The locker room had emptied hours ago, but the arena lights still hummed low overhead like they refused to let the day end. I stayed on the ice after the team cleared out, skating slow laps to work the stiffness from my bruised ribs. Every glide pulled at the deep purple marks Kane had left behind, but the real ache lived somewhere deeper—under my skin, behind my ribs, in the space where Caleb’s almost-confessions kept echoing.
I heard his blades before I saw him.
Caleb emerged from the tunnel alone, helmet off, dark hair damp with sweat from whatever extra work he’d done in the gym. He didn’t announce himself. He simply pushed off and skated straight to me, cutting across the ice with that brutal, graceful power that always made my pulse stutter. When he reached me, he didn’t stop. He c
