almost a year after everything happens between isabel parker and will smith, things have changed. they're no longer together, and friendships have been ruined. but, what happens when one video and one secret comes out? maybe things aren't such a secret anymore. book 2 from other story, My Childhood Bestfriend

isabel parker and will smith have been best friends since they were kids. now that they're grown up, things have changed. people have changed. feelings are changing. so, what happens when the two best friends that have liked each other for years decides to fake date when a rumor starts going around?

Quinn Taylor has made a career out of looking calm. On the ice, she's America's favorite kind of pressure-proof-bright smile, steady answers, the skater everyone wants to root for. Off the ice, she's an only child with a perfectionist's brain and a habit of carrying too much alone. The cameras love her. The country expects her. And the one place she can't afford to fall apart is the one place she's dreamed of since she was little. The Olympics. Macklin Celebrini has always made things feel lighter. He was the new kid at a Northern California rink at twelve-Canadian, polite, a little lost-until Quinn decided he was hers to keep. He became her best friend in the cold air and early mornings, the person who could make her laugh mid-breakdown and never ask her to perform for him. Then life did what life does: seasons changed, schedules got brutal, distance widened, and the kind of friendship that felt unbreakable turned into occasional texts and quiet missing. Now they're both back where the world is loudest. At the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, Quinn is chasing the skate of her life for Team USA. Mack is carrying his own weight for Team Canada hockey. When reporters find out they grew up together, the story writes itself-childhood friends reunited, smiles caught on camera, a thousand strangers deciding what they are to each other. The only problem is... the strangers aren't entirely wrong. Between past chapters at a small California rink and present days in the Olympic Village, Quinn and Mack have to figure out what they really meant to each other then-and what they're allowed to be now, with medals on the line and the whole world watching. Because it's one thing to love someone quietly from a distance. It's another to have them show up in your life again and make everything feel possible.

Some people count by ones. Others count by threes. But sometimes, life speaks in twos. The first time something appears, it's easy to dismiss it as coincidence-a passing moment, a random face, a fleeting thought. But when it shows up again, in a different place, at a different time, you start to wonder. Maybe it isn't chance at all. Maybe it's life quietly telling you something is meant to be in your story. Because when something finds you twice, it might just be something you need.

Olivia Bennett knows the rules of sports journalism - never get too close to the players you cover. As a reporter for the San Jose Sharks, she's built her career on professionalism. Too bad the internet is convinced she's secretly dating rookie star Macklin Celebrini. For two years, their interviews, inside jokes, and viral moments have had fans rooting for them. In reality, they're just friends. At least... that's what they keep telling everyone.