Rider’s voice came low. “Both can be true.”
I stared at him.
“She can have a reason that explains the rules,” he said. “That doesn’t erase what those rules did to you when she refused to let you understand them.”
Ryan nodded. “Trauma explains behavior. It doesn’t make the damage imaginary.”
Briggs pointed at Ryan with his goalie stick. “That English degree finally paid rent.”
Ryan didn’t look away from me. “You love her?”
I hated how fast the answer came. “Yeah.”
“Still?”
“Unfortunately.”
Briggs winced. “That is both tragic and deeply relatable to several Taylor Swift bridges.”
Cade looked at him.
“What? We’re on ice. I’m allowed one emotional-support pop-culture reference.”
Ryan ignored him. “Does she love you?”
I thought of her face when she said it. The way her voice had sounded like a wound opening. “Yeah.”
“Then what are you asking us?” Cade said.
I looked down at my skates.
That was the problem.
I didn’t know.
The question inside me kept changing shape every time I tried to hold it. It wasn’t, Do I love her? That answer was carved into my ribs. It wasn’t, Did she hurt me? She did. It wasn’t, Did something terrible happen to her? Yes, and the thought of it made me want to put my fist through every wall between me and Darian Colton.
I skated away a few feet, then turned back.
“What do you do when love isn’t enough to forgive someone?”
The words sat on the ice between us, ugly and honest.
No one answered right away.
Briggs set his stick across his shoulders and leaned his forearms over it. “I’m going to say something that may shock everyone, given my reputation as a deeply stable man.”
Cade murmured, “That reputation is fictional.”
“I support fictional worlds.” Briggs looked at me. “Maybe love isn’t supposed to do the whole job by itself.”
Ryan nodded slowly. “Love is the reason you show up. Not the whole repair.”
“That sounds like a greeting card for emotionally damaged athletes,” I muttered.
“It can be true and annoying,” Rider said.
Cade shifted his weight on his skates. “You don’t owe her instant forgiveness because she finally told you the truth.”
