All Chapters of Breaking The Ice Between Us: Chapter 221 - Chapter 230

Harper POVThere are two kinds of silence.The first is peaceful.It’s the kind you find sitting beside a lake while the sun disappears behind the trees.The second…The second only exists right before something you’ve worked months for finally begins.That was the silence I stood in now.The ballroom was empty.Not completely empty.The tables had already been dressed in crisp white linens, each centerpiece sitting perfectly in place. Tiny strands of warm lights stretched across the ceiling exactly the way I’d imagined them on countless nights while sketching ideas in the margins of my notebooks. The dance floor gleamed beneath the chandeliers, and the silent auction tables were lined with neatly wrapped baskets waiting for tomorrow night’s guests.Everything was finished.For the first time in months…There wasn’t another checklist.No emergency phone call.No last-minute disaster.No one needed my opinion about table placements or floral arrangements or whether navy-blue ribbons lo

Harper POVThe first hour of the charity formal passed in a blur of names, handshakes, and problems that somehow found me no matter how carefully I tried to hide behind Logan.Not that hiding behind Logan was easy.He was six-foot-two, dressed in a black tuxedo with the navy tie we had picked together, and apparently incapable of entering a room without drawing every eye toward him. People noticed Logan. They always had. Even when we were kids, before the NHL scouts and the campus reputation and the title of hockey captain, there had been something about him that made people look twice.Tonight, though, he didn’t seem to notice anyone looking at him.His attention stayed on me.Every time someone stopped me to ask a question, he waited beside me without looking impatient. When one of the younger Alpha Chi girls rushed over because the microphone near the stage had stopped working, Logan followed us across the ballroom, held my clipboard, and somehow found the loose cable before the ev

Harper POVMonday mornings on a college campus always felt like organized chaos.Students hurried across the sidewalks with coffee cups balanced in one hand and backpacks slipping off their shoulders. Professors walked with the determined expression of people who had already answered the same question twenty-seven times before nine o’clock. Somewhere across campus, the marching band was practicing again, which meant the faint sound of drums echoed between the academic buildings while someone in the distance yelled about being late for class.Normal.For the first time in what felt like forever…Normal sounded wonderful.I adjusted the strap of my bag as I walked toward the business building, smiling politely at a few Alpha Chi girls who waved from across the quad.“Morning, Harper!”“Morning!”“Great job Saturday night!”I smiled.“Thank you.”The compliments still felt strange.All weekend my phone had buzzed with messages from alumni, professors, girls from other sororities, even a

Logan POVChicago was bigger than I remembered.The moment I stepped out of O’Hare, it hit me all over again.The noise.The traffic.The endless stream of people moving like they all had somewhere more important to be than everyone else around them.Even the air smelled different.Less like home.More like opportunity.Or pressure.Maybe both.A shuttle waited outside the terminal with a sign reading USA Hockey National Showcase across the windshield. Half a dozen players were already loading equipment into the trailer, their conversations bouncing between colleges, junior teams, and draft rankings.I recognized a few faces.Some from summer camps.Some from tournaments.Some from highlight reels I’d watched online.Guys who were supposed to be the best.Guys everyone expected to make it.One of them looked over.“Shaw?”I nodded.“Yeah.”“The defenseman from Hartwell?”“That’s me.”He grinned.“Heard you’ve got a cannon from the blue line.”I laughed.“I’ve heard that too.”He laugh

Logan POVThe alarm went off at six.For a second, I forgot where I was.The hotel room was unfamiliar, the ceiling higher than the one back in my apartment, and the faint rumble of traffic drifted through the window even this early in the morning. Then everything came rushing back at once.Chicago.The showcase.The scouts.My stomach fluttered, but it wasn’t the sickening knot I’d expected. It was lighter than that. More like the feeling before the opening faceoff of a rivalry game—the kind where every nerve in your body woke up because you couldn’t wait to get on the ice.I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling for a moment before sitting up. My roommate was already awake, lacing his running shoes.“Morning,” he said.“Morning.”“You sleep?”“Better than I thought.”He laughed.“I think I got about four hours.”“I would’ve been the same a few months ago.”He looked over at me.“What changed?”I smiled as I reached for the bracelet resting against my wrist.“I remembered why