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"Hey, everything okay?” I ask, unable to read his expression.

There was a time I never would have had that issue. We could communicate with just a look. But those times are long gone.

“Sutton has decided that she likes you,” he states.

I can’t help but laugh. “I’m sure she likes everyone she beats on the ice.”

“We both know you let her win.”

I shrug one shoulder, refusing to confirm or deny that.

“Did you mean what you said earlier? About being on the same team,” he adds when I don’t immediately respond.

“Well, yeah. We’re both wearing green and white right now, aren’t we?”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

My lips part to respond, but I don’t get a chance to say anything.

“Things will never go back to how they once were. Too much time has passed. We’ve changed too much. But if you’d be willing to, I’d like to maybe try to figure our shit out.”

“Yeah?” I ask, in utter disbelief.

Kodie shouldn’t be the one holding out the olive branch. It should be me; I’m the one who fucked everything up. I appreciate the shit out of it, though. It shows that, deep down, he still is that caring, thoughtful boy I used to know.

I always was the more selfish one in our friendship, a fact that makes my stomach knot tightly.

“Yeah,” he confirms.

“I’d…I’d really like that.”

“Okay, great,” he says before glancing over his shoulder as if he’s ready to bolt now that he’s said what he needed to say.

He turns around, and I finally find my words.

“What about breakfast one day?”

He freezes. “Breakfast?”

“Yeah. Friends get breakfast, right?”

When he doesn’t instantly reply, my heart rate picks up. Did I push it too far?

“Yeah, breakfast sounds good. We’ll arrange something.”

And then he marches out of the locker room as if he didn’t just end a feud that’s been going on for over ten years now with one simple sentence.

I hate to admit it, but as I throw my bag over my shoulder and head toward the parking lot, I’m smiling. Not one of the fake ones I sometimes put on for the media, but a real one. One that I feel in my soul.

I didn’t want to come to LA. There were so many other places and teams I would have chosen over the Vipers when my trade was first mentioned.

But it seems that it might just be exactly where I needed to be. I haven’t just gotten a new team; for the first time in a very long time, I might just have friends. And of course, I’ve got Garrett. Whatever Garrett might be.

My friend?

That doesn’t seem right.

We’re…we’re more than that. But putting a label on what’s happening between us is terrifying.