Page 79 of Icy Pucking Play

"Ry…"

"Because I deserve to know. And because maybe if you practice telling me, you'll find the courage to tell her."

I look at my nephew—no longer the kid who used to beg for extra practice time with me, but a man who understands much more than I give him credit for.

"Okay," I say finally. "But not here."

"Coffee?"

"Something stronger."

He nods, understanding. "I'll drive."

As we head out, I catch sight of Sophie's notebook—dropped during our argument, pages scattered across the floor.

I pick it up, meaning to just gather the pages, but one catches my eye.

Some say Evan Daniels is made of ice. They don't see how much warmth he holds inside. How carefully he guards it. How much courage it takes to let anyone close enough to feel it...

My vision blurs.

Because that's the thing about Sophie Bennett—she sees me. Really sees me. And I just pushed her away for it.

"Come on," Ryland says gently. "Let's go figure out how to fix this."

But some things, once broken, are hard to fix.

Even if they're so important that you give everything to try.

Chapter 20

Sophie

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous," Brad announces, rolling his chair into my cubicle for the third time today. "You've been staring at the same sentence for an hour."

"I'm editing."

"You're moping."

"I do not mope."

"Really?" He picks up my coffee cup. "Because this is definitely not your usual vanilla latte. This is black coffee. Like someone else's coffee."

I snatch the cup back. "Maybe I wanted to try something different."

"Uh-huh. And maybe you're drinking it black because it reminds you of a certain grumpy goalie?"

"Don't you have work to do?"

"This is my work. Watching you pine and overthink and…" He stops, frowning at my screen. "Wait, are you rewriting the whole feature?"

"I'm making it more professional."

"By taking out all the good parts?"

"By making it objective." I minimize the document before he can read more. "The way it should have been from the start."

"Sophie…"

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