Chapter 40 Chapter 39
Harper POV
The car is still warm from the heater when we pull out of the arena parking lot, the windows fogged at the corners, the air buzzing with leftover game hype.
Kenzie’s driving like she’s in a Fast & Furious audition, music low but thumping.
Mia is in the passenger seat scrolling TikTok.
Lila and I are in the back, her arm hooked through mine like she’s afraid I’ll bolt.
“Okay,” Kenzie announces, slapping her palm on the steering wheel, “I vote we go out.”
“No,” I say immediately.
“Yes,” Mia says at the exact same time.
Lila pats my thigh. “Harper, come on. It’s Friday, we just dominated on the ice, you wore your cute red scarf, and the bar’s probably packed with people celebrating.”
“Exactly why I don’t want to go,” I mutter.
Kenzie snorts. “You literally just watched a hundred hockey players skate around for two hours.”
“That was different.”
“How?” Mia twists around in her seat to stare at me. “Because you weren’t three feet away from the one who kissed you?”
I sink lower in the seat. “I am begging you all to drop this.”
“Nope,” Lila says cheerfully. “Absolutely not.”
I glare at her. “Why do I have friends?”
“Because you’re lovable,” she beams. “And because this—” she gestures vaguely toward my entire being “—is fascinating.”
I groan.
But they’re not done.
Mia grins. “Look, Harper… are you really not curious what Logan is doing right now?”
“No.”
“You’re lying,” Kenzie singsongs.
I huff out a breath. “I’m tired. I’m stressed. And the last thing I need is to see Logan Shaw having the time of his life with a pack of puck bunnies.”
Lila gasps dramatically. “Oh my God. You are jealous.”
“I’m not jealous!”
Mia turns fully around, seatbelt be damned. “Okay then, why did you groan when I said ‘hockey players’?”
“I groaned because I’m exhausted,” I say, pressing a hand to my forehead. “And because every time Logan shows up lately, something explodes.”
“Yeah,” Kenzie laughs, “his sanity.”
“His ego,” Mia adds.
“His pants,” Lila whispers loudly.
“LILA!”
She shrugs innocently. “What? I mean—have you looked at the man? Half the campus probably thinks he’s walking sex.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Can we please not discuss his pants?”
But they’re warming up like a well-practiced hype squad.
Kenzie lowers the volume. “Harper. Be honest. You can’t figure him out, can you?”
I stare out the window. Streetlights blur past like gold streaks.
“No,” I whisper. “I can’t.”
Lila squeezes my arm. “He kissed you like he meant it.”
“Then acted like I was a chore the next morning,” I say sharply. “And now suddenly he’s… whatever he is.”
“Obsessed?” Mia offers.
“Interested?” Kenzie adds.
“Chasing you?” Lila says, eyebrows wiggling.
“That’s not—” I start, then stop.
Because I don’t have another word.
It feels like chasing.
It feels like mixed signals wrapped in fire.
It feels like everything I wanted years ago and everything I shouldn’t want now.
Lila leans closer. “Harper… seriously. You’ve had a crush on him since—what? Middle school? Let the man sweat. Let him work for it.”
Kenzie laughs. “Yeah, girl. The chase is the best part. You don’t have to get caught.”
I bite my lip, staring at my reflection in the window.
“Maybe,” I murmur.
Maybe I am curious.
Maybe I do want to see how he looks at me after the game.
Maybe part of me likes that he’s finally—finally—seeing me.
Lila grins like she can read my soul. “So… bar?”
I exhale.
A long, slow, reluctant surrender.
“Fine,” I say. “But we are not going because of him.”
The car erupts in cheers.
Mia: “Sure, sure, school spirit, girl power, totally nothing to do with Logan—”
Kenzie: “Definitely not because you want to see if he freaks out again—”
Lila: “Or because you want to see those arms in a post-game hoodie—”
“OH MY GOD, DRIVE,” I yelp.
The car surges forward, laughter echoing around me.
And under all of it—
the jokes, the teasing, the chaos—
there’s the truth I can’t shake:
I’m going to see him.
And I have no idea what will happen when I do.