Page 38 of Rookie’s Redemption (Iron Ridge Icehawks #5)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ryder

I slam my truck door hard enough to rattle the windows, muttering under my breath as I storm toward my front door.

"Stupid fucking suits." I kick my shoes off. "Couldn't wait until Monday like normal goddamn people."

The Tiffany box burns a hole in my jacket pocket, a reminder of the perfect proposal that just got destroyed by corporate vultures. With their acquisition specialists and time-sensitive opportunities.

Time-sensitive my ass.

I shove my key in the lock, my hands still shaking with leftover adrenaline from the interrupted evening.

The liquor stores most expensive champagne at Lookout Point is probably still sitting there, getting warm and going flat. The lanterns I spent an hour arranging are probably dead by now.

All that planning. All that fucking planning, and for what?

I push through my front door and immediately freeze.

There are voices coming from my living room. Multiple voices. And is that... champagne being popped?

What the hell?

I drop my keys and follow the sound of laughter, my stomach already sinking as I round the corner into my living room.

The sight that greets me makes me want to disappear into the floor because my living room looks like a party store exploded.

There's a massive "CONGRATULATIONS!" banner stretched across the far wall, balloons tied to every piece of furniture, and what appears to be enough champagne to float a small boat.

Coach Brody, Blake, Connor, Logan, and at least half the team are scattered around my living room, all wearing big fucking grins and looking at me with expectant faces.

"FINALLY!" Connor shouts, raising a champagne flute that's already half-empty. "Where's the future Mrs. Scott? We want to see the rock!"

My stomach drops through the floor.

Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck no.

"Guys, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Celebrating!" Blake announces, gesturing around the decorated room with obvious pride. This has his paw prints all over it. "You think we didn't know what tonight was about? You've been carrying that ring around for days, Scott. About time you made it official."

The ring box feels like it weighs a thousand pounds in my pocket, like it's absorbing the weight of this massive fucking disaster.

"So?" Jackson calls out from where he's sprawled across my couch, grinning like an idiot. "Where is she? Where's Mia? Let's see that hand!"

"Yeah, man," Logan adds, actually smiling for once. "Emma's been texting me every five minutes asking for updates. The whole town's basically waiting for the announcement."

The whole town.

Of course they are. Because in Iron Ridge, everyone knows everyone's business, and apparently my proposal plans weren't as subtle as I thought.

The weight of their stares feels like it's crushing my chest. How do I explain that the perfect proposal I'd planned got derailed by corporate sharks? That instead of celebrating an engagement, I'm standing here feeling like my entire world just got ripped apart?

"Guys, just..." I scrub a hand through my hair and look at the ground. "…shut the fuck up, okay?"

The room goes dead silent.

Blake's champagne glass pauses halfway to his mouth. Connor's grin falters. Even Logan, who's usually unflappable, looks concerned.

"Ryder?" Blake sets down his glass, his instincts kicking in as he reads the situation. "Oh shit . What happened, man?"

I run both hands through my hair now, gripping and pulling so I feel pain on my scalp, feeling like I'm about to come apart at the seams.

"We got interrupted. Actually, she got interrupted." I swallow over the frustration boiling in my throat. "Right when I was about to—"

I can't even finish the sentence. Can't say the words out loud because that would make this nightmare real.

"Interrupted by what?" Connor asks, his party mood evaporating.

"Some investment group wants to buy her shelter and turn it into a five-location empire." I let out a bitter sound that's nowhere close to a laugh. "Perfect fucking timing."

Blake steps toward me, his game face on. "Listen, man, we can—"

"She's on her way over," I cut him off, scanning the disaster zone of balloons and streamers. "And she's going to walk straight into... this."

"Oh, shit," Blake breathes, and suddenly everyone's moving at once.

"Get the banner down," Logan orders, already reaching for one corner.

"I'll hide the champagne," Jackson adds, scrambling to shove bottles behind the couch.

"Wait, wait," Connor waves his hands frantically, still clutching his glass. "Maybe it's not that bad. Maybe she told them to fuck off. I mean, she loves you, right? She wouldn't just—"

The sound of a car door slamming in my driveway cuts him off.

My blood turns to ice. "That's her."

