Benji shook his head. “Don’t apologize. You okay?”

“You’d think, after four years, that giving her to him would be easy, but it’s not,” she said. She looked so defeated. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her in the hopes she’d feel better.

“Yeah, doesn’t seem so.”

Shaking her head, she picked up Angie’s bag and then looked over at him. “Yeah, anyway, what did you need? Is it, like, my snack day or something?”

Benji smiled. “Oh, I don’t know. I just wanted to make sure you guys were okay.”

“You didn’t need anything?”

“Nope,” he said simply. “Just wanted to make sure you two were safe.”

“Oh.” She looked surprised by that. Her sweet eyes widened as her lip quirked a bit. She didn’t smile, but at least she didn’t glare.

“Yeah,” he said, looking away and drawing in a breath. As much as he wanted to ask her out again, he knew that wouldn’t be appropriate. She was upset and it wouldn’t be fair of him to take advantage of that. So he’d wait. His moment would come. He’d just have to be patient. “Okay, well, be careful going home and have a good night.”

“You too.”

He went to turn, to hit the ice, but then he paused. Looking back at her, he saw she was turning, about to walk away, but he called to her, “Hey, Lucy.”

Glancing over her shoulder, she met his gaze. “Yeah?”

“You look really pretty tonight.”

As her lips curved and those dimples appeared, Benji found himself fighting for his next breath. Slowly, her cheeks reddened and then she was fully smiling at him. Yeah, that breath he was fighting for…?

He lost the fight.

“Thanks, Benji.”

“Anytime. See ya.”

“Bye,” she said softly before turning to walk away. As he watched her walk, her ass swaying from side to side, he knew he couldn’t give up.

Hell, he knew that from the start.

Now, he just had to get her to give him a chance.

“You know, just when I think I couldn’t hate that son of a biscuit eater you chose to have a child with more, days like today happen, and I swear, I want to castrate the little bastard.”

Lucy scoffed at her mother’s proclamation as they walked into the dress shop after having a nice lunch with Jayden and Baylor. She guessed her mom had held it in while they ate with her brother and his wife. Things were already so stressful for Baylor with her surgery coming up that no one really wanted to talk about Rick. But it was evident everyone hated him.

“Jeez, Mom, tell me how you really feel.”

Her mother shot her a look and Lucy realized she made that same face daily. She usually added a “What the fuck?” along with it, but her mother was too sweet for that. Unless Rick Hart had pissed her off.

And boy, had he.

Lucy hadn’t expected him to do her any favors when it came to the recital. Hell, he hadn’t even gotten her a ticket. But he also had not told her that she could have gotten a disc of pictures and a DVD, but that she had to pay for those two weeks in advance. She wasn’t sure how she missed it on the days she took Angie to dance—she must have been working on something—but she had, so she didn’t get to order. Even with a text to Claire, nothing could be done because everything was already paid for. But Rick had ordered, and when her mother asked him for a copy so that she could make a copy, he basically told her to go fuck herself.

Which Mom did not take kindly to, nor did River.

So, of course, when her mother stomped out of the lobby and River was very stern when he actually told Rick he could go fuck himself, Lucy was left with the aftermath. Which included Rick saying he didn’t want Angie around River. Cold day in hell. River loved Angie, and he was about to be her step-grandfather, so Lucy decided Rick could suck it. Hell, she already had decided that. But if that wasn’t enough to stress her out, Angie had whispered to her that she didn’t want to dance anymore.

Fucking great.

It seemed like one thing after another, but she’d be damned if her daughter was going to be forced to do something she didn’t want to. It could wait, though, until Lucy picked her up the following day. It had already been a morning of snide remarks and hellish death looks; Lucy couldn’t handle a screaming match with that idiot. Especially when she had to go wedding dress shopping with her mother.

And not even for Lucy, but for her mom.

It was pathetic that she was jealous of her mother, but she was. Autumn hadn’t let the divorce from Lucy’s sperm-donor father or the cheating scandal ruin her. No, her mother took it in stride. She had her moment of mourning the loss of her almost thirty-year marriage, and then she was right back out there. It was kind of funny watching her crush on the boys’ college hockey coach, and even funnier when she was the one to ask him out. It was cute and Lucy should be happy for her mother, but she envied her.

She wanted to be like her.

She wanted to be able to throw all caution to the wind. She wanted to give Benji a chance. It was insane, but it was all she could think about. That moment she said no when, really, she was screaming yes inside. It was so sad. She wanted to hope it would work between them because he was really proving to be a decent guy. He didn’t have to stay at the rink yesterday and make sure she and Angie were fine. But he did. He also didn’t have to say she looked pretty, but when he did, it meant the world. She may have spent some extra time getting ready because she knew she’d see him. For him to notice was just nice. So why couldn’t she ask him out? Be the one to put it out there? Why couldn’t she be like her idol?