Page 1 of Hockey Boy

“I think he’s crashing.”The voice is distant and muffled.

My heart will go on.

“Get his heart rate.” Another voice I don’t recognize.

The power of love.

“You need to help him,please.”Lennox.She sounds so sad. Oh, Lennox, don’t be sad.

Because you loved me.

“Is he singing a Celine Dion medley?”Beckett?

“Aiden,pleasewake up.”

It’s all coming back to me.

I remember my first kiss like it was yesterday. Lennox Kennedy. Strawberry ChapStick. Soft lips and an even softer accidental nipple swipe. Nervous laughter. A vow that our friendship would remain intact no matter what.

“Never have I ever kissed someone,” I whispered.

It was our thing. One of us said it, and the other was obliged to do it. Never Have I Ever mixed with Truth or Dare. The game was so very us. She’d started it—she was always pushing the envelope, always getting us in trouble. But that night, I was the instigator. I had been dying to kiss her. The word crush had never beenso accurate. The sensations that bubbled up inside me when I thought about her threatened to decimate me if I didn’t let them out. I was walking around with an anvil on my chest, in a constant state of fear that I’d say the wrong thing and lose her.

The spark of competition lit in her eyes at my statement, though, and I knew I had her.

She held me back with a hand to the chest, her eyes wide and swimming with a mix of fear and wonder. “I’ll kiss you, but you have to promise this changes nothing.”

It changed everything, but I nodded anyway. I’d have said anything to get her mouth on mine.

Lips pressed together, she let out a disbelieving huff. “I’m serious. Friends forever. If either one of us changes their mind, no matter what, and no matter when, all we have to do is sayshamrock, and the other person can’t get weird.”

“Shamrock?”

She giggled. It was light and airy. “’Cause you’re the Leprechaun.”

I should have worried that my nickname in hockey would forever remind me of this moment, that shamrocks would become a curse rather than the good-luck charms they were touted as. Even if I had been concerned, it wouldn’t have mattered. I wanted to feel her lips more than I wanted to preserve my heart, so I nodded. “Fine. Got it.”

“Aiden, I’m serious. If one of us says it, nothing changes.”

I settled a hand against her cheek, rubbing my thumb along her soft skin. “Lex, I swear, nothing changes.”

I inched closer, my attention darting between her lips and her blue eyes. My heart pounded out an unsteady rhythm. God, she was so pretty. I was dying to taste her. And when she licked her lips and let out a soft sigh, I knew I’d promise her anything.

Oddly enough, the last word she said to me before disappearing from my life was shamrock. Though I suppose she didn’t even speak the word. It was via text, and it destroyed my life.

Thatwasthe worst day of my life. Until today.

As the beeping gets louder and her sobs continue, I will my eyes to open. But as she utters the next words, I wish I’d never woken up.

“Dammit, Aiden. I can’t do this again.Shamrock.”

Six Months Earlier

“Stop fidgeting.” Jill sets her hand on my arm, as if that will stop me from moving. If I’m not singing, then there’s a song playing in my head, and I can’t help but bop to it, even if it’s just my fingers drumming the beat against my knee.

I turn to my fiancée and force a smile. How long have I been forcing smiles? Years, at least. Happiest guy in the room. Faking it till I feel it, or something like that.

“Are you nervous?” She studies me as if she thinks she can read my expression.

---