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Because the truth is, I haven't stopped thinking about it since this morning.

New York.

A real job.

The opportunity Delaney deserves.

I know what it feels like to want something so badly you'd sacrifice anything to get it.

Hockey was that for me.

And I won't ask her to sacrifice her dream for mine.

“She deserves this,” I tell him.

Declan's expression softens. “I know she does.”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

“Tell her you want her to stay.”

I shake my head. “I'm not putting that on her.”

“There's a difference between asking somebody to give up their dream and telling them they're part of yours.”

I look at him.

He folds his arms.

“You know what your problem is?”

“Apparently several things.”

“You're still so damn scared of losing people that you'd rather let them walk away than risk asking them to stay.”

That one hits.

Hard.

Declan knows things about my childhood most people never will.

He knows about my parents.

About the years I spent waiting for something terrible to happen, and how it did when my alcoholic father killed himself and my mother, when he wrapped their car around a power pole after drinking while I was home alone.

About my grandfather, and the truck he left me and the matchbook-collecting superstition that I tell myself no one knows about.

About the way his family became mine when I didn't have much of one.

And he knows exactly where to aim.

“I love her,” I say quietly.

“I know.”

“More than anything.”

“Then tell her.”