Play With Me ✔️|| 2 || Off the Ice Series

Epilogue

The arena lights flash, the crowd roaring as the puck slams into the boards and Levi all but barrels someone over to steal it back. I wince on instinct, gripping the armrest beside me, but the second the whistle doesn't blow, I breathe again.

"He's such a menace," Aster says beside me, laughing into her cup of popcorn. "Does he have an off switch?"

"Nope," I reply, popping a peanut M&M into my mouth. "Pretty sure he was born like that. Fully formed, and ready to bodycheck a man."

Laughter ripples around the family box as Tobias skates into frame, looping around with the kind of grace that makes it obvious he's in his element. Jason's just ahead, his number bold and sharp on the back of his jersey. Every time he moves, I feel it somewhere deep in my chest. Like gravity just... bends toward him.

A warm weight shifts beside me, and I glance down to where Rose is cradling a sleeping baby, her almost one year old son fast asleep with his fists curled near his chin. A pacifier bobs gently between his lips, and Rose rubs slow circles over his chest with a dreamy look on her face.

"Is he actually sleeping through this?" I whisper, gesturing at the chaos happening just below us on the ice.

"Out like a light," Rose grins proudly. "He gets it from his dad and he's used to the hustle and bustle of the rink."

"Matt tells me Tobias used to sleep through literal fire alarms in college," Aster adds from the other side of Rose, sipping from a thermos. "This baby's unbothered by life."

"I love that for him," I mutter, watching Rose sway the bundle gently. "What's it like having a perfect little man?" I reach over, running a finger over one of his chubby cheeks but they're not as chubby as they used to be.

Rose's grin softens into something sweeter. "Terrifying and amazing and exhausting and magical. Kind of like falling in love."

I glance down at the rink, eyes drawn again to Jason.

He's skating hard, determined, completely locked in and yet somehow, when he passes by our side of the rink, his head tilts just enough to glance up toward the box. Just a flicker of connection. Barely a second. But it finds me.
And I feel everything.

I lean back in the seat and soak it in. This strange, beautiful, normal life I never thought I'd get. There's laughter around me, popcorn crunching, the baby sighs in his sleep, and Jason is on the ice doing what he loves.

And me?

I'm not hiding anymore.

Not from my past. Not from my own heart.

After everything that's happened, every reason I gave myself to keep my walls up, I finally let someone in. Him in.

Jason, who sees every version of me and still loves me.

Jason, who's skating out there with that quiet confidence I used to find so infuriating, and now? It just makes me proud.

Matt cokes and sits beside us in that moment, passing us each a drink he'd gotten us and a hotdog to aster eh smiles gratefully and lets him sit between us.

He looks between the three os us with a raised brow. "What are we talking about?"

"Milo." I answer, looking towards the little boy and Matt grins, tugging on one of his little fingers gently before letting go.

And then he says something I never expected.

"When are you going to give us a little version of Jason?"

I nearly choke on my M&M.

Rose barks a laugh and Aster lifts a brow that's way too knowing.

"I—no. We are not doing this here," I say, flapping my hand at them as heat rushes to my cheeks. I level a glare at my brother. "And you did not just ask me that."