There was a mumble of assent from the group.
“You’re going to fuck things up,” Bentley said with a shrug. “Seriously. It’s bound to happen. Fights happen. Perfect is boring. But the minute you learn how to forgive her—”
“She doesn’t need to be forgiven!” Pepper shouted.
“Not now, baby, we’ll appeal to logic in phase two,” Eric promised.
“What the fuck is phase two?” I yelled.
“The sauna,” Lukas answered with a grin.
“The minute you accept that you’ll both make mistakes out of anger, out of fear, out of sheer stupidity, the stronger you’ll be,” Chloe finished.
“And what makes you think I want to be strong with her?” I asked my little group therapy session.
“Do you love her?” Porter asked.
I glared at him.
“Seriously, though. I’m starving, and you’re keeping me from my steak.” He raised his eyebrows in my direction.
“Fine, I fucking love her.” Because I did. “No matter what she did with that stupid article.” Nothing was going to change that. It sucked to admit it, because I didn’t know if we’d ever be what we were before, but it was just a fact.
“I mean, she did pretty much almost get Hannah taken away,” Chloe said to Bentley.
“No, she didn’t. That was Zach. It wasn’t her fault that he was a deceptive ass.” I couldn’t help but defend Ivy. Because sure, she’d written some bullshit back before we were even dating, but she wasn’t responsible for the fallout.
“It was her name on the byline,” Pepper added with a shrug.
“One, he put it there, and edited her shit. And two, stop using reverse psychology on me.” I pointed at her.
“You love her.” She grinned.
“I already said that! Yes, I love her. I’m probably always going to love her because this shit just won’t die. Believe me, I’ve tried. I thought about performing an exorcism on my bed just to get her ghost out of it. Does that make you happy?” I threw up my hands.
“Yes,” she said with a shrug.
“Don’t you think you’d be happier if you just got back together with her?” Eric asked.
“Of course. I’ve never been as happy as I was with Ivy, but there’s a lot of water there—”
“Love can build a bridge,” Lukas said emphatically.
“No more Judds for you! You know, there’s been great music invented since the nineties. Catch up.” I snapped.
“Fucking get over it!” Bentley yelled. “If you let your head run amok, shit gets tangled and the best thing to do is literally get the fuck over it. Learn how. It will save you sooooo much drama in the future.”
Choe glared at him.
“Not with you, honey, you’re perfect,” he told her.
“Steak!” Porter yelled. “I’m fucking starving!”
“Okay!” I shouted. “So what the fuck am I supposed to do?”
“Yeah, so we have that all worked out,” Pepper said.
“Phase three?” I flat-out mocked her tone.
“Shut up. We’re saving both of you. Now Faith has Hannah at our house—”
“Faith is in on this? Who else? Did you call Boston and see if they wanted to put in their two cents?” Jesus, I was in the middle of a three-ringed circus.
“No, but if that would make this any faster,” Porter mumbled.
“Hannah’s in on it, too,” Eric admitted.
I turned to glare at him. “You got my Hannah in on this?”
“Oh come on, who do you think asked for help in the first place?” Pepper crooned.
That knocked me off my feet.
“Hannah asked you to help?”
Pepper nodded. “She’s little, but she sees a lot. And she sees that you’re both miserable, and her family is ripped apart.” She sighed, and it was huge. And fake. “She just wants her family back…”
“Stop. I draw the line right there.”
“A girl’s gotta try.” She shrugged.
“And what was Hannah’s idea?” I cringed, thinking of the various ideas in her head.
Chloe and Bentley looked at each other. “Well, actually we need to go outside for this part.”
“By all means,” I said, motioning to the door, “lead the way.”
We moved down the hall like a giant blob, with Porter stuck at my side like a piece of 3m strip. “Do you have to walk so close?” I asked, edging my bag over my back to give me more room.
“Yep, I’m supposed to tackle you if you run.”
“Awesome.”
We exited to the player’s lot, and I was relieved to see the paps were gone. But there was a giant, bus-like RV sitting in the middle of the lot.
I dropped my bag into my car, while Porter blocked every entrance to the driver’s side, and then I climbed the stairs into the RV.
“So nice to meet you!” An older lady with purple hair said with a grin. “I’m Rachel and that’s my husband, Richard. We own R&R Bulldogs. Bentley and Chloe here have one of our pups, and they said you’d need one, so we brought our newest litter. None of them are spoken for because we wanted to see if any were going to be show champions, so you can have your pick of the litter. Your friends have already vouched for you.”
A bulldog? Puppy?
“Facetime your sister, now,” I ordered Eric.
He and Pepper argued through facial expressions, but he won...maybe. Either way, he pulled out his phone, and after two rings, Faith appeared on the screen. I snatched the phone away.
“Get my kid, Faith.”
Her smile was shaky. “Sure thing. Hannah?”
Hannah’s sweet smile appeared on the screen. “Hi, Uncle Connor!”
“Hi baby. Want to tell me why I’m hanging out with a bunch of bulldog puppies?”
Her mouth pursed, wiggling from side-to-side in that way she had when she was trying to get out of trouble. “Because Ivy wants a puppy
.”
“Uh. huh. Who else wants a puppy?”
“Me! I mean, they’re really cute…” She blinked at me.
“Yes, I know. What’s the deal, Banana?”
She looked down and then back up. “You’re both really sad. You should fix it.”
It was so simple in the eyes of a child. We were both sad. We both loved each other. We were both stupidly stubborn.
Ok, I was more stubborn.
I was also head over heels for Ivy, and if there was a chance we could be happy—that we could last, then didn’t I owe it to myself—to all three of us, really—to try?
“I should fix it with a puppy.”
Hannah nodded, her eyes flaring wide and bright.
“Okay, but you have to stay on facetime and help me pick the right one.”
The thing about afternoon games? They left your evenings pretty darn open. In my case, I was following a very dappled-gray, very pudgy bulldog puppy around my yard, waiting for her to poop.
Of course, Hannah had chosen a girl. It was just my fate to be surrounded by gorgeous women.
The puppy trotted to a patch of grass in the corner as I heard swearing from closer to the pool house.
Then something started beeping loud and obnoxious.
“Stupid. Fucking. Pepper.”
Ivy.
My heart jumped, and for the first time since I’d decided to jump with both feet, I was terrified of landing. What if she’d changed her mind? If my lack of faith killed her love?
What if this had all been for nothing?
What if that fucking beeping didn’t stop?
Ivy appeared, scanning the edges of the yard with her apple watch out like a map. Because it was.
Holy shit, that pinging was her phone.
Pepper really was devious.
I stood completely still, waiting for her to turn.
When she did, my breath caught. She was still in the same jean skirt from the game, my jersey tied at one corner in an attempt to fit her. My game jersey from my first hat trick.
The one I’d been wearing when I realized I was really going to make it in the NHL.
Her hair was loose, and she blew it away from her face as she walked with her head down, coming closer and closer to the ping.