Page 25 of Three Hockey Hotties

“Your bed and coach are both soaked?” he asks tightly.

“Ceiling caved in,” Mrs. L repeats. “There’s water everywhere.”

Benjamin pulls in a breath through his nose. I can see the muscle along his jaw clenching from where I’m standing. “Where is your apartment manager?” he asks.

“We’ve been waiting for him for over an hour,” Mrs. L says. “I doubt he’ll show, to be honest.”

I notice the way she’s watching Benjamin. She’s figured out that he’s a guy who will get shit done. She’s riling him up, so he’ll get this situation fixed for her too.

Smart.

“Let’s see the apartment,” I say. We have to get in there to pack Abby’s shit up after all.

Benjamin’s entire body is tense as I put a hand on his shoulder and turn him toward Abby’s apartment door. I push it open and nudge him through it, leaving Kane to keep Abby calm in the hallway.

“Jesus Christ,” Benjamin swears as we step inside.

Yeah, this is bad.

The apartment is tiny. And I don’t mean small compared to where we live. I mean tiny compared to all apartments in the world.

We’re standing in the living room, and even with just me and Benjamin in the space, I feel claustrophobic.

The only things in the room are a sofa, a coffee table, and a rug, and they’re all soaked. Because the ceiling above them is lying on top of them now.

I peek through the doorway to my right. Her bedroom. I would be more interested in that room, but the first thing I notice is that her bed is also wet, as Mrs. L said, because of the steady drip from the ceiling above it.

“Shit, that’s about to go,” I say, looking at the bubbled ceiling above it.

“She is not staying here,” Benjamin declares. “I didn’t want her staying here before the fucking ceiling caved in.”

“You know how Kane and I feel,” I tell him with a shrug.

“I’m going to make some calls. Do you want to pack up her stuff?”

I am definitely the one to pack her stuff.

Benjamin would pack a pair of jeans and a shirt and then say we could buy the rest. He wouldn’t think of things like comfort and her wanting to have things that are special to her, even if they are a little worn and okay, inexpensive.

He’s not an asshole. He just wants everyone he cares about to have the best of everything and one of his love languages is buying us stuff. Providing for us.

I have no doubt he’s itching to burn this building down.

Kane, on the other hand, would make sure we packed her favorite snacks, her sexiest underwear, and…that might be it.

I’m going to make sure she has her favorite pajamas, her comfiest sweatshirt, and whatever else I can see that seems special and nostalgic.

“You’re not actually going to try to get this building fixed up, are you?” I ask as Benjamin starts thumbing through his phone contacts.

“No, I’m going to sue the fuck out of the guy who owns this goddamn building. We’re going to get it condemned, and we’re going to make sure that every other property he owns is fully inspected and get any licenses he’s got reviewed and hopefully revoked.”

I take a deep breath and step forward. “Is that going to result in leaving a bunch of people without a place to live?” I ask him, trying to insert some reason into his frustration and anger.

Benjamin is always the reasonable one, but Abby has clearly already messed with all of our emotions.

“Not if we make sure someone else owns the buildings. But they need to be up to code. People shouldn’t be living like this.”

I nod. “But your standards aren’t everyone else’s standards. Take a deep breath.”