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“This is about what you need to tell me.”

Max didn't pretend otherwise. “Partly, but that's not the only reason.”

I waited, watching something unexpectedly vulnerable move through his expression before he continued.

“I want you there, Ash. I've told you about the farm, but telling you about it isn't the same as taking you there, and I want you to see it.”

That seemed completely different from the secret I'd been expecting.

I looked down at our hands before asking the question that suddenly seemed much more important. “Do you take people there?”

Max was quiet long enough that I knew the answer before he gave it.

“Friends have visited, and obviously people work there, but if you're asking whether I've taken anyone there the way I'm taking you, then no.”

The terrace suddenly felt much smaller.

I'd been inside Max's apartment, slept in his bed, had sex with him, and cried against his chest while telling him the ugliest thing I'd ever believed about myself. Somehow, knowing he wanted to take me to the one place he'd chosen and built entirely for himself felt more intimate than any of it.

He was taking me home.

I squeezed his hand and told him okay.

The relief that softened his face made me smile, and Max asked, “That's it? No argument?”

“Oh, there will probably be arguments. Apparently, I'm being kidnapped by private jet, so I assume I'm entitled to complain about the accommodations.”

“It's Ignatius's plane.”

I considered that. “Fine. Rich-people kidnapping.”

“The worst kind,” Max agreed solemnly. “There may be champagne.”

“I'll endure it.”

His thumb moved slowly over my knuckles, and for the first time since Doryu had shown me the video, I found myself thinking beyond the next game.

Beyond Vegas.

Beyond my father.

I thought about Quebec and the six horses Max had told me about, an old farmhouse he'd chosen because he'd wanted somewhere permanent, and whatever truth he was finally ready to trust me with once we got there.

There was a part of me that was nervous, because Max had made it clear the thing he needed to tell me mattered, and I'd learned enough recently to know that life-changing truths rarely arrived conveniently wrapped.

But nervous wasn't the same as afraid.

For the first time in longer than I could remember, I was looking forward to going somewhere instead of wondering how quickly I might need to leave.

And I was going there with Max.

Chapter twenty

Major Penalty - A five-minute penalty assessed for certain serious infractions.

Max

Game Six hadn't gone the way any of us wanted. Vegas had taken advantage of being back on home ice, and by the time the final horn sounded, our three-two series lead had disappeared.