottle.

My heart squeezes at the way her eyes light up when she sees the thing. It’s so simple. But now I plan to buy this woman a thousand water bottles and give them to her one by one just to see her light up like that.

“And you all three had to come?” Mrs. Litwinski asks.

“Yes,” Benjamin says simply and firmly.

“I see.” She nods as if she does, in fact, understand.

“Time to go,” Benjamin says, stepping forward.

“Go?” Abby asks, looking up at him with a sweet, genuinely innocent look that I know is doing a number on my friend.

“Yes. Go. You’re not staying here.”

Thank God. Benjamin will make her leave this dump.

I, on the other hand, am more likely to do the caveman thing and just throw her over my shoulder. Which will work. But might freak her out.

“But…” Abby looks from him to Kane. She takes a deep breath.

Okay, so Kane makes her feel more comfortable. That makes sense.

“I don’t have anywhere to go,” she tells him.

“Oh, Lollipop, that isn’t true,” Kane tells her, reaching to brush her hair away from her face. “You’re coming with us.”

Her eyes go startlingly wide.

“I am?”

Well, that’s a better response than ‘you’re nuts’ or ‘the fuck if I am’.

“You can’t stay here,” Mrs. L tells her. “Honey, this place is terrible. Even if maintenance gets here soon, your bed and couch are both soaked. Where will you sleep? You have three amazing men here who want to get you out of here. You have to go.”

I like Mrs. L already.

The three of us are staring at her by the time she finishes.

I can tell by the way he’s holding himself that Benjamin is about to lose his shit.