Page 156 of Suck My Puck

His voice shakes with emotion. I lean back and cup his face in my hands. His eyes are teary and he’s smiling, just like me.

“I can’t wait to tell Lucas,” he says. “Will you come with me to tell him?”

My lips are wobbly as I smile at him. “Of course I will.”

Chapter 54

Braden

Iwalk down the hallway of the hospital with a brand new goalie stick wrapped in a red bow.

I hold Bella’s hand in mine, excited and nervous all at once.

I walk through the open door of Lucas’s hospital room. When I see him focused on playing a game on his phone, I smile.

He’s sitting up today. He looks stronger than the first time I saw him.

His parents look up at me and smile. Me coming here to surprise Lucas with the good news today, the morning after Christmas, was his dad’s idea.

“Buddy, there’s someone here to see you,” his dad says.

When Lucas looks up at me, he flashes the biggest smile.

“Braden Blomdahl. Hey.”

I smile. “Hey, man.”

His gaze fixes on the goalie stick in my hand. “Hope it’s okay that I stopped by. I wanted to drop off a late Christmaspresent for you.”

I hand Lucas the goalie stick. He stares with big eyes. That massive grin doesn’t budge.

“Thank you!” he says excitedly.

“Of course,” I say before introducing him and his parents to Bella.

And then I take a breath and look at Lucas’s dad.

He looks at his son. “We got some good news, buddy. They found a bone marrow donor for you.”

Lucas’s brow hits his hairline in shock as he looks at his dad. “They did?”

He nods. “It’s your favorite goalie.”

Lucas whips his head to me. His blue eyes are bright. “No way…”

Emotion simmers at the base of my throat. Bella squeezes my hand.

“It’s true. I’m a match. Can you believe it?”

Lucas starts to smile. “No way,” he says again. “This is awesome. So awesome.”

“When you recover from surgery and you’re feeling better, I wanna see your skills in the net.”

Lucas beams down at the goalie stick in his hands. Then he looks back up at me. His smile is pure unfettered joy, and it’s making my chest ache in the best way.

“We’re gonna play together?” he says, his voice hitching up in excitement.

“We absolutely are.”

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