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By Friday, panic set in.
It was a full-on, paralyzing kind of panic. The kind that held you frozen in place. The kind that kept you in the shadows and made you forget things. Important things. Like eating. Or sleeping. Or bathing.
She’d been fired. She’d been dumped. She had nothing. She was twenty-five years old and her life was shit.
Bobbi shuddered as she drew a green and black plaid blanket up over her hips and stared out the window into the early evening gloom. She was in the family room and a fire burned in the stone hearth, but she just couldn’t get warm. It was just past five and Gramps was in the kitchen. He’d whipped up a large pot of chili and though she was sure the aroma was mouth-watering, it did nothing for Bobbi.
She was too depressed to eat. To down and out to even think about taking one spoonful of Gramps delicious chili. She listened to Betty giggle at something Gramps said and then she heard her father’s answering laugh.
For one brief, bittersweet moment, she felt light. Her father’s days were good this past week. Funny, her life was down in the toilet and yet, he had rallied. His mind was good, his eyes bright, and his appetite had returned.
She just wished she could enjoy it.
A sigh escaped her lips as she pushed her tangled hair out of her eyes and watched—with disinterest—twin beams of light cut through the thickening gloom outside. A black truck pulled up behind Bobbi’s own modest car and the doors flew open. Logan Forest and her sister Billie, stood together for a moment, their bodies touching in the way that lovers did, hands caressing a cheek, bones melting into flesh.
Her sister rose onto her tip toes and sank her fingers into Logan’s hair. They kissed a long, lingering kiss and his hands fell to Billie’s butt. He pulled her into him as the two of them took their time to taste each other.
When Logan slowly let her sister slide down--when he broke their kiss and claimed her hand inside his—something twisted inside Billie. The emptiness of her bubble was no more.
She was filled with something fierce and hot and painful.
She bit her lip so hard that she drew blood and when Billie and Logan entered the house, she turned away from the foyer. She had seen enough. She didn’t need to see anymore.
“Hey.”
Shit. Guess Billie wasn’t on the same page.
Bobbi turned, pasted a surprised look on her face and attempted a lame smile.
“Hey yourself. What are you guys doing here? Did you come for Gramps chili?”
Billie nodded. “Sure did. We’ve got a game at eight and I just got off the ice with a bunch of girls, so we came for carbs and then we’re heading back to the twin pads.”
Bobbi stared at her sister and hoped like hell the jealous ball of pain inside her didn’t show.
Billie Jo had returned home from Europe the previous fall, her career playing professional hockey over much too soon. She’d been labeled injury prone and her last concussi
on had pretty much signed her walking papers. For a woman who had represented her country in two Olympic games and then played in the men’s league in Sweden, it was a tough blow.
And yet, she’d bounced back. She had returned home, conquered the local men’s hockey league and managed to find love. Currently working her ass off running her very own hockey training school, Billie Jo Barker had moved from displaced sports hero, to up and coming business woman of the year.
Bobbi loved her.
And she hated her too.
“Why don’t you come and watch?” Billie asked quietly.
Bobbi glanced at Logan Forest, suddenly aware of just how awful she looked. She pulled her blanket a little higher and murmured. “I think I’m coming down with something.”
“Some fresh air might do you good, Bobbi,” Logan offered. “It’s not good to stay cooped up inside, especially in the winter.”
“I’m fine right here, thanks,” she said frostily. She didn’t care that Logan was Billie’s boyfriend. What gave him the right to come in here and offer advice?
“I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” he said and kissed Billie on the cheek before disappearing down the hall.
“Bobbi,” Billie said.
“You better go,” she inserted. “Betty is in there and who knows what the hell she’s wearing or even if she’s dressed. She’ll be all over Logan and you know it.”
