Page 214 of Wrong Pucking Jersey

I move out of Maddox’s hold so I can leave the circle and view the vast property with my eyes.

When we arrived here, I thought we were doing some day retreat, and this was the chosen Airbnb for our lovely day off.

It never occurred to me that they could have actually bought this place.

Turning my attention to the four of them, they patiently stand there in a single row, all of them wearing proud smiles as they observe my obvious shock revolving around what they just accomplished.

And invited me to be the first to find out about their achievement.

“The four of you are going to live there,” I state as fact while I give each of them a good stare down.

“As of an hour ago, yes,” Maddox answers as he slips his hand into his pocket and retrieves not one but two keys.

One with a navy-blue keychain and the other with a bright red keychain.

“Only it’s not just the four of us,” he emphasizes as his eyes bore into mine. “We figured our Heartbreaker Queen would be our fifth.”

Shut the front door…

“You’re fucking lying.” I barely get the words out.

“Pucking,” Damien, Ace, and Wolfgang correct me.

“And we’re not lying,” Maddox stresses as he takes the initiative to walk up to where I stand like a complete statue.

Facing me, he reaches for my hand and lifts it, so my open palm faces up. Then he lowers the key with the red keychain into my possession. My eyes realize the keychain is a broken heart with crossed hockey sticks at the back and a hovering crown above.

Our symbol…

“Maddox…” I say his name as I stare at the key before lifting my gaze to peer into his loving eyes.

“We knew the moment we got our advances that we were going to opt for getting a place off campus. It would give us more privacy, especially with how our popularity has spiraled in the last few weeks before our first game. At first, we were going to get condo suites, but the investment didn’t seem right.”

“It didn’t seem right?” I repeat in questioning.

“Out of the team, the four of us are the closest to one another. In the past, we were used to sharing dorm rooms, and even during the last few weeks, we’ve rarely spent time solo in our own designated apartments,” he reveals. “Why spend a few hundred thousand buying individual condos that we’ll most likely never be in? We’ll certainly end up at one of our places, or better yet, back at the dorms to visit a certain suite.”

My suite.

“Then the idea of living together came to mind,” he continues and further smiles. “We’d find a place big enough where we all have our own space and can organize it to meet our different hobbies. It’s a twenty-minute ride to the Stadium, and with the new roads being opened next week, traffic shouldn’t be chaotic. This property is gated just like the other mansions on this side of town, which secures our privacy, and we have plenty of forest and nature around us.

“The lake freezes over during the winter, which we can safely skate on, and there’s obviously an outdoor pool. There’s also private beach access which leads to the public beach further out, so there are lots we can do. It seemed like a too-good-to-be-true deal, and we wanted to take it before some investor decided to make money off this property with the increased rise of intrigue revolving around Strattonville.”

“But…” I don’t want to say the words.

What if things don’t work out a second time…

His free hand reaches out to cup my cheek before he leans in close.

“Whatever happens between all of us won’t make this a bad investment. We still have the freedom to do whatever we want, and if things truly don’t work out, we can make this into an investment property that can be rented out or turned into its own Airbnb. The monthly income could be divided between us.”

“But… I didn’t contribute,” I quietly admit. The idea of living here—living with them—feels like a dream come true, but I didn’t invest any money into it, which makes me feel bad.

“Baby girl.” His lips press lightly against mine. “It’s our duty to provide for you, Sweet Kay. Just having your support is enough to push us to do things we never would have had the courage to do solely or together way back then. You’re the drive we needed to push us into making this move. This is our way of saying thank you for being our foundation in all of this thus far.”

With a deeper kiss, he pulls away and closes my fingers around the key in my grasp.

“So what do you say?” he hums in excitement. “Wanna live with four NHL hockey players?”

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