Hands Off The Ice King novel Chapter 123

Chapter 123

Chapter 123

Hope’s POV

:

VPN

26

5 vouchers

Harley didn’t go play hockey with his friends like he boasted about, which I would have preferred instead of him standing between Levi and me, watching everything unfold like he had bought front-row tickets to the mess we had become.

Levi looked at me, yearning filling his eyes, never letting his gaze leave mine. I couldn’t deny that I couldn’t take my eyes off him, either.

At first, it was pure shock.

What was he doing here?

Aside from the fact that I had never told anyone from Manhattan where my hometown was. And sure as hell, Freya wouldn’t do that, no matter how much she liked teasing me about Levi. I was also certain Connor would never tell him that information.

Ever.

So, how and why was he here?

I then noticed his car parked a few meters away.

So, he drove here.

It was at least a seven-hour drive to get here, and he actually did that?

I pursed my lips.

He had already missed a game yesterday. I knew they had another one in two days, so I lifted my chin, forcing myself to stay stubborn.

“You should-”

However, before I could even finish what I wanted to say, Levi grabbed my wrist and gently pulled me into him, wrapping both of his arms around me.

The words were shoved back into my chest, and with them, my heart began racing as though I had just sprinted across a finish line.

Yet, along with the frantic pounding came something else.

Comfort.

How long had it been?

A week?

1/5

12:09 Sat, Jul 18

Chapter 123

VPN

20

5 vouchers

It felt as though I had been away from him for years, and this was the first embrace we had shared after an endless distance that neither of us had wanted.

His familiar scent wrapped around me, and before I knew it, every wall I had spent days desperately building threatened to crumble all at once.

I heard a loud gasp from the side, and I already knew it came from Harley.

This guy.

Shouldn’t he just leave?

For one dangerous second, I found myself melting into Levi’s embrace. I wanted to stay there, to bury my face against his chest and simply exist there, wanting to relish the feeling of finally being with him again.

But reality crashed back into me.

I couldn’t.

I pushed him away and opened my mouth to speak, but the moment I saw the look in his eyes, the words I had prepared refused to leave my mouth once again.

He looked so… hurt.

No.

I couldn’t be swayed.

He had already missed one game, and he couldn’t afford to miss another. If I didn’t push him away now, he’d regret it for the rest of his life.

And I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I became the reason he lost everything he had worked for.

“Leave, Levi,” I muttered, forcing the words out.

The expression in his eyes didn’t change.

If anything, it only made this even harder.

“How can you say that,” he suddenly asked quietly, “but look so hurt?”

“What?”

He sighed and shook his head before taking another step toward me.

Slowly, he tucked a loose strand of hair behind my car.

His fingertips barely brushed my skin, but it felt like they lingered there.

“If you’re going to tell me to leave, then you should at least look like you mean it, Hope I can’t leave when your eyes are telling me you want me to stay.”

2/5

12:09 Sat, Jul 18

Chapter 123

I bit my lip so hard it hurt.

My eyes were already beginning to burn.

VPN

75

5 vouchers

With that, I quickly turned my head away before he could see everything I was trying so desperately to hide.

Then I started walking toward our front door.

“Hope!”

I heard Levi calling after me.

Of course, Harley was following us too..

Just then, the front door opened, revealing my mom.

“I was wondering why you weren’t coming in-”

She stopped mid-sentence. Her jaw slowly fell open the moment she saw who was standing behind me.

Her lips trembled as she shakily pointed toward him.

“L-Levi R-Reeve?” she stammered in complete disbelief.

I heard the familiar sound of my father’s wheelchair approaching from inside, but it abruptly stopped the second he caught sight of Levi.

Harley quickly slipped inside.

I looked at the stunned expressions on my family members’ faces, their eyes impossibly wide.

Under any other circumstance, I probably would have laughed. Instead, I bit my lip.

This was going to take a lot of explaining.

I stepped inside the house before turning back toward Levi.

I met his eyes, doing everything I could not to let my real emotions show.

“You have a game to prepare for, Levi,” I said as steadily as I could. “Leave so you can get some rest before then.”

“I’m not going to play.”

My breath caught.

Just like that, it felt as though my biggest nightmare had come true.

He wasn’t going to play?

I had to be colder. I had to push him away before it was too late.

3/5

12:09 Sat, Jul 18

Chapter 123

I slowly closed my eyes and took a deep breath, forcing myself to steady the storm inside me.

When I opened them again, I noticed something in his expression had changed.

He looked exhausted.

5 vouchers

“Don’t drive straight through,” I said, keeping my voice calm despite everything unraveling inside me. “There’s a rest stop at the Southern Tier Welcome Center in Kirkwood. Stop there. Drink plenty of water. Then call Margaret and tell her you’re going to play again.”

I swallowed around the lump forming in my throat.

“I’m going to pretend this never happened.”

Before he could answer, I closed the door in his face.

The sound echoed through the house, feeling far louder than it should have.

I leaned against the door for the briefest second, my fingers trembling.

Everything inside me wanted to open it again. To let him in and force him to sleep because he looked so incredibly tired.

But I couldn’t.

I finally turned around and was met with the still-stunned faces of my parents.

“That… that was Levi, right?” my mom asked, still sounding as though she couldn’t believe what she had just

witnessed.

Meanwhile, Harley looked like he was experiencing a thousand different emotions all at once.

He suddenly snapped his fingers before staring at me with comically wide eyes.

“Don’t tell me!” he exclaimed. “You were actually telling the truth during our conversation on the bus?”

I massaged the bridge of my nose.

“Holy shit,” he breathed. “You really have something going on with Levi Reeve?”

I slowly shook my head.

“No,” I muttered, forcing the word past the ache in my chest.

“There isn’t anything going on between us anymore.”

4/5

12:09 Sat, Jul 18