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14.The Morning After
publish date:
2026-10-27 10:00:00Liam showed up twenty minutes after his text, before I'd even figured out how to respond.
My roommate, Sarah, was out for the night,some study group that always turned into something less academic by ten,so the dorm was empty when I opened the door and found him standing there, still in his practice jacket, hands shoved in his pockets like he wasn't sure what to do with them."Hey," I said, my heart hammering so hard I was sure he could hear it."Hey." He didn't mov
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Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 36.Unplanned
I hadn't meant to end up at the same coffee shop as Liam. Fate, apparently, had other plans, or maybe just bad timing and a campus with only so many places that served decent espresso.He was already there when I walked in, sitting alone at a corner table with his laptop open, a textbook shoved to one side like he'd given up on it an hour ago. He looked up when the bell over the door chimed, and something in his expression shifted ,surprise, then something softer he didn't quite manage to hide fast enough."Hey," he said."Hey. Studying?""Trying to. Failing, mostly." He gestured vaguely at the closed textbook. "You want to sit? I could use the distraction, if you've got a minute."I hesitated for exactly one second before pulling out the chair across from him. It felt easier than it should have, given everything sitting unresolved underneath the surface of just *sitting with Liam at a coffee shop.*"How's the semester winding down?" I asked
Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 35. Somewhere Else Entirely
Liam's POVReagan's hand fit nicely in mine. That was the thought I kept circling back to, sitting across from her at the little Italian place off campus, like reminding myself of the plain, uncomplicated facts that might help me actually stay present in them."You're doing the same thing again," she said, not unkindly, twirling her fork through her pasta."What thing?""The thing where you're technically here, but your eyes go somewhere else for a second. It's fine, I just noticed it." She said it lightly, no accusation in it, which somehow made me feel worse than if there had been."Sorry. Long week." It wasn't a lie, exactly. It just wasn't the whole truth eitherShe studied me for a moment, something patient and a little too perceptive in her expression. "You know, for someone who's supposedly having a long week, you talk about hockey like it's the easiest part of your life right now.""It kind of is
Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 34. Taking Space
Chloe found me sitting on my dorm room floor the next morning, still in yesterday's clothes, staring at nothing in particular."Okay," she said, dropping down beside me without waiting for an invitation. "Talk."So I told her everything,the photo, Jace's question, the answer I hadn't been brave enough to give anyone until last night. She listened without interrupting, which for Chloe was its own kind of remarkable."How did he take it?" she asked finally."Better than I deserved. He didn't yell. He didn't even really get angry. He just asked me to actually think about it instead of protecting everyone's feelings by staying quiet.""That's very mature of him.""It's very Jace, actually. He's always been better at seeing things clearly than I give him credit for." I picked at a loose thread on my sleeve. "We didn't break up. Not exactly. We just decided to take some space. Figure out what we each actually want instead of just holding on becaus
Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 33. What Jace Already Knew
I didn't mean to fall asleep on Jace's couch with my old phone photos open.It happened by accident,I'd been looking for a picture of Chloe and me from freshman orientation for some group chat nostalgia thread, scrolling back further than I meant to, and somewhere in the process I'd drifted off with my phone still lit up in my hand.When I woke up, Jace was sitting across the room, very quiet, very still, and my phone was no longer in my hand. It was on the coffee table, screen still glowing, open to a photo from the week of the fake dating agreement ,Liam and me on the quad, his arm around my shoulders, both of us laughing at something neither of us probably remembered anymore."Jace.""You fell asleep," he said, his voice carefully neutral. "Your phone kept buzzing. I moved it so it wouldn't wake you up.""And you looked at it.""It was already open." He wasn't accusing me of anything. That somehow made it worse. "I wasn't trying to snoop.
Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 32. Small Static
Three weeks after finals, life at Dalton had settled into something that almost passed for normal.Jace and I fell into a rhythm that should have felt like everything I'd wanted,study sessions that turned into lazy afternoons, dinners with Chloe where nobody had to pretend anything, a version of us that existed in daylight instead of stolen corners and locked doors. On paper, it was exactly the ending I'd chosen.So I didn't understand why, some days, it felt like static under a clear signal,nothing wrong exactly, just a faint hum I couldn't quite place."You're doing it again," Jace said one evening, not looking up from the game film he was reviewing on his laptop."Doing what?""Staring at nothing like you're working through a math problem I can't see."I forced a smile. "Just tired."He glanced up at that, studying me a beat too long before letting it go, and something in the way he didn't push made me feel worse than if he had.
Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 31.After The Horn
The celebration outside the locker room was chaos in the best possible way.Half the student section had spilled down toward the exit, waiting for the team to emerge, and the hallway had turned into a sea of Dalton jerseys and champagne-colored confetti someone had smuggled in against every fire code imaginable. Chloe and I got separated almost immediately, swallowed up by the crowd, and I didn't mind at all,I was too busy scanning every face that came through the locker room doors, looking for one in particular.Jace found me first.He came through still half in his gear, hair damp with sweat, grinning in a way I hadn't seen from him in longer than I wanted to admit. He didn't say anything,just crossed the distance between us and lifted me clean off my feet, spinning once before setting me back down, both of us laughing."You did it," I said, breathless. "You actually did it.""We did it." He kissed me, quick and giddy, right there in front of God and half the student body, no hesita
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