"Don't," he said sternly as he stopped at the intersection. Turning in his seat, he looked back at Angie. "You all right, sunshine?"

"Yeah," she answered, her voice full of despondence. "My dad wouldn't take me to hockey yesterday. Coach Adler is gonna be so mad."

"No, not at all. I'll call him, don't worry," Lucy said quickly. She turned in the seat as Benji took off. "Or Benji will call since they're friends."

Angie didn't look up as she shrugged. "He grounded me because I screamed at him for wanting to go. Then he wouldn't let me call you and I cried, and he screamed at me that I was a baby. Then Nina and Heidi got to go shopping and to Chuck E. Cheese, but I had to stand in the corner."

Lucy's heart stopped. "The corner?"

"Yeah, 'cause I'm bad."

"You're not bad," Lucy said, rubbing her daughter's knee. "You're perfect."

"I don't know, Mommy. He was so mean to me and wouldn't let me do anything. I told him I wanted to go home, and that only made him madder."

"I'm sorry."

Still not looking up, Angie shrugged. "I don't know why he has to be mean."

"I don't either."

"But Grandpa did call me," she said, looking up then, and her sweet face was flushed, visibly upset. "It was nice to hear from him."

"Yeah," Lucy said, reaching out and rubbing Angie's face. "Maybe he'll come to the game Saturday."

"Cool." Then she looked to Benji. "But you're leaving tomorrow, so you won't be there, huh, Benji?"

"No, I won't. I'm sorry, but maybe I can get your mom to FaceTime me?"

Angie smiled. "I'd like that."

"Me too," he said, flashing her a smile in the rearview mirror.

Looking back at Lucy, her eyes welled up as she let out a long breath. "I don't want to miss hockey, Mom, but Dad said he won't take me."

Rubbing her thumb along her daughter's cheek, Lucy fought back tears. "I'll see what I can do. Maybe I can talk him into letting me get you."

"I just don't want to go back," she said, the tears spilling over her cheeks. "I hate it there. All he does is yell at me, only Nina and Heidi matter. And now Nina doesn't even really talk to me. Heidi took her out all weekend. I just don't want to go back. Don't make me go!"

When she balled herself up, Lucy panicked, undoing her seatbelt and climbing in the back. Wrapping her arms around Angie, she kissed her the top of her head as her own tears started to fall. She couldn't promise she wouldn't have to send her back to Rick's. She wasn't sure what was going to happen, but one thing was for sure, she was going to fight Rick Hart tooth and nail. No one made her baby cry.

"How about we go get some ice cream? Wanna go to Chuck E. Cheese, Angie? Maybe shopping?" Benji asked and Angie peeked her head up, wiping her face. "I'm leaving tomorrow, and I need to spend the whole day with my girls. So how about we go have some fun?"

She nodded. "Really?"

"Yeah, us three? You gotta dry up those tears, okay? Know that Mommy and I will get everything fixed, okay?"

"Okay," she said, wiping her face as her little lip wobbled. "I don't want you to go, though."

"I know. Me either, sunshine. That's why we'll have so much fun today that it will last for the next two weeks. Okay?"

She nodded and looked up at Lucy. "Want to, Mommy?"

"I would love to," Lucy said, her tears begging to fall. As Lucy kissed her head, Angie leaned against her chest and Lucy slowly shook her head. What the hell was she going to do? How was she supposed to let Rick have her? This was going to get worse before it got better, and crap, Benji was going to be gone the whole time.

Damn it.

When she met Benji's gaze in the rearview mirror, her lip trembled as he tried to send her a smile. His gaze was so tender, so loving, but she could see the worry in the depths of his gray eyes. Her heart just couldn't take it. He was too good to them. Holding Angie closer, she closed her eyes and she knew Benji was there. He was going to be the rock she needed.

Together, they were going to be okay.

"I feel guilty."

Benji sensed Jordie looking over at him as Melissa, the AA leader, met his gaze. "Why is that, Benji? You look great. You seem so much happier, so much more open than the last time I saw you. It's almost like I'm seeing a whole different person."

She was beaming, excited, and he knew her words were true. Because he was. He hadn't seen her since they played the Kings at the beginning of the season. Both Benji and Jordie really liked the LA AA chapter and made sure to stop in when they were in town, but in this meeting, Benji's heart was heavy.

"She's right, dude. What in the world do you have to feel guilty about?"

"I know, but I met someone-Lucy," he said, more to Melissa and the three other professional hockey players who sat in the room. Another thing he liked about this chapter was it was only for athletes. Last time, there were some football and baseball players, but apparently they had stopped coming. It was sad, but it happened all the time.

Alcoholism wasn't easy to beat.

