Page 40 of Shot Through the Heart

Landon frowns at me, but I avoid his gaze. The last thing I need is to be pulled aside by my captain right now. I flash Dean what I hope is a passive smile.

“Thanks, though,” I offer, hoping to make up for my mood. Sure enough, Dean is right back to tapping his stick and taunting Landon beside him.

I grab a half-full bucket of pucks from in front of the bench and skate to the far side of the rink. No one bugs me while I find my groove with solo drills and shots at the net. I’ve almost forgotten that they’re all here too until Dominik whistles as he skates up beside me, hitting the ice with his stick. I snap the puck I currently have toward him. We pass it back and forth, switch up our paths, and practice shots until we’re both breathless.

“All right, man, let’s take a breather so we don’t wear ourselves too thin before the game,” Dom says, snatching the puck from me and hitting it away. I’m about to push it to keep going, when I finally notice that we’re alone.

I nod and make my way toward the benches.

“You okay?” Dominik asks, keeping his voice low even though we’re alone.

A pitiful laugh slips between my lips, the sound unrecognizable even to me. “No.”

He comes to a stop in front of me. “Wanna talk about it?”

I’m about to say yes, the need to get some of this off my chest strong, but I hesitate at the last second. Stella and I didn’t talk about what I should or shouldn’t tell people. Would she be okay if I told Dominik?

The last thing I want to do is anything that would upset her or cross any of her boundaries, even if we haven’t discussed them yet.

“I don’t know if I can,” I tell Dom honestly.

I hold my breath, expecting him to push me for more, but all he does is place a hand on my shoulder.

“Is it because it’s me specifically or because of the people involved?” he questions, no judgment in his voice, just curiosity.

“It’s not you,” I tell him while ripping my helmet off my head. “I just…I don’t want to screw anything up and if I say the wrong thing or?—”

“You don’t have to explain yourself. I get it.” Dom pats my shoulder, meeting my stare head on. “I’m here when you need me.”

Emotions I’m not used to feeling threaten to pour out.

I’ve gone years keeping everything in check, but having Stella back in my life and finding out about Harper seems to have broken some metaphorical emotional dam I had built. Suddenly, I feel everything all at once and all the time.

When I see Stella tomorrow, we can figure some of this out. I know it’s going to be a long road ahead of us. There are a bunch of details still left to work through. However, I’ll do whatever she asks of me, as long as it means they’re both in my life.

I just need to make it through tonight’s game without losing my shit or falling apart.

ChapterFourteen

STELLA

“All right,little miss, if you don’t get moving now, I’m gonna pick your outfit.”

Harper’s hand freezes with the block hovering above the highest point of the tower she’s been building for the past thirty minutes. The glare she casts my way would almost be comical if I wasn’t scrambling to get her ready to go.

“I dress myself,” Harper sasses back. She is fully committed to choosing her own clothesanddressing herself. Her struggles with getting her arms and head through the right holes don’t deter her from trying. It just means I’m always on standby to help her get out of the tangle she finds herself in.

“Then why are you still in your jammies?” I question back, holding eye contact as I finish off the last of my coffee.

“Lele needs a house,” she says, referring to the well-loved stuffed unicorn that sits beside her. Nana had gotten it for her when she was two and Harper rarely goes anywhere without it. If I was smart, I would have gotten her a second one the moment she formed an attachment to it so I could rotate between the two.

I cross the room, dropping to a crouch on the other side of the blocks.

“How about this? You go pick out what you want to wear so we can get ready for our day of fun. I won’t touch or put away any of this.” I motion to the scattering of blocks spilling from their bin. “And we can finish building her house when we get back.”

Harper taps her chin as she thinks over my offer. Her brows lift in excitement as if she just had the best idea ever and I brace myself for whatever she’s come up with.

“Lele will need ice cream when I make her new home,” she says seriously.

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