Chapter 36 Cold
Liam Carter
It took me a few days to notice.
At first, I thought I was imagining it.
Ava was still around, still cracking jokes with the team guys, still stealing bites of my food if I left my plate too close. She wasn’t avoiding me outright, and she wasn’t acting pissed off. That’s why I didn’t catch on immediately.
But something was off.
It started small. Subtle.
She stopped touching me as much.
She wasn’t a clingy person by any means, but she had this way of always being close. Whether it was nudging her knee against mine when we sat next to each other, reaching for my wrist absentmindedly, or yanking me by the sleeve when she was dragging me somewhere. I’d gotten used to her hands on me.
But then suddenly, it wasn’t happening.
At first, I thought I was imagining it. But then I started testing it.
I’d brush past her in the kitchen, and she’d move away before we touched.
I’d sit next to her on the couch, and she’d shift just far enough that we weren’t touching.
I’d crack a dumb joke about her tiny hands, usually something that got me a slap to the chest, but instead of smacking me, she just… shook her head and laughed lightly.
That’s when I knew something was wrong.
Then she started low-key avoiding me.
It wasn’t obvious. If anything, it was so smooth I almost didn’t notice. She never straight-up ignored me, but she had a way of always being busy when I was around.
Diane would pull her away for ‘girl time’ before I could suggest we hang out.
She’d say she was exhausted and head to bed early.
She’d get a call, step outside, and be gone for half an hour.
And then, there was the local match coming up in a few days.
Coach had been on my ass about it, drilling me hard during practice. I was finally getting my rhythm back after my injury, and people were expecting a hell of a comeback. I should’ve been focusing. I should’ve had my mind on nothing but the game.
Instead, I spent every second trying to figure out why the fuck she was pulling away.
I ran through every possible reason in my head.
Had I done something? Said something? Had Mia pulled some shit again?
The more I thought about it, the more it drove me insane. She wasn’t mad. That much was clear. She wasn’t giving me an attitude, wasn’t being sarcastic or short. If anything, she was being too polite. Too distant.
And I fucking hated it.
I gave it three days.
Three days of waiting to see if she’d snap out of it. Three days of catching myself watching her like a hawk, waiting for her to act normal again. Three days of pretending it wasn’t bothering me.
By the fourth day, I’d had enough.
I caught her after dinner. She was cleaning up, stacking dishes.
"Ava."
"Hmm?" She glanced up at me, completely unreadable.
"You’ve been avoiding me."
"What?" her brows lifted.
"You heard me." I stepped closer, watching her carefully. "You’ve been acting weird. You don’t…." I exhaled sharply, running a hand through my hair. "Just fucking tell me what’s going on."
I watch as she crossed her arms, looking at me like I was overreacting.
"Liam, I haven’t been avoiding you."
"Bullshit."
She sighed, shifting on her feet. "You have a big game coming up. I just figured you should be focusing on that."
I stilled. There it was.
She thought she was distracting me.
I clenched my jaw, staring at her like I could will her to take it back. "You think I can’t focus on hockey and you at the same time?"
She glanced away. "That’s not…"
"Because I can. This is my fucking career, Ava. You think I don’t know how to balance my shit?"
"Liam, you spend half your time trying to figure out what I’m thinking." She let out a humorless laugh.
"So?" I stepped closer, voice low. "You think I don’t want to? You think I wouldn’t rather be with you than anywhere else?"
Her breath hitched. I saw it in the way her throat moved, in the way she curled her fingers into her palm like she was trying to steady herself.
"I just don’t want to be the reason you get distracted," she finally said, softer this time.
"Ava…" I exhaled slowly.
"It’s just until after the match," she added quickly, as if she hadn’t just fucking wrecked me with those words. "I just need to make sure you’re…"
"Stop," I cut in. "I don’t need you to decide that for me."
She didn’t say anything. Just looked up at me with those damn eyes, like she was torn between pushing me away and pulling me in.
And fuck, I wanted to pull her in. Wanted her to pull me in.
Wanted to shove every stupid thought out of her head until she realized how fucking ridiculous she was being.
But instead, I just clenched my jaw, staring her down.
"Is this really what you want?" I asked, voice tight.
She didn’t answer right away. And that hesitation? That was all I needed to know.
I let out a slow breath, taking a step back.
"Fine," I muttered. "You wanna play it this way? I’ll back off."
Her face was unreadable, but I swore I saw a flicker of something cross her expression. Regret? Doubt?
I didn’t know. And I didn’t fucking care.
"Good night, Ava," I said, turning on my heel before I did something stupid.
Because if I didn’t walk away now, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to at all.