And thank God for that because I had no idea what was going to happen at this meeting with Andy. He told me to come by at nine o’clock. I looked at my phone.

9:12 a.m.

I was stalling. I really didn’t want to hear that the Wild was letting me go, and the last thing in the whole world I wanted to do was give Kacie that news on her birthday. But we’d promised each other: no more withholding information. And we hadn’t. Not so much as a blip on the radar in the eight months since our Hell Week, as she called it.

Before I rolled out of bed and dragged myself to Andy’s office, I shot my girl a text.

MORNING, JENSEN.

Diesel hopped up and curled into my side, giving me another excuse not to get out of bed yet.

K: GOOD MORNING TO YOU, MURPHY.

LISTEN, I WAS THINKING… I’VE GOT A LOT OF ERRANDS TO RUN AROUND HERE. I’M PROBABLY GONNA COME UP TOMORROW INSTEAD OF TODAY, OKAY?

I laughed out loud in my bedroom. “Holy shit, D. She’s going to be so pissed.” A second later, my phone beeped.

K: REALLY? TODAY? YOU HAVE TO RUN ERRANDS TODAY?

YEAH. I’D LIKE TO GET THEM OVER WITH. WHY? DID YOU HAVE SOMETHING GOING ON?

K: UMMMM…

I couldn’t let her suffer anymore.

JUST KIDDING. I’M COMING UP. OF COURSE I WOULDN’T MISS MY GIRL’S BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY.

K: YOU JERK! I THOUGHT YOU REALLY FORGOT!

NOT ONLY DID I NOT FORGET, I ALREADY PLANNED OUT OUR EVENING AND ASKED YOUR MOM TO BABYSIT.

I didn’t like lying to her, but I had been working too long on her surprise and I wanted her to think we were going out tonight after we all took her to dinner.

K: YOU DID? WHERE ARE WE GOING?

CAN’T TELL YOU THAT. IT’S A SURPRISE.

K: WHAT SHOULD I WEAR?

YOU STILL HAVE THAT BLUE DRESS THAT YOU WORE TO THE CHARITY BANQUET LAST YEAR?

K: NO, BUT I CAN BORROW IT FROM LAUREN AGAIN. WE’RE GOING SOMEWHERE THAT FORMAL, HUH?

NOPE. WE’RE GOING SOMEWHERE TOTALLY CASUAL, YOU JUST LOOK SMOKING HOT IN THAT DRESS.

K: YOU’RE A PAIN IN THE ASS.

THE BIGGEST. I’LL BE UP IN A FEW HOURS.

K: OKAY. CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU. I LOVE YOU.

I LOVE YOU, MORE.

“Well, look who decided to show up.” Ellie smiled at me as the elevator doors opened. “And only an hour and a half late.”

“Sorry.” I grinned back. “Is he in there?”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Yep. Go ahead in.”

The door to Andy’s office creaked as I opened it. He looked up from his computer and leaned back in his chair when he saw me, clamping his hands behind his head.

“I know, I know. Shut up.” I threw myself down on the leather couch across the room from him.

“I didn’t say shit.” He chuckled.

“No, but I could feel you thinking it.”

“I’m actually impressed.” He looked at his watch. “I figured I probably wouldn’t see you before noon.”

“I’m heading up to Kacie’s after this.” I picked a football up off of his coffee table and flipped onto my back, tossing it straight up in the air. “Stop fucking around. Give me the news.”

He stood up and grabbed a paper off his desk.

“Before I give this to you”—he sat down across from me—”I want you to know how proud I am of you. You ended with an amazing year, even with that rocky start. This is a fair deal that I think you should seriously consider.”

My heart started beating as fast as I could ever remember it beating in my whole life.

I’ll take less money; I don’t care about that. Please be the Wild. Please be the Wild.

He set the paper down on the table in front of me and sat back again. I grabbed it off the table, searching through the legal bullshit, looking for a city and a team name.

MINNESOTA WILD

YES!

I jumped up off the couch and fist pumped the air as every muscle in my body contracted at the same time with excitement. I vaulted over the coffee table and landed in Andy’s lap, bear hugging him.

“First of all, get off me, this is weird. Second, I’m assuming you’re happy with that offer?”

“I didn’t look at the offer.” I hugged just his head. “It’s in Minnesota, that’s enough for me.”

“You should probably look at the offer, Brody.”

I stood up and climbed back over the coffee table to my side. Picking up the offer, I squinted as I scanned it quickly, this time looking for a dollar sign and a time period.

There it is.

“What the fuck?” I dropped the paper on the table and stared at Andy incredulously.

He grinned at me and nodded. “You’re reading that right. They’re offering you seven million a year for six years. A forty-two million dollar contract. That’s a franchise record for a goalie, Brody. I think you should take it.”

“Take it?” I yelled, jumping up again. “I want to hump it.”

“Well, Ellie doesn’t want to clean anything gross out of the fax machine, so keep your dick in your pants, okay?”

“Dude.” I shoved my fingers in my hair and left them there as I paced his office. “This is fucking huge.”

“It’s beyond fucking huge. After the way you kicked all kinds of ass the second half of the season, I knew they would offer to keep you here. I didn’t expect that number, though.” He took a pen out of his pocket and tossed it on the table. “Whenever you’re ready, bro. Sign away.”

I was facing the bookshelves in the far corner of his office with my hands still locked on top of my head.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

I spun around slowly to face him. “Kacie. I can’t wait to tell her. She’s gonna fucking flip.”

He tilted his head to the side. “Dude, you’ve had it bad for that girl for a year now. You gonna marry her or what?”

Nothing short of the building falling down around us at that very moment would have stopped the grin that slid across my face. “Funny you should mention that…”

“Did you guys have fun tonight?” I ran my fingers through the tiny blonde strands of Lucy’s hair that fell across her forehead.

She beamed and nodded excitedly.

“We’ve never been to that place before. It was fun, huh?” I said to them, looking over at Brody who was sitting on a chair on the other side of their bed. They had their own beds but insisted on sleeping together still.

“It was really fun,” Lucy said. “Can we go back again?”

“Sure,” I answered.

“Tomorrow?” she asked.

“I don’t know about tomorrow.” I laughed. “But we’ll definitely have dinner there again soon, okay?”

“I liked it when they sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to you and made you wear a cowboy hat.” Piper giggled.

“And then they made you ride that stick horse,” Lucy yelled, hopping out of bed and galloping around the room.

“That was my favorite part too.” Brody held his hand up and high-fived her as she skipped by him. Then he looked at me and winked. “I never wanted to be a stick horse so bad in my whole life.”

I raised my eyebrows and gave him the warning look, trying not to laugh. “Come on, Lucy, back in bed. It’s late.”