"She's spectacular and we click. She makes me laugh and she's just awesome," he said, his lips curving into a grin. "She has this little girl, Angie, who just lights up my world. I've been gone six days, and she FaceTimes me every day when she gets home, just to tell me how her day was. She looks forward to talking to me, and I love it. I love them. So damn much, but I feel so bad because I think Lucy is my soul mate, that they were meant to be in my life and to love me. And for me to love them. But if that is the case, then what about Ava and Leary? Am I disrespecting them by thinking that? By thinking that Lucy and Angie are the loves of my life? Because, looking back, I know Ava wasn't the one, she was the safe option, but I feel horrible for that."

Melissa nodded slowly as Jordie leaned on his legs. "But, didn't you say before that you know you and Ava should have divorced before the accident, but you couldn't let her go?"

"I didn't want to be alone," Benji said with a nod. "But I feel like I'm not honoring their memory by falling so hard for Lucy and Angie."

"But you are, Benji," Melissa said, bringing his attention to her. "You still think of them, you still miss them, and I'm sure Lucy and Angie know about them."

He nodded. "They do."

"Exactly. So you are doing right, Benji. You have to move on. You can't let the past hold you down."

"No, I'm not. I am moving on. I love Lucy, I love Angie, that's not the problem-"

"Have you told them?"

He paused. "No."

"Why not?"

He shrugged, shaking his head. "I don't want to say it and scare her. She'll think I'm moving too fast."

"Or is it because you've never told anyone but Ava and Leary you loved them?" she asked, holding his gaze, and he swallowed hard. He hadn't thought of that, but that didn't seem right. If he wasn't ready to move on, then he wouldn't feel the way he did for Lucy and Angie.

"No. Lucy was in a shit relationship. She's divorced now. And she was so hesitant about being with me that I think the reason why I haven't told them is because I don't want her to freak out on me. I still love Leary and Ava, I will always love them, but I know I am moving on. I just have this guilt I can't seem to shake, and I don't know what to do."

"I think it's because you haven't fully forgiven yourself for the accident," Jordie said before Melissa could say anything. "I think you still think you don't deserve this love, these girls."

Benji nodded, meeting his friend's gaze. "Absolutely."

"Well, until you forgive yourself, Benji, you'll never be able to shake the guilt," Melissa said. "Just look how far you've come. You are the poster boy for recovery. I love your story, and it pleases me to no end that you have found love again. I want you to remember how much you deserve this. Deserve them. And I want you to forgive yourself."

Biting the inside of his cheek, he looked away as he shrugged. "I'm trying."

"That's all you can do," she said. But was it enough?

Was he not trying hard enough?

Moving the puck back and forth behind the goal, Benji waited as new forwards hit the ice. He noticed that the Kings took that chance for a fresh line too. Clearly this was the time to go. Banking the puck against the boards, hard, it went center ice where he thought Erik would grab it, but he didn't.

Jude Sinclair did.

"Fuck!" he yelled, coming out and rushing toward him to block him since Jayden had been at the blue line, waiting for Benji to come out. Jude was on a mission, though, and when he went to shoot, Benji dropped down, using his body as the puck came crashing into his chest guard.

Still knocked the breath out of him, though.

Luckily, Jayden had made it back, getting the rebound off of him and taking the puck up as Benji slowly got up, wheezing for breath. Skating toward the bench, he climbed over as the whistle blew. When he heard singing, he turned to see Jude, singing with his gaze on him.

"What the hell?" Sitting down as Jayden sat, Benji looked over at him. "Is your brother singing to me?"

Jayden rolled his eyes, gasping for breath as he took a long pull of water. "He's an idiot. Sings to people on the ice."

Jude scoffed at that since he was in earshot, still singing. Benji continued to look puzzled. "What's he singing? Who sings on the ice?"

"He does. It's insane, but I think he's singing the Beach Boys."

"The Beach Boys?"

"Yeah, he told me he was gonna sing 'Don't Hurt My Little Sister' to you to throw you off your game."

Benji's face twisted as he looked out at the ice, Jude skating off as he moved his head to the beat in his mind. "Lucy wasn't kidding when she said he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, was she?"

Jayden chuckled. "Nope, not even kinda."

Benji ignored Jude and the game continued, the Assassins down by two. It had been a tough game. They had their backup goalie in, Dylan Alexander, and he was doing fine, but it was easy to see he was rusty from not playing for a while. Leaning on the boards, Benji watched as the Assassins fought into the Kings' zone, shooting pucks left and right. When one of the Kings' players cross-checked Jordie into the boards, the bench lost it in protest. Thankfully, the ref saw it and threw his hand up.

Power play.

"Paxton, Sinclair, go," Coach yelled, and they jumped over, heading to the face-off circle.

