“This is really awkward,” Shea muttered beside him, but he wasn’t paying him any attention. He was fully focused on Lacey.

“Maybe. If you tell me how much you love me, I might be inclined to do just that.”

Closing his eyes, he smiled. “Lacey Arielle King, I love you so much that words could not begin to define that love. Nothing could. My love for you is so big and abundant that it takes over my soul, my own being. You are everything to me. My heart, my soul, my existence is made to love you.”

“Yup, super fucking awkward,” Shea said, but still Karson wasn’t listening to him. Instead, he was waiting for her response.

“Wow,” she gasped. “That was really passionate.”

“I try,” he said with a grin. “Now can I please have the naughty pictures of you?”

“Yeah, I’m moving,” Shea said, and then he disappeared as Lacey’s laughter filled Karson’s ear.

“Yes, I’ll send them tonight, but just to let you know, I feel the same way.”

“Yeah?” he asked, his heart palpitating in his chest.

“Yup, always have, and always will.”

“Good,” he said, completely satisfied. “I’ll let you go, sweetheart. Have fun shopping.”

“I will,” she said softly, almost like she felt guilty. “Wish you were here.”

“Me too, baby, I love you.”

“I love you more, talk to you soon,” she said in a peppy voice.

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye,” she said, and as he hung up the phone, his chest ached. She sounded so happy. So different from when she was home in Nashville. It bugged him and he didn’t want it to. He wanted to be happy that she was having a good time, but something inside him told him she would never feel that way about Nashville. It was obvious she loved him, he didn’t question that, but he did question if she’d ever be happy in Nashville.

And not knowing the answer was killing him.

Karson was proud of himself.

He left his issues with Lacey at the door and was playing some damn good hockey. As he sailed across the ice, Shea at his right, he moved the puck with the blade of his stick while waiting for his forwards to set up. The played called for Brooks to crash the net after Karson shot, but it wasn’t going to work. He didn’t have a clear shot. So without looking, he acted like he was going to shoot, but instead, he sailed the puck to Shea and he took the shot without even thinking, Karson suspected. When it flew through the goalie’s five-hole, Karson threw his arms up in the air as Shea pointed to him with a grin on his face.

“Great pass, King,” he said, tapping Karson’s head when he reached him. With a grin on his face, he congratulated his linemates before heading to the bench for another round of congratulations. With that goal, it put the Assassins up by two against the Ducks. Tate was hoping for a shutout, and Karson was all about giving him one. Gotta keep his goalie happy.

Sitting on the bench, he squirted some water in his mouth as he watched the Assassins fight off the Ducks. Since they were down two and it was only the second period, he figured they were trying to get some momentum, but the Assassins weren’t going to let them get it. Thoughts of Lacey tried to sneak back in, but Karson pushed them away. He hoped she was watching, but he wasn’t going to stress if she wasn’t. She was with her dad. Having a grand fucking time.

Shaking his head, Karson leaned back and squirted more water in his mouth. As it dripped down his chin, he wished he could just let it go. She was coming home. She was going to adjust, and they were going to be fucking happy together. That’s all there was to it, damn it. Clearing his mind of all those negative thoughts because he had a damn game to win, he watched as his teammates fought to get the puck out of their zone.

Stealing the puck, Titov raced up the ice and had a two on one, but somehow there was miscommunication because the Ducks got the puck back, sailing back up the ice. Thankfully though, Tate was there, fighting off the three shots. JT tried to clear the zone, but then a Ducks player stopped it and shot it, though it rebounded off Tate’s left leg pad. JT cut left and raced to the puck to clear it, but so did another player. The player somehow tripped JT up, and before he even crashed into the wall, Karson knew it was going to be bad.

But nothing could prepare him for the sounds of JT’s pure agony or the image of his leg lying lifeless in a way that wasn’t natural.

No, he wasn’t ready for that.

Her father and Sabrina were getting married.

Yay.

While she wanted to be excited for her father and the big, glitzy wedding they were planning, Lacey couldn’t muster up those feelings. It was clear that her father was extremely happy, and she knew he would be. He loved Sabrina, but it still bothered her. It should have been her mother sitting beside him. She should be the one to move his hair back to the side. The one to look at Lacey with all the love in the world and tell her how proud she was of her. She should be there. But she wasn’t.

And it still gutted Lacey umpteen years later.

While dinner was nice and she enjoyed spending time with her father and his new fiancée, she hated the way any time she brought up Karson, they changed the subject. It was essentially the Sabrina and Nate show, and it was annoying as hell. She wanted to talk about her house, about how Karson was playing on the first line that night, and how she couldn’t wait to get home to him, but she basically wasn’t allowed to. It irritated her to no end, and the first chance she got to leave, she took it.