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“What. Did. You. Do?” Dodo spun back to Calista, bumping into Piper’s shoulder.
Piper stumbled at his weight.
“Get out of the way,” Warren said to her. “This needs to be worked out. Did you do this to hurt me? To get my attention? You got it, Piper. You’ve always had it.”
Two Applebaums were yelling at her family in a row that didn’t have room for them all. Screaming at women. Who raised these men? Anxious, flushed, chewing on her lip, and hoping the guard hurried up, she moved forward against Dodo’s shoulder to force him to back off.
And then, Mikah was there. He towered over Warren and Dodo, grabbed their arms and pulled them away from her and into the aisle. “Get out of her face.” There was no wavering in his deep voice.
Her feeling of being threatened lessened now that Mikah was there, but her unease with the situation remained. Zee was there backing him up. This was their careers. Fans had cameras out. These were the team owners. A ref and other players had skated to the wall. Mikah’s dad was holding on to the back of his twins’ shirts. The crowd was staring. Two guards were finally nearing.
But amid all of the drama, the truth slammed through her. Mikah had left the most important game of the season to help her. She looked at Mikah, feeling like the happy emoji with hearts in her eyes.
He met her gaze. “You okay?”
Piper nodded and mouthed, “Thank you.”
The guards reached the men. “Calm down, folks. What’s going on?”
Piper turned to her family. Dahlia had her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Calista sat with a loose posture. She smiled, and her body did a happy wiggle.
No one else would have caught that, but Piper did. Her sister was not prone to happy dances. The hair on her arms rose. She turned to Calista. “What did you do?”
Calista took her hand and Dahlia’s. Her green eyes were bright and happy. “I bought the Snowers for us.”
Holy puck.
Confusion drove away her other emotions.
A security guard held one arm out and waved his other, directing them to go. “Ma’am, we’re going to need you three to leave.”
Embarrassed heat flushed through her fueling her confusion.
Dahlia, head down, rose, followed by Calista, then they were escorted out. The Applebaums remained behind, separated from Mikah and Zee by the guards. The urge to go to Mikah shoved through her, but she couldn’t see how to do that without making this situation worse.
Piper hoped they’d be sent to a big conference room, but more guards met them at the top of the stairs. She couldn’t even catch Mikah’s gaze as she, her cousin, and her sister were escorted out and to their car.
Piper drove them from the arena. Too shaky to go all the way home without answers, she pulled into the park. She turned off the ignition and turned to face her sister. “Spill it.”
Calista opened her palms and swept her gaze from Piper to Dahlia. “I’ve been selling my inventions for years like you two encouraged me to.” Calista shrugged. “A while ago, my financial advisor heard that Snowers’ stock was available. Just a few shares. Knowing I’m a fan, he brought me the info, and I put in a buy order. Then more came up for sale.”
Piper opened her palms in a clear why hadn’t she been told gesture.
“At first, I didn’t want it to be weird because Dahlia worked there.” Calista dropped her hands. “Then when even more stock came up this fall, all of a sudden, we had 70 percent. Majority share. I didn’t want that to interfere with Piper and Mikah.”
This was going to interfere, a lot. Nervous flutters rushed through her chest. She and Mikah didn’t need another challenge.
Dahlia leaned forward from the backseat. She grinned with an edge. “Was this my Christmas present? I really hadn’t guessed.”
“Yes,” Calista half-squealed, a very un-Calista like sound. She bounced in her seat. “You love it?”
“So much.” Dahlia’s voice was deep and strong. She was sounding much like her old self, her eyes shining with possibilities.
Calista nodded.
* * *
The game had continued with both Mikah and Zee benched. Mikah knew he owed his teammates an apology, but he wasn’t sorry. The guys were too amped up from their win to push the issue, and he’d make it up to them next game. He knew the drill though. Anyone tossed from the rink, plus being in the owner’s face, had only one place to go after the game. The coach’s office.
