Her blue eyes glittered as she lifted them to meet my gaze. “Shane.”
“I’m glad you came.”
She shrugged, tucking her hair behind her ear before she looked down at her feet. “I’m glad for the invite.”
She smiled a little when she looked up at me through her lashes, and I swore my fucking heart thrummed like it was a string she’d plucked with that gaze. I opened my arms for a hug, and she slid in and wrapped her arms around me like it was nothing.
In an instant, I flashed back to when we were kids, to how I’d wait up for her the nights she volunteered late, or she’d wait up for me after games. I could still smell our old apartment, the pine-scented candles she loved to light, and the old leather of the hand-me-down couch. I buried my nose in her hair, wondering if she was remembering, too.
Ava cleared her throat. “Do you two know each other or something?”
That little girl cocked a brow at us, pointing a finger at me and then Ariana and then back to me.
I chuckled, reluctantly letting Ariana go. “We went to college together.”
“Oh,” Ava said, her shoulders jumping in a little shrug. “I thought maybe you were married.”
“You know I’m not married,” I challenged.
She shrugged again. “Yeah, buteveryoneis not married until they are.” She rolled her eyes as if that was so obvious and I was a dumbass, and then bounded off without another word, running toward the hockey station she had set up — complete with a goal and everything.
Carter smirked at me and Ariana, who was covering her laugh with one hand. “I mean, she’s not wrong.” And with a wink, he jogged off after Ava.
“Welcome to the chaos,” I said to Ariana, who was blushing furiously and still covering her mouth.
“She’s adorable.”
“That she is. So… I take it Nathan is gone?”
Her smile faded. “He flew out yesterday.”
I nodded, searching her gaze for… what, I don’t know. My mind was a mess with her here in front of me now. I thought about the dinner at her house, the way Nathan had treated her, her wrist…
But I also heard her voice from the Skate for Change event, the confidence when she’d assured me everything was fine, that it had just been a weird night and she’d been stressed.
It was a lie.
I knew it. She did, too.
I also knew better than to push.
After that night at her house, after the way Nathan talked to her in front of me and every other staff member like she was an inconvenience instead of his wife, I’d wanted to light the whole damn place on fire. But Ariana wasn’t a player in my locker room I could call into my office and demand the truth from. She was a woman I cared about — still — and whatever was happening behind closed doors had her looking spooked and unsure, like she was trying to hold every piece of herself together with shaking hands.
So I played it the way I would with a guy who’d taken a hard hit and wasn’t ready to admit he was hurt: with patience, presence, and no pressure. She’d talk when she was ready. The truth always comes out eventually. But until then, all I could do was give her a day where she didn’t have to flinch or apologize for breathing. A day where she could just…be.
Thanksgiving felt like the one thing I could give her without crossing a line.
And thankfully, once she settled in, the day did exactly what I’d hoped it would.
Ariana eased into the mayhem like she’d been born in it. At first, she hovered close to me, shoulders tight, smile a little too careful and practiced. It made me think of the dinner at her house, how it had felt like a performance. But the longer she was at Will and Chloe’s, the more the tension in her shoulders softened.
Grace brought her a glass of wine, claiming “doctor’s orders” before pointing to Livia as the doctor. We watched football and chatted, Ariana slowly chiming in more and more as she relaxed. She told the crew about her brother, about growing up in Connecticut, about her time working in various nonprofit sectors. A little before dinner, Ava insisted Ariana help her name her imaginary team, a very serious task that involved a clipboard, stickers, and Ava’s best businesswoman voice. That got Ariana laughing, a real laugh, one that made her shoulders drop and her eyes brighten.
I felt something in my chest loosen at the sight.
She moved with ease into the kitchen after, helping Chloe and Livia pull casseroles from the oven while Mia teased Aleks about sneaking a bite out of a turkey leg before Chef Patel swatted him away with a wooden spoon. Maven handed Rowan off so she could teach Ariana how to fold the cloth napkins“restaurant fancy,” and Ariana showed her own method, which Maven loved so much she declared her the new napkin boss.
Through it all, I watched in real time as the ice defrosted, as her smiles turned more genuine, as her laughs came easier.
