All Chapters of On Thin Ice With You: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

By the time Mia finds them, the party has migrated.Ellie and Lisa have somehow installed themselves at the team's long table. Empty bottles have multiplied, and the lighting has reached that specific midnight quality.Mia slides into the booth and finds herself directly across from Elias, who is watching her with his thumb running along the rim of his glass, like he has all the time in the world for this particular view.Lucas is flipping a deck of cards between his fingers with the showmanship of someone who has been waiting for an audience."Rules are simple," Lucas announces, showing his dimple. "Draw cards, lowest number takes the punishment. Truth or dare, your choice.""What counts as punishment?" Ellie asks."Scared?" Lucas leans toward Ellie."I'm wondering if it's worth my time," Ellie says, which is the most transparently false thing she has ever said, and everyone at the table knows it.Mia reaches for the nearest glass and takes a sip—and the alcohol hits her throat like

The neon from the bar is still flickering in the side mirror when Mia pulls the door shut and the leather seat breathes cold through her knit sweater.She reaches for her seatbelt. A hand, knuckles prominent, gets there first."Toronto gets cold fast at night," Elias says, leaning across to clip it. His breath is carrying the faint warmth of alcohol and something she has stopped being able to classify as unpleasant. "Bring a jacket next time."He retreats to his side of the car and starts the engine.The Aston Martin comes to life with a sound like something waking up.Mia watches the city move past through the window.In the glass, his reflection is perfectly clear—sleeve rolled to the elbow, forearm shifting with the gearshift, one hand draped easy on the wheel."Enjoying the view?" he asks, and cracks the window two inches.The autumn air hits her. She inhales sharply. He raises it again before she can react."I was looking at the street," she says.The light turns red. He turns—no

Elias runs his thumb once across her knuckles, slow and unhurried, and she feels it all the way up her arm."Feet parallel," he says, adjusting her stance with his free hand at her elbow. "Knees soft—like you're about to sit down."His palm is steady and warm through her sleeve. "There. Now try to glide forward. I'll let go gradually."Mia moves with the careful deliberation of someone treating each centimeter of ice as a negotiation. If the surface weren't frozen solid, she would absolutely try to dig the blades in.She is committed to not falling. She is extremely committed.It works, slowly. The increments grow. She finds something approaching rhythm.Elias reads the moment correctly and eases his grip—not releasing, just hovering, hands close enough to catch.Then she gets confident. This is, historically, where things go wrong.Her feet lose the conversation with each other simultaneously.In the half-second before the ice arrives, she doesn't panic. She realizes, a specific and

The private dining room on the top floor smells of fir and cedar the moment the door opens.Dark pine panels line every wall, each piece of wood with its own grain pattern. The whole room is warm and close in a way that feels intentional rather than accidental. A crystal chandelier throws fractured light across the ceiling.The table is set with white silk and cutlery that is clearly custom—small engravings on every handle, the kind of craftsmanship that doesn't announce itself.Mia sits and looks at the knife in front of her for a moment. Then she looks at the room. Then, she says very quietly, "This is extraordinary.""My mother loves art," Elias says with mild resignation. "My father supports everything she loves. This is the result."He glances at the waiter. "Let's order."They do—Lucas and Tyler from memory, everyone else from a combination of instinct and pointing. By the time the waiter leaves, he's nearly filled two pages."Think you'll have enough to eat?" Elias asks. Once h

The staff room above the arena is functional and nothing more—four walls, a cot, a chair, her luggage in the corner where someone had placed it while she was watching the game.Mia takes her medication, lies down, and presses two fingers into the specific point below her sternum that her father had taught her about at fifteen when the stomach problems first started.It works well enough. By the time the ceremony ends and the buses are loaded, she's upright and functional, which is all she needs to be.After resting briefly and getting luggage sorted, the team board the bus and head for the airport."Fu*k! Back-to-back away games? This is straight-up torture!" Jason snarls, running a frantic hand through his disheveled hair."And that's exactly why conditioning isn't a suggestion, Jason! If you weren't so damn lazy and didn't roll in late every morning, maybe you wouldn't be a mess right now." Coach Danny slaps Jason's shoulder with a sharp.He surveys his exhausted pack of wolves. "Li