Page 159 of Keeping Score

I grinned, nodding my head frantically.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. And you know what, if he really does want to move to Michigan, I’ll move there with him.”

“You what?”

“You think it’ll break his heart to leave? Well, it’ll break mine even more to have a life without him in it,” I told her, feeling clarity like I’d never felt before. “Wherever he goes, I’ll go, too.”

“What about your job? Your life?”

“What about Brody?” I told her. “It’s time for him to get what he wants for a change.”

“Trust me, Maggie. He’s only ever wanted one thing. Go talk to him, and I think you’ll figure that out.”

We hung up quickly, and I spun around in a daze, giddy with renewed energy and hope.

“Well, what was all that about?” the old man, who apparently was more nosy than I’d given him credit for, asked, still waiting in his window.

“Brody’s sister,” I told him, dizzied and excited. “I have to go.”

“Where?”

“I gotta go see about a guy,” I threw over my shoulder, already running down the cobblestone to where my car was parked.

The last thing I heard was the old man’s laughter swirling through the night air.

“Ah, lucky bastard got off easy!” he called out. “At least he didn’t have to go to war to win you back!”

Chapter Fifty-Four

Brody

They say hard times make for strong men.

At least, I think someone once said that; if not, I’m a fucking genius because it was true.

The game was brutal. Perhaps one of the worst games I’d ever had the honor of playing in.

But something about it changed everything.

I’d come to a lot of realizations during the course of that game. Namely, that I sure as hell couldn’t retire on such an absolute shit note.

And I sure as hell couldn’t leave Boston.

This was home. I felt it in my bones. And once I realized that, everything else fell away.

Life had a funny way of working itself out. And what was meant to be yours would always come to you. I truly believed that.

So, I’d take life as it came. As long as I was where I was meant to be, I had to have hope that what was meant to be would be. That was all I could do.

I had a feeling, though, that Liam didn’t have the change of heart that I experienced when it came to retirement.

He lingered around, long after everyone had left the arena, savoring it. He stood in the middle of the ice, long after the game had finished, taking it all in. Looking around at the place where he’d built a legacy.

I waited behind him, letting him have his moment before telling him the decision I’d landed on somewhere smack in the middle of our piss-poor, history-making game.

When he finally turned back to where Cassie and I waited in the ice box, I saw the finality in his eyes. The acceptance that the game that had been his life for years was now firmly settled in the past. The chapter closed.

“How does it feel?” I walked out onto the ice next to him. “Knowing we’ve played our last game together?”