CHAPTER 26
Jul 10, 2025
KAT’S POV
I was working on my triple lutz sequence when I heard the commotion from the hockey rink next door. The walls between the practice rinks weren’t soundproof, and the sudden eruption of shouting voices made me lose focus and stumble out of my landing.
“What the hell?” I muttered, skating toward the glass partition that separated the figure skating rink from the hockey rink.
Through the transparent barrier, I could see players clustered around someone lying motionless on the ice. The person was wearing a blue practice jersey, and even from this distance, I could see the unnatural stillness of their body that made my blood run cold.
Then I saw the dark hair, the familiar build, and my heart stopped.
“Liam,” I whispered, pressing my hands against the glass.
Without thinking, I abandoned my routine and raced toward the exit of my rink, my skates clicking rapidly against the rubber matting as I ran toward the hockey arena. The corridors had never seemed so long, and by the time I burst through the doors to the hockey rink, the paramedics were already there.
“Let me through!” I called out, pushing past the cluster of players and coaches who were standing around watching helplessly. “Let me through!”
“Kate, what are you—” someone started to say, but I was already dropping to my knees beside the stretcher where Liam was lying with his eyes closed.
“Is he okay?” I demanded, looking up at the paramedic who was checking his pulse. “Please tell me he’s okay.”
“He’s got a concussion,” the paramedic said calmly. “Possibly severe. We need to get him to the medical center for a proper evaluation.”
“Kate?” Nate appeared beside me, his face pale with worry. “He’s going to be okay,” Nate said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Right? He’s going to be okay?”
“We need to monitor him closely for the next few hours,” the paramedic replied. “Head injuries can be unpredictable.”
As they loaded Liam onto the stretcher, I followed holding his hand firmly.
“I’m here,” I said, walking alongside the stretcher as they wheeled him toward the exit. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The medical center was only a five-minute drive from the athletic complex, but it felt like an eternity. I rode in the back of the ambulance, holding Liam’s hand and watching the rise and fall of his chest, terrified that he might stop breathing at any moment.
“Has this happened before?” the paramedic asked, noting my obvious distress.
“No,” I said. “I mean, not that I know of. He plays hockey, so he’s probably taken hits before, but nothing like this.”
“Are you his girlfriend?”
The question caught me off guard. “I… it’s complicated.”
The paramedic gave me a knowing look. “It always is.”
At the medical center, they wheeled Liam into a private room where a doctor began a thorough examination. I hovered in the doorway until a nurse gently guided me to a chair beside his bed.
“You can stay,” she said kindly. “Sometimes familiar voices help with concussion recovery.”
“How bad is it?” I asked the doctor.
“Mild to moderate concussion,” he replied, shining a light into Liam’s eyes to check his pupil response. “He’s responsive, which is a good sign. We’ll need to monitor him for the next several hours to make sure there are no complications.”
“Will there be any lasting damage?”
“Unlikely, if he follows proper recovery protocols,” the doctor said. “But he’ll need to take it easy for at least a week. No sports, no strenuous activity, and someone should stay with him for the first twenty-four hours to watch for signs of worsening.”
After the doctor left, I pulled my chair closer to Liam’s bed and took his hand in both of mine. His fingers were cold, and there was a nasty bruise forming on his temple where he’d hit the ice.
“Liam?” I said softly. “Can you hear me?”
His eyes opened slowly, and it took a moment for him to focus on my face. “Kate? You’re here.”
“Of course I’m here,” I said. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I got hit by a truck,” he mumbled, trying to sit up.
“Don’t move,” I said quickly, placing a gentle hand on his chest to keep him lying down. “The doctor said you need to stay still.”
“What happened?” he asked, confusion evident in his voice.
“You took a hard check during practice,” I explained. “Tommy Rodriguez caught you in the head. Do you remember?”
Liam was quiet for a moment, his brow furrowed in concentration. “I remember being angry,” he said finally. “I remember seeing you with Nate, and then everything is kind of fuzzy.”
My heart clenched at his words. “You saw us talking?”
“You were hugging him,” Liam said, his voice barely above a whisper. “After everything I told you yesterday, you went straight to him.”
“Liam, that’s not what—”
“It’s okay,” he interrupted, closing his eyes. “I understand. He’s the better choice. He always has been.”
“That’s not true,” I said firmly. “And that’s not what happened. I went to find Nate to apologize, to try to salvage our friendship after everything that happened. He was comforting me because I was upset, not because we were getting back together.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Liam said quietly. “I shouldn’t have said what I said yesterday. I shouldn’t have put that pressure on you.”
“What pressure?”
“Telling you I love you,” he said, his voice thick with regret. “That was selfish of me. I was just making everything more complicated for you.”
“Liam, look at me,” I said, squeezing his hand until he opened his eyes. “Don’t take it back.”
“What?”
“Don’t take back what you said yesterday,” I repeated, my voice barely above a whisper. “I’m just not sure what to do with it yet.”
He stared at me for a long moment, searching my face for something I wasn’t sure I was ready to give him. “Kate—”
“I’ve been thinking about what you told me,” I continued, the words coming out in a rush. “About following my career, about coming to Ridgeview because of me, about all the reasons you were so hostile. And I keep coming back to one question.”
“What question?”
“If you’ve felt this way about me for so long, why didn’t you just try being nice to me from the beginning?” I asked. “Why all the cruelty and hostility?”
Liam was quiet for a moment, and I could see him struggling to find the right words. “Because nice would have meant hope,” he said finally. “And hope would have meant risking everything.”
“What would you have been risking?”
“My heart,” he said simply. “My sanity. My ability to function if you rejected me. It was easier to make you hate me than to find out you could never love me.”
I felt tears starting to gather in my eyes at the raw honesty in his voice. “And now?”
“Now I’ve already risked everything,” he said with a rueful smile. “So I might as well see where it leads.”
“Liam,” I whispered, leaning closer to his bed.
“I know you don’t feel the same way,” he said quickly. “I know this is all overwhelming and confusing, and I don’t expect—”
I kissed him.
It was soft and tentative at first, just a gentle press of lips that cut off his rambling apology. But when he didn’t pull away, when his free hand came up to cup my cheek, it deepened into something warmer and more meaningful.
When we finally broke apart, both of us were breathing hard, and there were tears streaming down my cheeks.
“Why are you crying?” he asked, his thumb brushing away my tears.
“Because I was so scared,” I admitted. “When I saw you lying there on the ice, not moving, I thought… I thought I might lose you before I figured out what I wanted.”
“And what do you want?” he asked quietly.
I said honestly. “I want to figure out what this is between us without the pressure of fake relationships and family drama and everyone else’s expectations. I want to see who we are when we’re not fighting or pretending or running away from our feelings.”
“Can you do that?” he asked. “Can you give us a chance?”
“I’m here, aren’t I?” I said with a small smile. “I abandoned my practice routine and rode in an ambulance with you. I think that’s a pretty good indication of where my priorities are.”
“Kate,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.
“What?”
“Thank you. For being here, for not running away, for giving me hope that maybe this doesn’t have to end in disaster.”
“It might still end in disaster,” I warned him. “I’m pretty good at making messes of things.”
“Then we’ll make a mess together,” he said, squeezing my hand. “I’d rather have a beautiful disaster with you than a perfect life with anyone else.”
As I sat there holding his hand in the quiet medical center room, watching the monitors beep steadily and listening to his breathing even out as he drifted toward sleep, I realized that maybe Nate had been right yesterday. Maybe what I was feeling for Liam was love after all.
It was terrifying and complicated and probably going to make my life infinitely more difficult. But for the first time since arriving at Ridgeview, it also felt completely right.