When Jude skated by him, grinning like a fool while singing, Benji shook his head. Would Lucy be mad if he pummeled her brother? He wasn't sure if he cared, because the dude was getting on his nerves. When the puck dropped, though, Jude stopped singing and tried to win it. But Anderson was fast, kicking it back to Benji, who sent it to Jayden, who shot wide. Going around the boards, Benji rushed to get the puck before it went over the line, getting there just in time to send it to Anderson, who sent it to Titov, who shot, but the goalie batted it away. Right onto Jayden's stick. Instead of shooting, though, he whizzed it to Benji, who was ready for the one-timer, and when the red light flashed, he threw his arms up.

There was Lucy's goal.

"Fuck yeah!"

As his boys wrapped him up in a hug, he somehow met Jude's gaze. He was just grinning, nodding his head as he headed to his bench. Benji wasn't sure what that meant, but he didn't feel comfortable about it.

But he didn't have time to worry about Jude because as soon as the next line went out, the Kings scored again-in the end, winning the game. Benji hated losing, hell, everyone did, but it really sucked since it was the Kings, Jude's team, that had kicked their asses.

Defeated, the Assassins headed back into the locker room. And when he sat, Coach came in with the usual get-your-shit-together speech. When he called Benji out, saying he wasn't in the game, he was right. Between fucking Jude and the fact he was still thinking about what had happened in AA, he didn't know what to do. He needed to figure it out. Because things were happening.

Lucy had called her dad once they had gotten in the car and told him to get her a court date. It was only to get the parenting plan revised, but apparently, Rick's lawyer said they would be asking for full custody. His heart hurt remembering how hard Lucy had cried in his arms. She didn't want to do this-she didn't want to put Angie through it, and Benji got that-but Rick was a douche and needed to be put in his place. He knew it would turn out in Lucy's favor, but he worried about what that would do to Angie if Rick stuck around. He seemed like he already had one foot out the door, only hanging in to hurt Lucy, and that was mind-blowing to Benji.

How do you claim to love someone but be a complete asshole and not want to support what they love? Especially someone as amazing and sweet as Angie. Benji did not believe for a second that she had been bad or mouthy. She was always so good, yeah, a little nutty, but she was a kid and did normal kid stuff. Didn't Rick want a relationship with his daughter? Or was he too concerned with hurting Lucy because he couldn't control her? Benji didn't know, but he sure as hell worried about Lucy's sanity and Angie's heart.

It wasn't fair.

Life wasn't fair. If it were, Ava and Leary would be alive. But then, would he be where he was now? It was just all such a mindfuck because, while he didn't wish away his time with Ava and Leary, he couldn't fathom his life without Lucy and Angie. Maybe this was his normal, though. Maybe this was how his life would always be. Feeling bad for one thing, but happy about another. Could he live with that regret? If it was really regret. He wasn't sure. But one thing was for sure, he would talk to Lucy about it.

"Paxton, Johansson, you two are up for an interview," one of the media folks said, and Benji rolled his eyes.

He didn't like doing interviews.

Vaughn, though, he loved them, but today he looked pissed.

"You good?" Benji asked as they walked together to the hall.

"Don't want to do this today."

Benji could only nod as the media guy stopped him and Vaughn went ahead. Brie Soledad, the Assassins' new locker-room broadcaster stood with her mic up at her mouth, talking about something. She was adorable; Benji had always thought so. At one time, he had wanted to holler at her, but that was while he was actually searching for what turned out to be Lucy. Watching as Vaughn towered over her, Benji wanted to laugh. She was so little, maybe five feet, with big, blue eyes and long, brown hair that had blond at the ends. She was on the thicker side, almost like Elli Adler, but she pulled it off and all the guys liked her. She was nice, but apparently Vaughn forgot that as he stood before her, his hands on his hips, annoyance rolling off him.

"Tough game, Vaughn. Tell me, what could your team have done to win tonight?"

"Well, Brie, don't know if you were actually watching the game, but we weren't playing," he said simply, and her eyes widened as Benji held back his laughter. "We fucking sucked out there. The defense was off, the offense wasn't even doing anything. We can't win games playing like that. We have to be better."

And then he walked away.

Like he had dropped the mic.

Poor Brie looked stunned, and all Benji could do was laugh. Vaughn was in so much trouble. As he expected, Benji's interview was very short and then he headed down the hall. The media team was tearing a new one into Vaughn, just as Jude Sinclair was heading toward him.

"Hey!" he called out and Benji paused.

He looked around. He wasn't sure, but he'd thought maybe the guy wouldn't talk to him. Pressing his finger to his chest, he said, "Me?"

"You're the one dating my sister, right?"

Benji nodded, a smile pulling at his lips. "I am."

"Awesome. Well, then, yes, you," he said holding his hand out and Benji took it. "How's the chest?"

"Stings."

"I bet," Jude laughed, and he looked so much like Lucy. The whole Sinclair resemblance was a bit scary. He'd thought that Jayden and Lucy could be twins, but Jude looked so much like his brother, Benji was now convinced their genes were some scientific marvel. "Hate that we can't get together. Get to know each other."