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I nod and make for the door.

“Jack?”

I turn toward Archer as he sidles up next to my captain. “Yeah?”

“Darcy knows Kendra’s home address in Ohio. When we were hanging out in Lloyd’s that night, I was there when she asked her for it. She wanted to send a Christmas card to her family. So, all I’m saying is, if you need to know where her parents live, then your sister can help you out.”

I don’t know where her family home is, though I’d have knocked on every door in the state until I found her. Despite the fucking turmoil I’m in, I manage an appreciative smile before I’m out the door and heading for Jon.

The empty player hallway only serves to feed my panic as I check each room and come up empty.

I’m going to lose her. I am losing her.

When I finally find Jon sitting at a long boardroom-style table, I take a breath and watch him through the door window, observing different clips of game footage.

He spins around as I push into the room, the smile on his face from rolling over Nashville completely gone, along with his coach persona.

He drops his pen to the table when he sees the pain in my eyes. “Jack, what the fuck has happened?”

My bag hits the floor with a thud as I collapse against the wall beside me. “It’s all fucked. Everything.”

He rounds the table in less than a second, his hands on my upper arms as his eyes search me from beneath the bill of his cap. “Talk to me. Does this have to do with Kendra? Because you just played the game of your life out there. The media wants to speak with you.” He tries to lift my spirits. “They’re calling you the next Jon Morgan.”

I remember the first time Jon showed up at a college practice session. I was in my freshman year and one bad drill away from calling it quits. My game wasn’t where it needed to be. I was miles behind. All I could do was skate fast and excel in agility tests.

It got to the point where most of the guys avoided talking to me since not only did I not fit in on the ice, but Tyler made sure I was as foreign as my nationality off it too.

Mum has said to me on multiple occasions that Jon changed her life, and I know he feels the exact same way about her. They were strangers to each other when they met but were instantly magnetized.

That’s how I feel about Kendra. How I’ve always felt about her. And that’s how I feel about the guy standing in front of me. He changed my life that day. All my teammates wanted pictures and autographs, and when he finished up being the true professional he’d always been, he quietly went about giving me the coaching he knew I needed.

He didn’t give up on me, and he taught me not to do the same when it came to my dreams. He showed me that I could be whoever I wanted, and he guided me both on and off the ice.

When my mum bought those season tickets for my eighteenth birthday, she thought that would be the best present I’d ever receive, and it was damn close to it. What she didn’t anticipate was the man she met as a result would eventually become the father figure I craved.

There was never any other name I’d play under, and there’s no other girl I want to pass it onto.

She’s endgame for me.

“I need to go to Kendra.”

His eyes drop to my red knuckles, and I brace for him to ream me out.

It doesn’t come, and I look him directly in the eyes.

“I fucked up in college, and Tyler has twisted it against me.”

Jon exhales slowly, not saying a word.

“I know. I know this is the NHL and I have responsibilities. But she just got bad news about the national squad, and now she thinks I’ve been using her as part of this fucking stupid rivalry with Bennett.” I push my hand harshly through my hair. “I need to go to her in Ohio.”

I’ve been waiting for him to hit coach mode since I walked through the door.

He surprises me again when his face turns softer. “Is she the one, Jack?”

I don’t hesitate. If she weren’t, I wouldn’t feel like my organs were being doused in acid.

“Yeah. I need to show her that she can trust me and she’s my girl, and I can only do that face-to-face.”