Page 139 of ICED
Ollie looks at me over her head. “Well, looks like I’m staying for breakfast.”
I grin. “You want waffles?”
“I want chocolate chip pancakes with faces,” Lila says immediately. “And whipped cream moustaches.”
From behind me, Maya’s sleepy voice drifts in. “What happened to porridge and fruit, Miss Lila?”
Lila giggles. “Special occasion!Ollie had a sleepover!”
Maya appears in the doorway, still in her robe, hair tangled from sleep. She looks beautiful. Softer somehow. Peaceful. My chest tugs.
She catches my eye and smiles. God, I want that every morning.
“Chocolate chip pancakes it is,” I say, already heading for the kitchen.
We make breakfast together. I mix the batter while Lila instructs me on “acceptable chocolate-to-batter ratio.” Maya brews more coffee. Ollie cuts strawberries into hearts, because Lila insists “normal slices are boring.”
We eat around the table, all four of us. Lila tells Ollie about a dream she had where Bunny became a space captain and fought moon sharks. Ollie gasps and clutches his heart like it’s the most dramatic story he’s ever heard. Maya rolls her eyes and mouthsthank youat me for the whipped cream moustaches.
It’s chaos. Sticky fingers, syrup spills, laughter echoing off the kitchen tiles.
It’s perfect.
I don’t realise how badly I’ve wanted this until it’s sitting in front of me, chewing pancake with her mouth open and naming planets after fruit.
Eventually, Ollie checks the time and groans. “Training.”
I glance at the clock. “We’ve got twenty.”
Lila frowns. “Don’t go.”
Ollie clutches his chest. “You wound me, tiny queen. But I must return to the ice and embarrass grown men with my superior toe drag.”
She makes a face. “That sounds boring.”
“Correct,” Maya mutters. “Deeply boring.”
I grin. “You like watching me, though.”
Lila shrugs. “Only when you fight the mean ones.”
“Great,” Ollie says dryly. “We’re raising a vigilante.”
We clean up together, the house warm and loud with goodbye hugs and last-minute instructions. Lila insists Ollie pinky-promise to return for tea. Maya presses a kiss to my cheek just as I duck to tie my laces.
It stays with me all the way to the rink.
Training is brutal. Jonno’s got his game-face on, which means we’re skating suicides before we’ve even stretched.
“Blame Ollie,” I mutter under my breath. “God knows where he is, he followed me here.”
Dylan groans beside me. “Why are we always being punished forOllie’ssins?”
“You knew what this team was when you signed up,” Murphy pants.
Jonno blows the whistle. “Again!”
By the time Ollie shows up, five minutes late and still smelling faintly of whipped cream, we’re halfway through a speed drill that makes my quads scream.
