“Sweetheart,” I say, looking around. “If you don’t stop, I’m going to close the blinds on your window, lock the door, and then fuck you on this desk.” I lean in now. “All while wearing the tie.” She shudders in her chair. “That isn’t helping.” I’m actually thinking about how mad she would be if I did that when my phone beeps in my pocket.

“Saved by the bell,” she says and pushes me away from her. “Now go teach hockey stuff so I can work.”

“Fine,” I say, kissing her one more time and then taking my phone out of my pocket and seeing it’s a message from Carey.

Carey: Deal accepted. I’ll send over the contract.

I look back now. “Change of plans tonight. The three of us will have dinner.”

“The three of us always have dinner,” she says, laughing.

“I mean out. Let’s get pizza,” I say, and she just shrugs.

“Whatever you want,” she says, and I have to say in the past three weeks she’s grown into her own. She’s also started hanging around my sisters more, which makes it worse for me. You see, after everything that happened, they decided to spend the whole summer in Canada with me.

I don’t get on the ice that day. Instead, I watch from the stands and pick ten kids who I want to extend the program for. I had to choose, and it was the perfect day to do it.

When we finally decide dinner everyone agrees that we should just go home. Dylan starts talking about the weekend and how he wants to go to the cabin we went to last week and try fishing again.

“We can,” I say. “I’m sure everyone is going again.”

“Michael said he’s going,” Dylan tells me, and Caroline just looks at me.

“So,” I start, and she looks at me. “I had a meeting with my team today.”

“Are they still mad at you?” Dylan asks, and I look at him. He was very upset when some of the kids said I got kicked off the team. I had to explain to him that sometimes you get in trouble, and this was my time-out, which just made him even madder since he didn’t understand any of it.

“No,” I answer, and then I look at them both. “I’m mad at them.”

Caroline just looks at me and waits. “Why?” Dylan asks me.

“Because when you are with a team, you expect them to have your back and be on your side,” I tell him. “On that team, on the ice, they are your brothers.” He just nods, and I decide I’m just going to have the rip off the Band-Aid moment. “I told them I was not getting on the ice in Edmonton anymore.” Dylan opens his mouth, and Caroline gasps.

“What does that mean?” she asks quietly.