Chapter 1

After seven years of long distance, I quit my job, packed my life into twelve boxes, and moved across the country to live with my boyfriend.

Ryan Hayes was the most famous hockey player in Boston. His face filled arena screens, sports magazines, and the fantasies of thousands of women who wore his number across their chests.

I had loved him before any of that.

I entered our anniversary into the keypad three times.

Wrong code.

The door finally opened from the inside.

My best friend stood there barefoot, wearing Ryan’s home jersey and nothing I could see beneath it. His name stretched across her back. His number ended high on her thighs.

“Emma?” Chloe blinked, then smiled as though I had arrived early to a dinner party. “You’re here.”

Behind her, the apartment looked lived in. A pair of silver pom-poms rested beside the entryway. Her Ice Crew jacket hung next to Ryan’s practice coat. On the console table sat a framed photo of them at the team’s charity gala—his arm around her waist, her cheek pressed to his shoulder.

I had never seen the picture.

Ryan came out of the bathroom with a pink towel knotted around his hips, his wet hair pushed back from his face.

He stopped when he saw my suitcase.

“Don’t block the hall,” he said. “Chloe’s been using the main bedroom. You can take the guest room tonight.”

His voice was cold.

His thoughts were not.

*Ask why she’s wearing my jersey.*

*Tell me this is our home.*

*Get angry, Emma. Prove you still care.*

Seven years ago, on the night Ryan left for his first development camp, I had discovered I could hear his thoughts. He had kissed me at the train station and told me not to cry.

Inside his head, he had been begging me not to let him go.

For years, those private words had been the excuse I used for everything he did in public.

When I missed one of his calls, he invited Chloe to dinner.

When I worked through a weekend, he let her stay over.

When photos of women draped across him appeared online, he told me they were fans and thought, *You’re the only one I love.*

I kept believing the version of him no one else could hear.

Chloe leaned against the doorframe. “The old code was impossible to remember, so Ryan changed it.”

“To what?”

She smiled.

“My birthday.”

Ryan’s jaw tightened.

*Say something.*

*Tell me to change it back.*

I looked past them. A lace bra hung over the back of a dining chair. Two wineglasses sat beside the sink. On the television, a paused clip showed Chloe performing with the Ice Crew during intermission while Ryan watched from the bench.

I had resigned from a job I had fought six years to earn because Ryan said he was tired of loving me through a screen.

I had come home to find another woman already living my life.

Chloe reached for my suitcase. “Come in. We can talk.”

I pulled it out of her hand.

“No.”

Ryan’s expression hardened. “Don’t start a scene.”

For once, I didn’t.

I set my key on the entry table, turned around, and pulled my suitcase toward the elevator.

Behind me, Ryan laughed without humor. “Walk out now, and we’re done.”

His thoughts crashed into me.

*Don’t go.*

*I only wanted you to fight for me.*

*Turn around and I’ll make everything right.*

The elevator doors opened.

I stepped inside.

*Emma, please.*

I heard him.

This time, I didn’t stop.

As the doors closed, my phone rang. The screen showed the name of the executive who had spent months trying to recruit me to Northstar Sports’ Boston headquarters.

“Emma,” Daniel Brooks said when I answered. “The senior campaign position is still open. Have you made a decision?”

I wiped my face before the first tear could fall.

“Yes,” I said. “I’ll be there tomorrow.”