Chapter 97 The

Chapter 97 The
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX — THE BUS

The team bus to Millbrook leaves at six in the morning, dark still clinging to the sky outside the windows, everyone half asleep and grumbling into their seats.

Caleb saves me one near the back.

"You look wrecked."

I drop into the seat beside him, bag falling against my feet. "Stayed up finishing my chem lab report and the equipment manifest. Didn't sleep much."

He shifts, making room against his shoulder like it's the most obvious solution in the world. "Sleep now, then. I'll wake you before we get there."

I fall asleep within ten minutes, the bus humming under me, his shoulder steadier than any pillow I've used in weeks.

He doesn't move for two hours. Watches fog thin over the highway while I sleep against him, doesn't check his phone once, doesn't shift even when his arm has to be going numb underneath me.

Eli leans over from the seat across the aisle at some point. "You're not even going to check your phone?"

"Not going to risk waking her."

"Whipped."

"Completely."

I wake up somewhere past the halfway mark, blinking against the morning light, disoriented for a second before I place where I am.

"You should have woken me."

"Worth it." He rolls his shoulder, wincing slightly.

"You watched me sleep for two hours."

He says it plain, no embarrassment behind it. "You looked like the first peaceful thing you've looked like in weeks. Figured you needed it more than I needed my phone."

I let my head drop back against him, the bus still humming steady beneath us, and fall asleep again before I can even think of something clever to say back.

I wake up properly somewhere just outside Millbrook, Caleb's arm gone fully numb underneath me by the sound of him flexing his fingers slowly once I sit up.

"Your arm."

"Worth it."

"You keep saying that."

He rolls his shoulder again, wincing slightly. "Keep meaning it. You needed the sleep more than I needed feeling in my fingers."

Chloe leans over from a few rows up, grinning. "You two are disgusting, by the way. In case nobody's told you yet this week."

"Several people have told us," I say.

"Just making sure the message is landing." She turns back around, still grinning, and Caleb laughs quietly beside me.

By the time we pull into Millbrook, the whole team's stretching and grumbling their way off the bus, duffel bags slung over shoulders, Coach Daniels barking about check-in times. Caleb waits for me to gather my things, carrying my bag along with his own without being asked.

"You really didn't have to grab that."

He shrugs. "I know. Wanted to."

Chloe catches up with us in the hotel lobby, eyebrows raised the second she sees us walking in together, his bag over one shoulder, mine over the other.

"You two look disgustingly domestic for six in the morning."

"We're just tired."

"Sure you are." She grins, unbothered by my glare, and heads for the front desk with me to check in, the whole away game weekend stretching out ahead with more promise than exhaustion, for once.

The room assignments post on a clipboard by the front desk, Coach Daniels reading them off in his usual clipped tone. Chloe and I are paired together, same as always on away trips, and by the time we make it up to our floor, she's already found the ice machine and declared herself in charge of snacks for the whole weekend.

"You're oddly chipper for six in the morning after barely any sleep," I tell her, dropping my bag onto the bed nearest the window.

She flops onto her own bed. "I'm always chipper before a game weekend. Away trips mean no parents, bad hotel breakfast, and gossip time with my favorite person. Speaking of gossip. You fell asleep on his shoulder for two hours and he didn't move once. That's not nothing, Mia."

"I know."

She sits up, surprised. "You know? No arguing, no it's not what it looks like?"

I lower myself onto the edge of my own bed, tired but something lighter underneath it. "No arguing. It is what it looks like."

Chloe grins, satisfied, and starts unpacking her bag with more energy than anyone who slept the whole bus ride has a right to this early in the morning.

We head down for the pregame walkthrough a while later, Coach Daniels running through the lineup twice before anyone's fully awake enough to absorb it. Caleb catches my eye across the rink, tired but steady, and mouths something I can't quite make out from that distance.

"What was that?" I ask when he finally comes off the ice.

"Told you thanks. For the nap."

"You watched me sleep. I didn't do anything."

"You let me carry something for two hours without either of us saying a word about it." He shrugs, like it's obvious. "That counts as something."

Eli overhears from a few feet away, smirking. "You two are going to make me sick before this season's even over."

"Get used to it," Caleb tells him, and Eli just laughs, shaking his head as he heads toward the locker room.

I watch Caleb disappear after him, stick bag over one shoulder, the whole away game weekend stretching ahead with more warmth in it than exhaustion, more than I've felt in ages.

Chloe grabs my arm before I can follow the team down the tunnel. "Hold on. Before we go watch warmups, I need to know something."

"What?"

"On a scale of one to ten, how gone are you for that boy right now?"

"That's not a real scale."

"Answer the question, Mia."

"Fine. Nine."

"Nine?" She raises an eyebrow. "Not ten?"

"I'm saving ten for when he actually says it back out loud instead of just implying it with two hours of a numb arm."

"Fair. Very fair." She walks with me toward the seats. "I think ten's coming a lot sooner than you're expecting."

I let it go. I just follow her toward the rink, the cold morning finally starting to feel like the beginning of a good day instead of just an early one.

The rink is loud with pregame warmups by the time we find our seats, pucks cracking off boards, skates cutting fresh grooves into the ice. Caleb spots us almost immediately, veering close enough to the glass to knock his stick against it twice.

"Show off," Chloe mutters, grinning despite herself.

"He's just saying hi."

"He's showing off. There's a difference, and you know it." She settles into her seat, eyes already tracking him around the ice. "I have to say, Mia, watching you two the past few months has genuinely made me believe in this stuff again. The real stuff, not the movie version."

"That's oddly sentimental for six in the morning."

"I contain multitudes, remember." She bumps my shoulder. "Now hush. I want to watch your boyfriend skate circles around Millbrook's entire roster before breakfast."

I let that one go too. I settle back in my seat, the whole rink buzzing around us, and let myself enjoy how simple this particular morning feels, no contract or countdown attached to any of it.