Page 364 of Power Play

“I know.”

“You paid ten grand for the lodge.”

“For two cabins.”

All four of them groaned.

“Stop saying that,” Rider told me.

“It’s relevant.”

“It has never once helped.”

Cade moved off the tailgate and stood in front of me. “Come have dinner, play pool, and watch Briggs lose at air hockey. You don’t have to sleep there, but be with us before tomorrow sneaks up and a different kind of stress piles on top of you.”

“I don’t lose at air hockey,” Briggs said.

“You were playing yourself.”

“And winning.”

Cade ignored him. “Give us a few hours, Ry.”

The offer didn’t contain a hidden argument. He wasn’t trying to put me in the same building as Charm so someone could orchestrate a conversation. He was offering me the lodge I’d rented and the family I’d invited before I let her absence make me abandon both.

“The girls stay next door?” I asked.

“All night.”

“No surprise conversations?”

“No.”

“And no one starts telling me I’m making the wrong choice after a few drinks.”

Cade’s eyes held mine. “Give us more fuckin credit. You’re done, and we know it.”

My chest resisted those words even while my head clung to them. I finished the beer and set the empty bottle inside the cooler.

“Fine.”

Briggs lifted both hands in victory. “Indoor pool.”

“I’m not swimming.”

“You haven’t seen the lights.”

“I’ve seen lights before.”

“Not like these.”

The players’ entrance opened behind us, and Coach stepped into the parking lot carrying a laptop bag. He stopped when he saw five hockey players gathered around an open cooler the night before scouts arrived. His stare moved across Cade, Easton, Rider, and Briggs before landing on me.

“Am I interrupting a support group?”

“Team-building exercise,” Briggs said.

“You don’t play for my team.”