Lucas Brooks looked over at Levi Moss, his best friend, and laughed as he nodded in agreement. Levi was right – five years ago, they both would still be face down in their own puke or in some female’s br**sts on New Year’s Day, not moving into their new house.

“You’re right, but I would probably be broke and without a job too,” Lucas added.

“True, very true indeed,” Levi said as he nodded his head.

Lucas smiled as he piled the boxes by the stairs that needed to go upstairs. The new house he had bought was huge. He had asked for a simple home and got this — nine bedrooms, six baths, two dens, and to top it off there was an ice rink on the lower level. Lucas had to admit that was the best part of the huge house, but still. It was too big for just him and Levi.

Lucas still couldn’t believe he was in Nashville, Tennessee. After living in San Jose for the past nine years, he couldn’t believe he had moved or even left the Sharks. He loved his team, he missed the guys and he had only been gone a week but moving to Nashville was much needed. Lucas needed a new set of faces and a new team, no matter how much he missed the guys. Lucas was getting into too much trouble in San Jose and if he wanted to stay sober, he had to leave where the temptation was.

And everything in San Jose was a big temptation.

Lucas knew the spots, he knew the women, he knew how to get in trouble and the past four years had been hell trying to be good, so he had to leave. He just had to. Thankfully, Levi supported him, uprooted his life, and followed Lucas to Nashville with no question at all. Lucas figured that Levi knew they had to get out of San Jose or he was gonna relapse. Lucas’ mom was happy too ─ he was only eight hours from his home town of Eaton Rapids, Michigan now, and that made Molly Brooks a very happy woman.

So all around, moving to Nashville was going to be great as long as he got along with his team. Lucas had played the Assassins many times and hated playing their defense. They were intense, hard-hitting ass**les, and a game didn’t happen without him fighting someone from that team.

Now he was going to play with them.

Yay.

After taking all 14 boxes up to his room, Lucas looked around the room that was his and nodded his head. The home decorator, Beth, had done a great job with giving him what he wanted. He wasn’t sure about the colors he wanted, but after talking to Beth, she seemed to know what he wanted. She wanted to base his room off his eyes, so the walls were a perfect shade of gray, and the bedding was gray with black and white accent pillows. The headboard to the massive California king bed (something he couldn’t leave in California) was black and reached up to the ceiling. He had always liked big beds, and luckily the room was still massive even with the bed in it.

Along the walls, there were black and white portraits of him as a kid — him with his mom and dad, some of just his dad — and then a lot of him during his years playing hockey. His favorite picture was the one that was on the wall across from his bed — it was of him when he was four with his dad, James, on the first day he had ever played hockey. James’ face was bright with excitement and Lucas’ matched it — it was one of the best days of his life and he loved waking up to that picture.

Tearing himself from the picture that held so many memories, he looked over at the closet that held every stick he had ever played with and smiled. When Beth said ‘I’d be damned if there is going to be a room for your old sticks, I will think of something’ he didn’t even think twice about her statement. What else was she going to do with 46 sticks, but she had surprised him with the closet. After cutting and gluing each stick to the wall around his closet, he decided that Beth King was a pure genius and he couldn’t wait for his mom to see it.

Now all he had to do was unpack his personal stuff. He was doing just that when Levi came in with a box in his hand. Lucas didn’t pay any attention to him as he hung his clothes up until Levi said, “Please explain to me why you brought Fallon Parker’s stuff with us to Nashville?”

Lucas turned quickly, seeing the blue box that he could have sworn he had grabbed was in his best friends hands.

Shit.

He walked over to Levi, took the box from him, and placed it at the bottom of his closet.

“I’m waiting,” Levi said. Lucas rolled his eyes.

“What was I supposed to do with it? Leave it in California?” Lucas asked with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Yes! Or hell, here’s an idea, throw it away!”

Lucas ignored him as he went back to hanging his clothes up. “I just don’t understand it. It’s been a billion years since she left. You haven’t seen her or talked to her. Why keep her things when we both know it still bothers you,” Levi asked.

“Nothing in that box bothers me, it’s just memories.”

“Memories you need to throw away. There is no reason why you still have all the clothes she left, or her hair supplies, or…”

Lucas glared over at Levi. “You went through the box?”

“Yeah, like five years ago. Come on, dude. It’s crazy! Why do you need her hairbrush?”

“Why does it matter?”

“Because it’s weird and I think you need help.”

Lucas rolled his eyes as he went back to hanging up his clothes. “I’m fine, I just like having them.”

“Why?”

“Because I do, don’t worry about it. Don’t you have something to do?”

Levi laughed as he shook his head. “Jeez Luc, still sensitive after seven years? Maybe you do need help.”