Page 99 of As You Ice It

“So you say,” Dominik shrugs.

Nathan and Van finally climb off me. I sit up and stretch out my neck.

“Well, Naomi,” Logan says. “Is that everything? Anything else to say?”

“Van,” she says, and his head perks up. “Liam says to tell you that you had too many turnovers in the neutral zone tonight.”

Logan laughs, and Van glowers. “It was only one time.”

“Bye, Camden! I love you,” Naomi says.

Now that I’m not buried under bodies and can literally see all the guys looking at me, it feels a little weird to say out loud, but I do it anyway. “I love you too. See you when I get home.”

Logan ends the call and reaches over to slap me on the back. “Way to show that emotional maturity. Good job.”

“Does this mean you’ll stop being such a grouch?” Van asks. “Nathan has claimed that role.”

Nathan growls and lunges for Van, who ducks behind Felix. I almost forgot he was here since he hasn’t said a word. But now, he nods at me and says, “I’m happy for you. And I’m sorry for … whatever it is that you’ve been struggling with.”

He doesn’t remind me that I still haven’t shared as much as I need to with the guys. He doesn’t need to. I’m very aware.

“What can we do?” Dominik asks. “Can we help?”

The reflexive answer is to tell him no, they can’t help. To say that I’m fine. That I’ve got this.

But I swallow down that response and instead say, “Yes. I think I need some help.”

It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to admit it.

“Just tell us how,” Felix says, even as Nathan grumbles, “I wanted to go to sleep.”

I consider the thoughts that have been flitting through my mind for the past few days. Some, even longer than that.

“Eli, didn’t you hire a live-in caregiver to help with your mom recently?”

“Yeah,” he says. “You have help, though, right?”

“I do, but I think I want to switch up the arrangement, and I have some questions.”

“Happy to answer any of them,” he says.

“And who knows a good real estate agent?”

Felix lifts a hand. “Me.”

I keep forgetting he owns the whole building where his loft is. “Great.”

“I like his agent,” Dominik says. “She’s very helpful.”

I’m not the only one who stares at him in shock.

“The Kid is buying real estate?” Van says.

Dominik shrugs. “What? It’s a good investment. And I like it here.”

“Anything else?” Nathan asks, and though he still looks irritated, he’s also sincere.

I would love help with the hardest task—my family. But it’s something I need to do on my own. Even if I should probably talk to the guys about it later. I know several of my teammates have had hard family issues and would probably be glad to talk.

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