I Burned The Hockey Star Down novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: Skye

Skye pushed her sunglasses up into her hair and looked around the lobby.

At the duct tape on the benches.

At the water stain on the ceiling tile.

At the hand-lettered sign over the snack bar that said POPCORN $1, KIDS FREE.

"Wow," she said. "It's so authentic."

"We're open to the public," I said. "Skates are three dollars. Your shirt's free, apparently."

She glanced down at the gray tee like she'd forgotten it.

It hung to her thighs over a pair of white leather leggings. The hole at the collar was bigger than I remembered.

"He gave it to me," she said. "He said I could keep it."

"He gives things away a lot. They're usually somebody else's."

One of the moms behind the snack bar coughed into her coffee.

Skye set a designer tote on the counter between the napkin dispenser and the popcorn machine.

She angled it toward me and took out a thick cream envelope.

"Can we talk somewhere private?"

"No."

"Okay." She smiled. "Then here's fine."

She slid the envelope across.

I didn't touch it.

"My family wants to buy this building," she said. "Penhaligon Brewing pays your grandmother's back taxes, all one hundred and eighty thousand. Then we pay her another two hundred for the deed. She keeps her little house out back. We fix the roof. We put in a real compressor."

The lobby had gone dead quiet.

Even the kids at the bench had stopped lacing.

"And you rename it," I said.

"The Dane Hollings Ice Center." She said it like a gift. "First Ice stays. Bigger. Sponsored. You can even help run it, if you want."

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