Chapter 217 Chapter 216
Chapter 217 Chapter 216
Harper POV
The lake hadn’t changed.
The old wooden dock still stretched over the water with faded planks that had probably needed replacing years ago. Tall oak trees framed the shoreline, their branches swaying gently in the late afternoon breeze. The only sounds were the soft ripple of water against the dock and the occasional chirp of birds somewhere high above me.
It was peaceful.
Too peaceful.
My heart, on the other hand, felt like it was trying to beat its way out of my chest.
Logan’s truck sat beneath the biggest oak tree exactly where I remembered it from years ago.
I shut off my car and just… sat there.
My hands rested on the steering wheel while I stared through the windshield.
I hadn’t been here since high school.
Back then, Logan wasn’t someone I talked to.
He was someone I quietly observed.
The hockey captain everyone admired.
The boy who carried too much responsibility even then.
Whenever the Titans lost a big game or whenever I happened to see Richard Shaw storm out of the arena looking furious, Logan would disappear.
Most people assumed he went home.
I knew better.
I’d seen this truck parked here enough times over the years to figure it out.
It had become his hiding place long before it became mine.
Funny.
After all this time…
It still was.
I climbed out of my car, shutting the door as quietly as I could.
Gravel crunched beneath my sneakers.
The closer I got to the dock, the more clearly I could make out his silhouette.
He sat at the very end with his elbows resting on his knees, a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes.
His hockey bag sat beside him, still unopened.
He hadn’t even gone home.
He must have heard my footsteps because he spoke before I reached him.
“You always were terrible at sneaking up on people.”
I smiled despite myself.
“You knew it was me?”
“I knew it was your car.”
I walked the rest of the way onto the dock.
“You’ve got a very recognizable engine.”
“I drive a Honda.”
“Exactly.”
I laughed quietly.
“You’ve officially become a car snob.”
He finally looked over his shoulder.
There was a tired smile on his face.
A real one.
But behind it…
I could still see the weight in his eyes.
“You gonna stand there all day?”
I looked at the empty space beside him.
“You inviting me?”
“I’ve been hoping you’d sit down.”
I lowered myself onto the dock beside him.
For a while…
Neither of us spoke.
The silence wasn’t uncomfortable.
It never really had been between us.
Maybe because we’d spent so many years speaking without words.
Sharing classrooms.
Passing each other in hallways.
Watching hockey games.
Living parallel lives until one day those lines finally crossed.
The lake shimmered in front of us.
Logan picked up a small pebble and tossed it into the water.
“I forgot how quiet it is out here.”
“I didn’t.”
He looked at me.
“You remembered this place?”
I nodded.
“Of course.”
“I never told you about it.”
“You didn’t have to.”
His forehead wrinkled.
“What do you mean?”
I smiled to myself.
“You’ve been coming here since middle school.”
He blinked.
“…What?”
“I didn’t know why.”
“I just noticed.”
He stared at me in complete disbelief.
“You noticed that?”
“I noticed a lot of things.”
A soft laugh escaped him.
“I guess you did.”
I bumped his shoulder lightly.
“You act surprised.”
“I am.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
He looked back out across the water.
“I thought I was good at hiding.”
“You were.”
I smiled.
“From everybody else.”
His head turned slowly toward me.
“But not from you?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Another pebble skipped across the lake.
“I guess you always found me.”
I let those words settle between us before answering.
“I wasn’t trying to.”
He frowned.
“No?”
“No.”
I looked down at my hands.
“I just…”
I searched for the right words.
“…always worried about you.”
His expression softened.
“Even back then?”
I laughed quietly.
“Especially back then.”
A long silence stretched between us.
Finally, I turned toward him.
“Coach called me.”
His shoulders tensed.
“I figured.”
“He said you left early.”
“I did.”
“He also said you were physically okay.”
“I am.”
I studied him.
“And everything else?”
He sighed.
“Working on it.”
“Logan…”
He pulled off his cap and ran a hand through his hair.
“I don’t even know where to start.”
“Start anywhere.”
He let out a long breath.
“My dad came to see me.”
I stayed quiet.
“He told me Harper was a distraction.”
The words hung in the air.
“He said the scouts notice everything.”
“He said professional hockey doesn’t wait for girlfriends.”
My chest tightened.
“I wanted to tell him he was wrong.”
He looked out across the lake again.
“But then…”
“I remembered all the bad practices.”
“The missed passes.”
“The comments online.”
“I started wondering if maybe…”
His voice cracked.
“…maybe he was right.”
Hearing those words hurt more than I expected.
Not because I believed them.
Because I knew he had.
At least for a little while.
“I hated myself for even thinking it.”
He laughed bitterly.
“You know what’s funny?”
“What?”
“The whole time…”
“I wasn’t afraid of losing hockey.”
He swallowed hard.
“I was afraid of becoming him.”
The vulnerability in those words stole the breath from my lungs.
Not because Logan cried.
He didn’t.
Not because he raised his voice.
He didn’t.
It was the quiet honesty.
The kind that only came after someone had been carrying too much for too long.
I reached over and laced my fingers through his.
He looked down at our hands.
“I met with Coach.”
He smiled faintly.
“Then Cole chewed me out.”
I couldn’t help laughing.
“Cole?”
“He was mad.”
“Really mad.”
“He basically told me I had everything I’d ever wanted and I was letting everybody else’s opinions ruin it.”
“Sounds like Cole.”
He smiled.
“It does.”
Then the smile faded.
“I just…”
His shoulders slumped.
“I’m tired, Harper.”
“Tired of trying to be enough.”
The words hit me square in the heart.
I turned fully toward him.
“Look at me.”
He did.
Those blue eyes I’d admired since I was thirteen met mine.
“If hockey disappeared tomorrow…”
He frowned.
“What?”
“If the NHL disappeared.”
“If every scout stopped calling.”
“If you never played another game.”
I squeezed his hand.
“I would still choose you.”
His eyes widened.
I continued before he could interrupt.
“I wouldn’t choose you because you score goals.”
“I wouldn’t choose you because people wear your jersey.”
“I wouldn’t choose you because one day you might play professionally.”
A tear slipped down my cheek.
“I’d choose you because you’re the boy who stayed after a middle-school assembly to help a sixth grader pick up her books.”
His eyes searched mine.
“I’d choose you because you’re the captain who knows every freshman on the team’s name.”
“I’d choose you because you care too much.”
“I’d choose you because even when you don’t believe in yourself…”
“I always will.”
His jaw tightened.
I reached up and gently brushed a tear from beneath his eye before he could pretend it wasn’t there.
“You know what I think?”
He shook his head.
“I think you’ve spent your whole life trying to become the hockey player your father wanted.”
I smiled softly.
“But somewhere along the way…”
“…you already became the man I fell in love with.”
For a long moment, he couldn’t speak.
He simply looked at me as though he were seeing me all over again.
Then, without a word, he wrapped his arms around me.
I held him just as tightly.
The lake remained quiet.
The breeze continued drifting across the water.
And for the first time since Chicago had become more than just a dream…
Neither of us talked about scouts.
Or draft boards.
Or Richard Shaw.
We simply sat together on an old wooden dock, exactly where we’d always been meant to end up.
Not because I’d spent years chasing Logan.
But because, somehow…
Whenever life became too heavy for him to carry alone…
We always found our way back to each other.