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Chapter 148: Closed Doors
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-09-25 18:21:32
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Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 150: What They’d Fight For
The morning of the charity game, Ava stood in front of the mirror in Dean’s hotel room for the third time, tugging at the hem of her shirt as if she could force the fabric to conceal what she was trying so hard to hide.“You look beautiful,” I told her.“I look like I’m hiding something.”“You are hiding something. That’s sort of the point right now.”She sighed and smoothed the shirt over her stomach again. “Ryan joked last night that I’m going to need bigger jerseys soon. In front of the entire team.” Her mouth tightened. “I know he didn’t mean anything by it, but I felt so exposed, Iris. Like everyone was looking at my body instead of seeing me.”“Did you tell him that?”“No. I told him I didn’t want to talk to him for the rest of the night.”“Ava.”“I know.” She sank onto the edge of the bed, looking worn out in the particular way early pregnancy seemed to demand. “I keep telling him I’m going to get rid of it if he doesn’t learn to think before he speaks.”“You don’t mean that.”
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 149: Ten Thousand Years
Dean’s hotel room was quiet when I arrived, which felt almost suspicious after the chaos of the past few weeks. He found me in the lobby before I had even managed to set my bag down properly and pulled me into a hug that made me forget, briefly, how much I still had left to do.Once we were upstairs, I opened my laptop on the desk between us and gave him the update. “Everything’s ready. The game’s in two days. Sponsors are confirmed, media coverage is secured, and Melissa’s handling press. You have nothing left to worry about.”“You’re incredible at this.”“I know.” I closed the laptop with a satisfied smile. “Now, you said you had an idea.”He sat across from me, trying to look calm, but I caught the hesitation that moved across his face before he spoke. “I want to start a center. Small at first. A hockey program for kids, with an art space alongside it.”“You want to coach?”“No. I’d hire someone qualified for that.” He shook his head. “I just want the center to exist. Somewhere kid
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 148: Closed Doors
Dean:The private meeting room Lucas had booked was two floors above our father’s office, neutral territory dressed up as an emergency board session. I stood beside him with my eyes fixed on the door, trying not to imagine all the ways this could go wrong.I hadn’t been this nervous before a hockey game in years. At least on the ice, I knew who I was facing and what was expected of me. I knew the rules, the boundaries, the consequences of every move.This was different. This was my father and Mason’s father, two men who had spent most of our lives turning their companies into weapons and dragging everyone around them into a rivalry none of us had chosen.“They’ll come,” Lucas said, checking his watch. “Our father thinks this is about a supplier dispute. Mason gave his father a different version of the same story.”Mason arrived first, alone, looking as though he would rather have been anywhere else. He stopped just inside the room and glanced between us. “My dad’s five minutes out. Yo
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 147: The Plan
Morning came slowly through Dean’s curtains, turning the room gold around us. I woke curled against him, his arm resting loosely around my waist, and for a few quiet minutes I stayed exactly where I was, listening to the steady rhythm of his breathing. There was something rare about being together without arguing, hiding, or trying to decide what any of it meant. I wanted to hold on to that simplicity for as long as I could.“I don’t want to go home yet,” I whispered.His arm tightened around me, and his voice came rough with sleep. “I don’t want you to go home yet either.” He pressed a sleepy kiss to my hair. “Then don’t make me.”“I wasn’t planning to. Stay with me for a couple more days.”“How many is a couple?”“Two days.”I lifted my head to look at him. “And after that?”“After that, we figure out the rest.”He didn’t make a sweeping promise about the future or pretend that two days could erase everything that had happened between us. It was only two ordinary days without decisi
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 146: The Last Game
“I don’t think I should go.”Ava stood in front of the mirror, tugging at the waistband of her jeans and complaining that they felt tighter, even though she was barely showing. She had spent the last ten minutes insisting she had nothing to wear, yet she looked far too excited about the dinner invitation to be taken seriously.“You’re being ridiculous,” she said. “You came for graduation. Just come to dinner.”“That was different.”“How?”“I was invited to graduation. This feels like I’m inserting myself into something I’m not officially part of.”Across the room, Dean had been helping Ryan carry chairs. He set his down when he heard me and came over, wearing the patient amusement he reserved for my more stubborn moments.“You’re talking about it like it’s a state dinner,” he said. “It’s just the team and us. It’s the last time we’ll all be together before everyone scatters.”“Still.”“Iris.” His calm, measured tone made it clear he already knew I was being unreasonable. “Come. Please
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 145: What You Could Have Had
Dean showed up at my father’s house the next afternoon. I found him standing beside his car when I stepped outside, his hands shoved into his pockets and uncertainty written across a face I had rarely seen unguarded.“I got in my car,” he said before I could ask. “I didn’t decide to come here. I just started driving, and somehow I ended up pointed in this direction.”I stopped halfway down the steps. “What do you want, Dean?”He met my eyes. “Can we talk?”“We’re always talking.”“Not like this.” He glanced toward the house, then back at me. “I don’t want another conversation where we try to solve everything or convince each other of anything. I just want to be around you.”I didn’t know what to do with that. “You drove all the way here just to be around me?”“Yes.”The honesty landed harder than any explanation could have. I looked back at the house, where my father was probably watching television or pretending not to notice my car still in the driveway, then faced Dean again. “Wher
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