MasukLogan POVI stared at Harper’s text for so long my phone screen dimmed.Then went black.Then dimmed again when I touched it.The message didn’t change.Unfortunately.Still coming to the formal with me, right?Three little dots would have been easier.A fight would’ve been easier.Hell, getting checked into the boards by a two-hundred-pound defenseman would’ve been easier.Instead, I was standing in Coach’s office staring at two things that suddenly felt impossible to fit together.The biggest opportunity of my life.And a promise.Coach was still talking.Something about schedules.Travel arrangements.The prospect event.I heard maybe half of it.The rest got drowned out by the pounding in my chest.Because the more I looked at the dates on the page, the worse it got.There wasn’t a workaround.There wasn’t a compromise.There wasn’t some magical solution where I could be in two places at once.Chicago was three days.The formal was that weekend.And Harper had been planning that f
Harper POVThe first sign that I was losing my mind came when I accidentally emailed the catering contract to my biology professor.The second sign came three minutes later when my biology professor replied asking whether he should choose the chicken option or the steak option for eighty-seven guests.I stared at my laptop.Then at the email.Then back at my laptop.Around me, the Alpha Chi executive board meeting continued like nothing had happened.Which felt rude, honestly.Because my academic reputation had just died.“Harper?”I slowly lowered my computer.“What?”Lila took one look at my face and immediately sat up straighter.“Oh no.”“Oh yes.”“What happened?”I slid my laptop across the table.Thirty seconds later, the entire room exploded.I dropped my forehead onto the conference table.Laughter bounced off the walls around me.“Please stop.”Nobody stopped.Of course.“Harper!”Becca was crying laughing.“Why does Dr. Simmons know how much we’re spending on mini cheesecake
Harper POVMy stomach dropped the second the next message appeared.Not because I knew what it said.Because I knew Logan.And Logan didn’t send “sorry” unless something was genuinely bothering him.That was the problem with getting to know someone.You learned their tells.The little things nobody else noticed.The things that gave them away.Most people saw confidence when they looked at Logan.I saw the guy who rubbed the back of his neck when he was nervous.The guy who got quiet when something was weighing on him.The guy who tried to carry everything himself until it nearly crushed him.And right now?Every instinct I had was screaming that something was wrong.Around me, the Alpha Chi house was still chaos.Girls were arguing over decorations.Someone was talking about catering.Music was playing somewhere upstairs.Life was continuing completely normally.Meanwhile, my attention was locked on my phone.The second message came through.Logan:Can we talk tonight?My heart sank.
Harper POVSomething was wrong.Not horribly wrong.Not Richard-Shaw-showing-up-on-campus wrong.Not Logan-punching-someone-at-a-game wrong.Just…Wrong.The problem was that I couldn’t actually explain why.I stared down at my phone while sitting cross-legged on the floor of the Alpha Chi house.Around me, absolute chaos was unfolding.Fabric samples were spread across the coffee table.Three different laptops were open.Someone was arguing about flower arrangements.Someone else was arguing about table placements.Apparently college students became completely unhinged when formal season arrived.As president, that unfortunately made it my problem.“Harper.”I looked up.“What?”Becca sighed dramatically.“You haven’t heard a single thing I’ve said for five minutes.”“That’s not true.”“Then what centerpiece did we choose?”I opened my mouth.Then closed it.Becca pointed at me.“Exactly.”The room laughed.I groaned.“Sorry.”“Boy problem?”The worst part?Every single girl in the r
Logan POVI should have felt relieved after talking to Harper.Instead, I felt like someone had taken my brain, thrown it in a blender, and hit the highest setting.Which was ridiculous.Because the conversation had gone well.Really well.Better than well.I’d told her about the scouts.Told her about Chicago.Told her about the meeting.And Harper hadn’t looked scared.She hadn’t started talking about distance or sacrifice or how maybe we should prepare ourselves for the future.She’d grabbed my hand across the table and looked genuinely excited for me.Like this wasn’t something happening to us.It was something happening for me.The problem was that somehow made everything worse.Because now I had no excuse for the knot sitting in the middle of my chest.I pushed through the coffee shop door and stepped onto campus, shoving my hands into the pockets of my hoodie.Students moved around me in every direction.Someone skateboarded past.A group of freshmen were throwing a football be
Harper POVI thought finding out NHL scouts wanted to meet with Logan would make me panic.Instead, it made me proud.Terrifyingly, ridiculously proud.The kind of proud that made my chest feel too full.The kind that made me want to stand up in the middle of the coffee shop and announce to complete strangers that I knew him.That I knew the guy everyone saw flying across the ice.That I knew the version of him who stole fries off my plate and left wet towels on his bedroom floor.The version who pretended to be confident when he was nervous.The version who still called me when things got hard.The version who looked at me like I was somehow the best thing that had ever happened to him.The problem was…The more excited I became for him, the more another thought started creeping into my head.A dangerous one.One I didn’t want to think about.One I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about.Chicago.I stirred my drink even though I wasn’t drinking it.Logan was talking now.Something abou
Harper POVThe more I sit there, the worse it gets.At first I try to go back to my homework. I really do. I stare at the numbers like they might reorganize my life if I just concentrate hard enough.They don’t.All I can hear is Lila’s voice in my head.Zack called me to ask what you did to his ca
Cole POVI see her before she sees me.She’s walking across the quad with a stack of folders pressed to her chest, ponytail swinging, steps quick and purposeful like she’s got somewhere important to be and zero patience for the world.Which tracks.Harper Lane always looks like she’s holding hersel
Cole POVI know something’s wrong with Logan before he even opens his mouth.It’s the silence.Logan Shaw doesn’t do silence. He does sarcasm, trash talk, or strategic brooding with a side of arrogance. Today he does… nothing. Just sits at the kitchen counter in the Ice House, staring at his coffee
Logan POVPractice is supposed to clear my head.It doesn’t.It makes everything worse.The rink is cold and bright and loud with the scrape of blades and the crack of pucks against boards, but none of it is loud enough to drown out the noise in my head. I hit the ice like I’m trying to break it. M







