Page 92 of The Rebound Plan

Kiley shakes her head, smiling gently at me. “We have it covered. The only thing I want you to do is come and visit once we move in.”

A little frown tugs between my eyebrows despite myself. My mask is slipping and I hate it.

After she reconnects Puck’s lead, she holds the door open for me.

The elevator whisks us back down to the lobby in seconds, and Puck is excited to lead us off. I’m leaning over, telling the dog to be patient, so I don’t notice Russ standing at the elevator doors right away.

“Kiley,” he says. I jerk upright. His gaze sweeps over me. “Shannon.”

“Russ,” I manage.

Great. Now everyone has been named.

Kiley tugs Puck around Russ’s legs. “We were just here to measure upstairs.”

“You live here,” I breathe.

He nods, turning slowly as I reluctantly follow my friend. Watching me, even as he steps backward into the elevator car.

“Russ lives here,” I say to Kiley once we’re outside.

“Yeah.” She gives me a curious look. “You didn’t know that?”

I have helped a lot of the team find accommodations and furnishings. Russ, though, never asked for my assistance. Where he lived has never come up. “No.”

“It’s how Ty heard about the condo even before it was listed.”

“Ah.”

Kiley and Puck walk me back to my car. I ask her if she wants me to drive her to her apartment on the other side of downtown, but she says Ty is going to pick her up shortly, now that they’re finished practice.

She gives me another hug before I leave. “Hey,” she whispers. “You don’t have todoanything to be worthy of our friendship, you know that, right?”

“I—” I don’t know what she means.

“Decorating help, being resourceful. Always having whatever someone needs, or knowing how to get it.” She shrugs. “That’s all amazing. But that’s not why I like you.”

I stare at her. “Right.”

But as I drive away, I actually can’t figure out why else anyonewouldlike me, unless they wanted to sleep with me.

That unsettling thought drives me to make two phone calls that afternoon. The first one is to a therapist. The second is to Emma Point.

CHAPTER 34

RUSS

“You got a minute to talk?”

I look down at the ice, where the A-squad is currently practicing. “If you don’t listening to me huffing and puffing, sure. I’m running stairs at the arena, waiting to practice with the B-squad. Again.”

“I talked to Dorrian about that. They appreciate your leadership role on the team.”

I snort. “Okay.”

“It’s just a balance thing during training camp.” Marty sounds too smooth. Like Shannon’s calm mask.

Lies, all lies.

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