I searched his face for the punchline that never arrived. “You pressed charges that got him arrested in front of his entire team, and now you’re offering reconciliation to make it go away?”
“I don’t want this to ruin lives. Least of all yours.”
I let out a breath through my nose. “You don’t get to frame this as concern.”
He leaned closer. I stayed where I was. “Think about it. You take me back, I make the problem go away. Your little hockey star gets back on the ice. Everybody wins.”
My fingers curled under the table. “A simple trade where I’m the object sealing the deal.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“It’s exactly what you meant.” I held his gaze. “You’re dangling his career in front of me, knowing how I feel about it. About the team.”
James’s eyes sharpened, and it was the first time I glimpsed the depth of his self-interest. What people often mistook for charm was actually blatant calculation. “You’re the one who said this is about consequences.”
“You don’t get to decide who pays them.” I paused, wrestling the tremor in my voice into submission. “And you don’t get to use me as a bargaining chip.”
He lifted his hands in a placating gesture. “See? You’re still choosing him.”
“I’m choosing not to be manipulated.”
He exhaled, long and theatrical. “I was falling in love with you. Iamin love with you, Nicole.”
The words landed cold. I didn’t reach for them.
“You love control,” I said. “This isn’t about us. We’d been dating a few weeks.”
“When the heart knows, it knows.”
“James, stop. Please.”
His eyes searched my face, hopeful now, reckless with it. “If you were done, you’d have walked out. Why are you still here, Nicole?”
Because Landon was tormenting himself, watching the games on mute. Because the bench spot stayed empty. Because the standings mattered more than pride, and I hated that those things shared space inside me.
“Dropping the charges fixes everything,” James said. “You know that.”
“It fixes one thing,” I replied. “And breaks another.”
He smiled then. Not the careful one from earlier. Something brighter. Younger. As if we were discussing weekend plans instead of a man’s future. “So take me back. We start fresh. We can even go public about it, attend some games together to show there’s no bad blood.”
My stomach turned. “You’re insane.”
“I’m offering a new start.”
“No, you’re demanding ownership.”
His smile faltered, then steadied with practised ease. “You don’t have to decide right now.”
I looked at the table. At the untouched food. At the phone still face down beside my plate. I thought of the arena. Of the banners, and the way the city showed up when the team needed it. Of Landon doing everything right, just a little too late.
“I’ll think about it,” I said.
The relief on his face was immediate. His shoulders loosened, and a foreign warmth filled his eyes. He reached for my hand and stopped himself, catching the movement just in time.
“That’s all I need,” he said. “I knew you’d see reason.”
I pulled my hand back anyway, fidgeting with the leather strap on my purse. “Don’t mistake consideration for agreement.”
