Sarah had been holding it in so long that when the story came out, the details spilled from her like water through a crumbling dam—with the exception of their incredible sexcapades, of course—and she felt a whoosh of relief. Somehow saying it out loud made it real and brought her closer to Quinn. How ironic, considering she’d been the one to cut away. In her own defense, she’d been convinced taking a break was the smart thing to do, that it would expose their relationship for the convenience it was before anyone got in too deep. As time lumbered on, though, she realized how far she’d fallen and how much she missed him, but she had no idea what to do about it. Run for the hills and protect her heart? Ask him to take her back? But what if he’d already moved on?
What was it about him she missed anyway? Besides his cocoa eyes, his mischievous smile, and his warm, easy laugh, it was the way he didn’t let her take herself too seriously. She missed collaborating with him in their own private world. His engineering curiosity. His pout when she beat him at games. His swagger. Wrapping herself around his big frame and how safe—and cherished—he made her feel when he held her. His heated looks that conveyed just what he wanted to do to her. His annoying, overprotective side. Hearing him call her Sunshine—her nickname alone.
Her mind and heart had converged, and she’d been turning over the same question: Could she build a life with Quinn? Lately, she’d been answering that one with another question: How would she know if she didn’t try?
“You know,” Lily said, snapping her out of her musings, “I was hoping you and Quinn would get together.”
Sarah’s eyebrows hit her hairline. “You were? Why?”
“I don’t know. He’s cocky, and you’re kick-ass.” She mouthed the last word. “I haven’t seen you two in action, but I suspect you may be the only woman on the planet who can put him in his place. You’re different from his usual disposable dates.”
“Yeah, I certainly don’t fit in his typical big-boobed-blond category,” Sarah chuffed.
Lily flicked Sarah’s arm. “Hey! What’s wrong with big-boobed blonds? Well, okay. Average-boobed blonds?”
“Nothing, if they’re you.” Sarah pecked her cheek.
Lily’s big blues brightened. “I have an idea! If—no, when—they move on and I fly to Canada, come with me!”
“Are you nuts?”
“Probably, but hear me out. Daisy’s going to stay with her grandparents for a few weeks. Come with me and keep me company.”
Sarah scoffed. “I’m not sharing a room with you and Gage. Sharing a house was bad enough.”
Lily reddened. “You weren’t supposed to listen.”
“I couldn’t help but listen!” Sarah elbowed her playfully. “Believe me, I tried not to.”
Lily’s blush turned crimson. “Moving on. You and I will share a room until our quarantine’s over, and then you can stay with Quinn.” She shrugged as if this were the most feasible arrangement in the world.
“You forget. We’re not speaking at the moment.”
“And whose fault is that, exactly?”
“Mine, but he went along with the ‘break.’” Sarah reminded herself of a bratty kid.
“Did you leave him any choice? No. Have you apologized?”
“For what? He’s the one who walked out,” the bratty kid replied.
Lily puffed out a breath that lifted her hair. “Let me ask a more basic question. Do you love him?”
Sarah’s knee-jerk reaction was to deflect, and she opened her mouth to do just that but stopped. And sighed. “I … Yes. Does that make me a total sap?”
“No, but it makes the other stuff just a bunch of noise. Besides, why would loving him make you a sap?”
“Because I don’t want to repeat the mistake I made with Wolf.” The word “mistake,” spoken in Quinn’s deep timbre, rolled around in Sarah’s head, and she cringed inside.
“I never met Wolf, thank God, but the two men don’t sound anything alike to me. Besides, you have to break a few eggs to make a cake … or whatever the saying is. One mistake doesn’t doom you to a repeat, nor does it mean you never dip your toe in the water again. If you want Quinn back, you need to make the first move. Take this from a girl who learned how to grovel and was glad she did.”
“So I make my big move by busting into his hotel room? And what if …” Sarah’s voice cracked, and she shook it off. “What if he’s, you know, up to his old tricks and his bed’s already occupied, if you catch my meaning?”
Lily’s blond curls bobbed as she shook her head. “No. They’re in the bubble and can’t have anyone in their rooms—not even their own teammates.”
“Lily, don’t be naive. There are women in the bubble too. Servers, bartenders, NHL staff, you name it. Plenty of opportunity. And you think a horny hockey player isn’t going to sneak a woman into his room if he gets the chance? He doesn’t have a roommate to rat him out!”
“Then you’ll keep our room, just in case. I mean, you might take one look at him and decide you don’t want to share his room anyway, though I doubt that, just like I doubt he’s messing around.” Lily winked. “C’mon, Sar. What do you say? Come with me! We’ll get to see some great hockey in a cushy suite with the other WAGs.”
Sarah blew out a breath. “I’m not a wife or a girlfriend.”
“You’re the S for ‘sister.’” Lily grinned.
Sarah bit back a laugh. “I’ll think about it. In the meantime, overtime’s about to start.”
Lily topped off their wines, and they scurried back to the living room, where Crazy Daisy was starting up her pom-pom routine again.
An hour later, the teams were halfway through their second overtime. The boys should have been exhausted, but they still had jump in their skates, moving with speed and intensity up and down the ice. Sarah could scarcely breathe. Bouncing in
