Page 76 of Puck Me Up

We were on a big family vacation, an experiment. We were staying on a private island that Lola and Will found and booked. Bob and Tamara, me and Lola, and our many and various boyfriends.

My parents were understandably awkward and uncertain about the arrangement in the beginning. Which only made sense. Before they’d fully come to terms with Reid’s decision to join Lola’s roving gang of boyfriends, I’d popped up with three of my own. But eventually, the media furor had moved on to the next viral sports news story, and our strange arrangement became more or less mundane. My relationship with Jamie, Rowan, and Thacker wasn’t that drastic a change from my relationship with just Jamie. The major difference was that I felt even more support, more love, more security. And I found that I had plenty to give back to all three of them. Thacker winked at me as he moved away down the line of beach chairs.

“I didn’t know the cabana boys were so cute here,” I said in a stage whisper to Lola. Thacker grinned at me over his shoulder, but my dad turned beet red. Thacker was closer to his age than mine, and they’d struck up an unlikely friendship. But they avoided looking at each other as Thacker carried the tray around to Lola and her guys. I snickered as Dad hurried off toward the volleyball net. He’d embraced Jamie, Rowan, and Thacker with open arms, but I could tell that he still got a little bit freaked out when he remembered that the four of us weren’tjust friends.

I was sorry for whatever unholy and scarring images were conjured up in his mind when he remembered the details of our relationship.

My mother, on the other hand, was the queen of the vacation. All of the boyfriends were doting on her. They brought her drinks and gave up their chairs and asked how she slept.

I could see her get flustered occasionally by all the attention. Even so, she was eating it up, being the center of attention for a battalion of hunks.

But when I asked her, mostly joking but a little curious, if she would ever consider opening her marriage, her answer was swift and sure.

“Child. No, thank you. Your father is work enough for me.”

Will stood to offer Tamara his beach chair while Thacker set down the tray of drinks on the closest table and adjusted the large beach so that it would cast her in shade. I watched with a smile and a warm, fuzzy feeling curled up in my stomach like a happy cat.

My eyes scanned the beach, taking in all the members of our large, unconventional family. None of us were overly concerned with a legal marriage, although Lola had whispered to me over drinks that if she married any of her boyfriends, she would marry Reid so that she and I could legally be sisters.

I stood, untangling myself from Jamie’s arms and walking down to the water’s edge. As the cool waves lapped around my ankles, I considered how far we’d all come. Tomorrow was Labor Day. September had come, and another year was behind us.

Branson had promoted Rowan to head coach, and he was a force to be reckoned with. He’d fully implemented the meal plan that he and I put together and kept the players in the gym all summer so they’d be in fighting shape from the very first game. His goal was for the team to be all over sports news for something other than ourextracurricular activities.

Branson had been hinting all summer that he was seriously considering transferring Jamie to the Prospectors, and then a couple of weeks ago he flat-out made an offer. Jamie was supposed to give him an answer when we got back, but he’d already told me he was going to turn it down. He had no interest in moving to Denver, or anywhere else. He wanted to stay in Casper, and keep building this team into something the entire franchise could be proud of. We were putting down roots there.

I looked over my shoulder and my gray eyes met his blue ones. He was watching me with the same intensity he showed the puck when he was on the ice. The corner of his lips twitched up when our eyes met. He looked like a Greek god. I loved all three of them, but the presence of the others had only made my and Jamie’s special bond more obvious.

If I had a single soulmate, a twin flame, then he was it. Hands down, no questions asked. But I didn’t believe in that binary system anymore. I knew now that I had many soulmates—Jamie, Rowan, and Thacker but also Lola, and even Kane in a way. Who knows how long the four of us would have languished, closeted and fearful like we were keeping some dirty secret? Kane forced us out into the open and for that, at least, I could be grateful.

I was also grateful that he was now ancient history. He was currently floating around as a free agent. The hockey world rumor mill moved fast, and I was glad to hear that his reputation preceded him.

My phone buzzed in the pocket of my wrap and I smiled, knowing immediately who it was.

I took it out and looked at the screen.

Just as I’d suspected.

“Hey, Ronnie,” I said, pressing the phone to my ear. The connection was awful. I turned my back to the wind, trying to clear the static on the line. But it was no good. I could barely hear her, just snippets.

I heard her say my name.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. There was a crackly pause and then she came through in the middle of her sentence.

“—wrong date, I think. Can’t serve it. Swear I’m telling…truth.”

“Whoa, Ronnie, slow down,” I said, uselessly pushing the volume button, which only made the static buzz louder. “Reception’s bad here.”

“The chicken!” she cried. I paused, a familiar wave of dread washing over me. But then I shook my head. “I swear, Hope, it just got shelved in the wrong place. I know what this is going to look like—”

“Hey,” I interrupted, because I had the gist and there was no telling when service would drop. “Don’t worry. We trust you. Toss it out and leave a note on Thacker’s desk, okay?”

“Okay,” Ronnie said, sounding breathless. “I just wanted to let you know…I’ll let you go…”

“Ronnie!” I called.

“Yeah?”

“We appreciate you. You’ve got this.”

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