Page 111 of On the Power Play

"But that would make sense, wouldn't it? Why he was willing to do this in the first place?"

"He didn't want to do this in the first place. You had to bully him into it."

Delia scoffed. "I didn't bully him!"

"And wasn't he engaged?"

Delia's heart rate immediately dropped. Right. Jack had been engaged. To a woman who died.

She exhaled, and her shoulders slumped. So why hadn’t he tried anything? He’d obviously pushed past his initial physical hesitancy. They’d had plenty of opportunities, but it was always her pushing past the boundaries of their contract.

What if there was something else? What if it was her? Or . . . what if it wasn’t her, but he wasn’t ready to move on with anyone? She couldn’t decide which option was worse.

He'd told her as much, hadn’t he? In the café over breakfast? I have things, he’d said and she'd been more than happy to accept that. She was broken. He was broken. Perfect. But now? The idea of his things making it so he didn’t want to touch her—didn’t want to be with her—made her stomach ache.

Mary pointed at the map. "There's the hotel."

They continued on down the hall and made their way past the ice rink. Delia gaped at the tall ceilings and massive sunroof. "I'm sorry I haven't been opening up."

Mary exhaled. "You were right. I haven't exactly been forthcoming either."

Delia glanced behind them, making sure Alvin was out of earshot. "Is there something going on between you two?"

Mary pursed her lips, linking her arm with Delia. "There can't be because that would be problematic with his job."

"To protect us?"

"Technically, he's just hired to protect you."

Delia turned to look in a tattoo parlor. She'd never seen one of those in a mall before. "Well, if he's interested in you, wouldn't that increase the chances that he'd do everything possible to protect your best friend?"

Mary gave her a sidelong glance. "Theoretically."

Delia laughed. They walked past the aquarium and finally spotted the Snowballs group in front of the pirate ship. Clara ran forward and gave them both hugs, then introduced them to the people they hadn't officially met, even though Jack had given her the rundown in the stands.

Their first stop was Bourbon Street. They perused the long line of restaurants and settled on an Italian place for lunch, then the rest of the afternoon was taken up with mini golf, laser tag, skating—which Delia was more than happy to watch from the sidelines—and a lengthy discussion with Amaya about how they didn't have time to go to the water park before the game, but they'd absolutely go in the morning before they drove back to Calgary. It was a team effort, and Penny was finally able to convince her that Galaxyland, the indoor amusement park, was more fun in the afternoon anyway.

By the time they parted ways to get back to their hotel in time to change for the game, Delia felt like she'd known the whole group for far longer than four hours. Better yet, she felt closer to Mary than she had in weeks. Which was a good thing since she started to spiral the second they walked into their hotel room.

"Where's my bag?" Delia moved Mary's to make sure she wasn't crazy. She checked the closet, the washroom, the opposite side of the second queen bed. Nothing.

"I can run down to the front desk?"

Delia shook her head. "We can tell them it's missing on the way out, but we don't have time for them to search for it. We need to be at the rink in fifteen minutes."

Mary nodded and flopped her bag on its side, then unzipped the suitcase and opened it like a clamshell. She pulled out her toiletry bag. “You can use anything in there.”

Delia took her up on it. She reapplied blush and powder on her forehead, then used a flosser, and lastly slathered Aquaphor on her lips. She’d had an outfit picked out for the game, but it wasn’t like what she was wearing was terrible. A little more casual, maybe, but at least her sweater was blue.

“Ready?” Mary stood at the door. Delia set her makeup back in the case and grabbed her coat and toque. Her hair was already flat from wearing it at the mall, so she wasn’t going without it.

Alvin found them in the lobby and they all hopped in the car for the short drive to the arena where full chaos ensued. Reporters and paparazzi swarmed them as they exited the car, making it almost comical that nobody had approached them in the mall earlier.

She signed a few autographs for kids and teens who were lined up at the barriers, her favourite being a glossy picture of Jack with his signature already on the top right corner. Warmth spread through her at the sight of their names scrawled in Sharpie next to each other.

They walked down the mostly empty corridors to their booth and got settled. Delia was about to grab the spoon for the queso dip when the door to the suite opened. She looked up and was fairly certain her spirit left her body.

Standing in front of her was a slight woman with dark hair that swooped over her forehead and a man that looked exactly like Jack.

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