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twelve

Daylen

"Y ou got yourselves one amazing goalie there. How the hell did you guys accomplish that? The whole league has been after her and you just swooped in and stole her away from everyone."

I've always liked Colt Hayes, one of the owners of the Minnesota Norse. He's a straight shooter who's also in a relationship with one of his team's ice girls along with his two best friends and co-owners of the Norse. I want to ask him about it, but I don't want to out Lenni either.

"Yeah, thanks to Kepler we got lucky we were able to sign her before anyone else got a chance." Lucky in business but not lucky in love.

He's right she does look good blocking puck after puck. I don't think I've ever seen a goalie work as hard as she does. She's only been with the team for less than a week, but she's looks like she's played with them for years.

The way she yells out to her teammates to watch their blindside is something only veteran goalies are good at. But to her it's second nature.

"Well, if you ever want to do a trade, we'd love to have Lenni on our team." The words are barely out of Colt's mouth before Kepler is leaping over his seat and grabbing Colt by the shirt collar. "Like hell we'll trade her."

"Kepler, not if off." I hiss, not wanting Colt to figure out our true feelings for Lenni—we owe it to her not to spill her secret.

Reluctantly Kepler drops his hands from Colt's neck.

"So, it's like that is it?" Colt straightens out his shirt. "I had a feeling you three were into her. How long has she been ignoring you?"

It's no use lying to Colt. I can see it in his eyes—he knows the truth about how we feel about Lenni.

"How did you know she's been ignoring us?" Raiden asks.

"Since the moment I saw the three of your long faces walk into my arena. And of course, the look on Lenni's face when she looks at the three of you is a dead giveaway."

"Shit, do you think anyone else knows?" I run my hands through my hair, hating the idea of anyone talking bad about our woman.

"No, not unless they're looking for it. In all the time I've known the three of you I've never seen that said puppy dog face like you've been wearing all day. But make sure Lenni wants the same thing you want. Take it from me, it's hard on the woman who's dating three guys—the trolls love to slut shame them."

"That's something that's been bothering us about the whole relationship thing." I walk toward the glass to get a better view of our woman.

She looks so happy on the ice. Not that I can tell from this far away, but it's in the way she plays, like she's loving every minute of being on the ice.

It finally hits me this is her dream. It's something she's worked her whole life for why she would let three guys come between her and that dream even though she's, our dream.

With my mind made up, I need to talk to my brothers about letting Lenni go personally so she can flourish on the team like she was meant to do.

I glance at my brothers as they watch Lenni on the ice below. Their faces light up just watching her and I know it's going to be a fight for them to let her go. But I'd rather let her go and let her live her dream, than be the cause of all her pain from never achieving the greatness she is meant for.