The guys freeze like deer in headlights, half-deflated balloons and crumpled streamers scattered around them like evidence of a celebration that never happened.

"Fuck," Blake mutters, yanking down the last corner of the banner. "Everyone just... act normal."

Normal. Right.

Because there's nothing normal about eight professional hockey players crammed into my living room at nine o'clock on a Tuesday night, frantically hiding congratulatory decorations.

Through the window, I can see Mia's beat-up Honda parked next to Connor's truck. She's sitting in the driver's seat, staring down at something in her lap.

The contracts. She brought the fucking contracts home with her.

Why can't she see this is all business world bullshit?

The time pressure, the expensive rental cars, the suits?

I've seen this exact playbook in every city I played in at the start of my career…

Big-shot city slickers who swoop in with their "time- sensitive opportunities" and promises of unlimited resources.

Only to go ahead and strip everything authentic out of whatever they touch in the name of a bigger paycheck.

This is exactly the kind of soulless corporate machine I was so fucking happy to escape when I came home to Iron Ridge.

The exact reason I chose a small town over big city contracts.

The reason I bought a house with a view of our tree instead of a penthouse overlooking some anonymous skyline.

And now they're here, in my hometown, trying to take the woman I love and turn her into just another cog in their empire.

The front door opens, and Mia's voice carries through the house.

"Ryder? Whose cars are—" She appears in the living room doorway, still wearing that gorgeous green dress. The one I was going to forever remember as the dress she wore when she promised to be mine forever.

But instead, she's clutching a thick folder against the fabric like it's precious cargo.

"Oh. Hi, guys."

"Hey, Mia," Blake says, his voice carefully neutral. "We were just... hanging out."

Her eyes sweep the room, taking in the remnants of confetti on the floor, the hastily hidden champagne bottles, the guilty expressions on eight very large men who clearly weren't expecting to see her.

"Hanging out," she repeats slowly, those hazel eyes missing nothing. "Right."

The silence stretches until Connor, because the asshole has a complete lack of social awareness, decides to fill it.

"So, uh... how did things go at the shelter? Ryder was just telling us about those business people?"

I want to strangle him.

"Actually," Mia says, holding up the folder with something that looks suspiciously like excitement, "it was incredible. They want to buy the shelter. Not just buy it, but expand it into five locations across the United States."

There it is. The moment my worst fears get confirmed.

She's not dismissing their offer. She's not laughing about how ridiculous them showing up unannounced is.

No.

She's excited about it.

"What kind of expansion?" Logan asks, because apparently everyone's decided to make this worse.

Mia's eyes light up in a way that makes my chest feel like it's filling with concrete.

"Denver, Seattle, Phoenix, Austin..." She's talking faster now, that familiar passion creeping into her voice that I usually love but now sounds like a death sentence.

"I'd be executive director of all five locations.

The resources we'd have, the animals we could save.

.. it's incredible, isn't it Ryder? This could help thousands of animals. "

"That's..." Connor starts, then catches the look on my face. "That's... something."

"It is something," Mia continues, apparently oblivious to the fact that everyone in the room is staring at me like I'm about to spontaneously combust. "I don't know what to do. This could change everything. Five locations, unlimited resources, the chance to make a real impact..."

And there it is.

The moment I realize that everything I fought for, everything I came home to build, isn't enough.

Not compared to unlimited resources and executive director titles and the chance to save thousands of animals across multiple states.

"Sounds like you've already decided," I say quietly.

"What? No, I haven't decided anything. I'm just—"

"Excited," I finish for her. "You're excited about this."

The guys exchange uncomfortable glances, clearly wishing they were anywhere else. Blake moves closer to Connor, probably ready to drag him out if this gets ugly.

"Ryder, that's not what I said—"

"Isn't it?!"

I stand up, feeling all those years of history between us crashing down like a house of cards. Every moment, every laugh, every whispered promise in the dark… all of it collapsing under the weight of what's happening right now.

"I came home for YOU, Mia. Not for some executive who's going to abandon everything we've built here the second someone waves enough money in front of her."

"This isn't about money!" she shoots back, her voice rising as she clutches those contracts tighter. "This is about the animals, Ryder! I could save thousands more animals than I ever could staying in Iron Ridge. How can you not understand that?"