Page 24 of The Love Comeback (Glaciers Hockey #3)

Chapter Twenty

Kade

She’s angry. I can tell by the way she’s been quiet since the announcement. I can tell by the way that she’s got that terse smile on her face. Just as I feared, the Glaciers paying for the travel team has upset her.

I have to make this right.

“Can we all go get pizza?” Colton’s voice cuts through the tension as we head out into the parking lot.

“We—”

“Not tonight,” Ella cuts me off, not even giving me a chance to answer. “We need to get home so you can rest.”

“But I’m hungry…” Colton whines, and I wince at the way Ella’s jaw tenses .

“Not tonight. There’s food at home. I don’t want to be out late. And you need to ice your eye.”

I cock a brow at her, but I don’t argue. It’s clear she doesn’t want to be around me right now, and I know that—but she needs to understand that paying for hockey is one of the few things that I can do when it comes to the two of them.

Well, unless she lets me kiss her again…

Then I could do a lot of things for her.

My heart jumps to my throat at the thought of a second chance with her. I know it’s a long shot, but maybe it’s not impossible. She did return my kiss, and she made it the kind that you never forget.

“Come on,” Ella urges Colton as we make it to their SUV. She opens the back hatch for him to toss his bag in, and then she closes it, leaving me to follow behind like a scorned puppy.

“Maybe we should talk,” I say in a hushed voice as Colton climbs into the car. “I know you’re frustrated, and I don’t want to leave it like this.”

“Nothing to be frustrated about,” Ella chimes, her voice overly sweet and nice. It makes me wince. She only talks like this when she’s mad— really mad.

“A lot happened tonight,” I press, refusing to let her leave things the way they are. “We need to talk about it.”

She opens the driver’s side door and glances back to Colton, who’s now busy icing his eye with one hand and scrolling his tablet with the other. She turns back to me, slamming the driver’s side door closed again. “Okay. You want to talk? Let’s talk.”

Uh oh…

“For starters, I told you I didn’t want your charity. We talked about it. I don’t know why you had to go find some sort of loophole to do exactly what I asked you not to do. Colton already sees you as a hero, Kade. You don’t have to keep driving the point home over and over.”

My mouth drops, and I feel the heat of my irritation creeping up my neck. “It’s not like that, Ella. I’m not trying to be a hero.”

She places her hand on her hip, completely unamused by me. “Right, so then, what is it about? Hmm? How did this even happen ?”

“Look. I promise I had no intention of crossing your boundaries.” I sigh, raking my fingers through my hair.

“I was just talking to my teammates the other night about how expensive youth hockey is, how I wished I could help somehow—and they came up with the sponsorship idea. They thought it’d be a good idea to help the entire team.

I had planned to talk to you about it, to get your input, but … ”

“But you didn’t ,” she huffs.

“You’re right, and I’m sorry. It all just happened so fast, I didn’t get the chance. I knew it was a risk, but I went along with it because I wanted to help you. I wanted to help Colton. I want to be there for him, and make sure that he gets everything that he—”

“I can handle making sure he gets what he needs!” Her voice strains, and I see the hurt written all over her face.

“I’m doing the very best I can, and I’ve done a good job the last five years.

I can’t help it that I don’t have the same kind of financial resources that you do, but I was willing to do whatever it took to keep his place on the team.

” The exasperation in her voice sends a shockwave of hurt through my chest, but not for myself…

For her .

“Ella, I know how much you do,” I say, keeping my voice soft. “I see it every time we’re all together. You’re an amazing mother, and you work so hard to ensure that Colton has everything he needs—I was just trying to help because you deserve it. You shouldn’t have to do this all alone.”

“I’m not alone.”

“You’re right, you’re not alone, but I can see—”

“You’re making so many assumptions right now.” She holds up a hand to stop me from saying anything more. “I just hope the rest of your team was actually on board with this, and you weren’t out there forcing them to pay for everyone’s fees just because you wanted to impress Colton.”

“They wanted this. We all saw it as an opportunity to help the community, and yeah, it helped you and Colton out, but is that really such a bad thing? I mean, you guys have become my best friends. I literally want to spend all my time with the two of you. ”

“That’s only because you like skating and hockey. That’s all this is.” She backs up, bumping her back into the side of her car door. “You would’ve never taken an interest in us had we not been at that hockey game where Colton mentioned wanting to learn to play.”

“That’s not fair to say,” I exasperate, feeling the need to pull her into me and console her.

“I hadn’t seen you in so long… I didn’t know what you were up to, or how you were.

I didn’t even know you had Colton! But when I saw you at that game , it was like seeing you for the first time all over again, Ella.

You’ve always been the kind of woman that leaves an impact. ”

She scoffs. “That’s rich coming from the man who chose hockey over me.”

“That was—”

“Please don’t. Even if you call our breakup a mistake, it doesn’t change the fact that it happened. You made your choice. And whatever brought on that kiss from you tonight … I don’t think that should happen again.”

It feels like my heart is freaking shattering into a million pieces. She’s quiet, her eyes brimming with moisture that I wish wasn’t there.

I wish I hadn’t caused it.

I wish I could take back the stupid mistake I made of letting her go.

I can see it in her eyes that she’s not over me. And I’m definitely not over her .

“I still have feelings for you, El … is it really too late for us?” I plead.

Ella turns away from me, and I feel something in my chest break. “I—I can’t do this right now.” She bats her tears away.

I swallow hard, trying to come up with some way to convince her that I won’t hurt her again. That I can be trusted with her heart. But honestly, I don’t know how I could possibly convince her.

“I’ve got to get out of here.” She meets my gaze, breathing out a sigh. “Goodnight, Kade.”

And with that, she climbs into her car and shuts the door.

Right in my face.