“Lucky for you, I am available for the extremely low price of free, twenty-four hours a day, and I’ll check out the Ice Knights road trip schedule and find a list of meetings you can go to on the road. I’ll text it to ya later.”

The offer made Shelby’s throat clog with emotion. Screwing up her mouth and focusing on the ugly water stain on her ceiling to avoid tearing up, she took in a deep breath. Besides KiKi across the hall, Roger was one of the few people she could call a friend. That was something made all the more important, considering she was still trying to rebuild her relationship with her mom that she’d practically trampled into dust when she’d been drinking. The steps were well outlined in all the AA literature, but no one ever told a person how long they would take to complete them. Addiction gave no easy outs; it just felt like it did when she had been in the middle of a binge.

Now she knew different and, because of all she’d lost, every kindness in her life became a little sweeter. However, that didn’t make it any easier to accept help.

“I can do that part,” she said when she could finally get words out. “You don’t have to.”

“I want to,” Roger said. “Anyway, I gotta admit I’m getting a real kick out of making that Richy Rich Beckett fella wait on me. Is that wrong?”

“Probably, considering he’s your customer, but I’m not going to rat you out.”

Roger laughed. “All right, girl, keep that engine of yours purring and reach out when you need me.”

“Right back at you.”

Feeling more settled than she had when she’d woken up, Shelby ended the call and put her coffee mug in the dishwasher. She walked across her tiny studio to the fish tank set up in front of the window looking across the harbor to the city and bent down to betta-fish level.

“Heya, Marvin. How you doin’?”

As was his custom, he ignored her and stayed turned toward the city. Yeah, her Waterbury apartment was small and overpriced, but the view was amazing. Seeing the sparkling city high-rises across the harbor’s blue waters stole her breath every time. Some early mornings in the summer, she took her coffee and climbed out that very window to sit on the fire escape to watch all the commuter traffic crawl across the harbor bridge. Beyond her Hulu subscription, it was pretty much her only entertainment that didn’t have to do with hockey.

Obsessed? Her? Hey, it could be worse. She could still be infatuated with bad bar pickups who never stayed the night and definitely never remembered her name.

She sprinkled some fish food into the tank, and that got Marvin’s attention. He swam up and gobbled the flakes.