Hands Off The Ice King novel Chapter 55

Chapter 55

Hope’s POV

55 vouchers

Instead of heading straight to the rehab room, I went home early after arriving at the rink. Good thing Beth allowed me to do just that. She told me I did a good job convincing Levi to do the shoot, and that I deserved some time to rest.

I didn’t even have the energy to tell her that I wasn’t the reason why he agreed in the first place.

It also wasn’t because I was ignoring Levi. Alright, maybe that was one of the reasons. I honestly couldn’t bring myself to be stuck in the same room as him when I still felt weird like this.

I climbed up the stairs of my apartment complex because the elevator was still broken, making me feel even more frustrated. The landlady was promised hundreds of times that she would be getting it fixed!

I then absentmindedly walked toward my room but abruptly stopped when I saw numerous duffel bags stacked in front of the door.

“Finally, you’re home,” I heard a familiar voice exasperatedly say from the end of the hallway.

I turned and found Harley standing there, arms crossed in front of his chest and leaning against the wall. My eyes widened.

“Were you supposed to come today?” I asked.

“Nope,” he answered, pushing himself off the wall. “I got excited and decided to come here early, though. The Glaciers are going to have a practice game tomorrow with the Bears. I wanted to watch that and see Levi Reeve in action,” he answered with a wide smile.

“I was calling you non-stop, but you weren’t answering,” he added, already walking toward me and sticking his hand into the pocket of my jacket, retrieving the keys.

He opened the door while whistling to himself. However, his whistling soon stopped once he saw the interior.

“Damn,” he cursed.

“This place is even worse than I thought. You’ve been living here for years now? How could you have endured this?” he asked.

That snapped me out of my daze. I also couldn’t help but smile. Typical Harley.

“Stop acting like you’re used to luxury, Lee. Do you know how expensive rent is in Central Manhattan?”

He shrugged. “I was just saying. I mean, I get to stay here for free, so, I can’t really be complaining.”

“Anyway, help me with my bags,” he said.

I sighed, shook my head, and helped him haul his bags inside the apartment. Although Harley was a pain in the head, I couldn’t help but smile now that my little brother was here. Well, not so little anymore. He was already much, much taller than I was, and he was also quite protective. It wouldn’t feel so quiet in this place now.

Once we had placed his things inside the guest room, which would be his room from now on, he immediately went to the pantry and rummaged through the cupboards.

“Sweet!” he exclaimed. “You’re still stocking up on sweets.”

He grabbed the box of ‘protein bars’ I had stacked there. They were definitely too sweet for protein bars, but they were my guilty pleasure snack.

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10:43 Thu, Jul 16

Chapter 55

55 voucher

I sat on the couch and silently watched him go through the whole box within a few minutes. It looked like I had to buy more of those from now on.

While he was on his fourth bar, he stopped chewing and looked at me, his brows furrowing.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

My brows raised in surprise at the sudden queston. “Huh? Nothing’s wrong.”

He sighed and shook his head, placing the protein bar box back into the cupboard before heading toward me and sitting on the seat right in front of me.

“Even if you haven’t lived with us for a while, I know when you feel down like this. You can’t lie to me, Hope.”

I pursed my lips. Nothing gets past him, huh? He wasn’t too bright in the head, and that was why he always had sports scholarships growing up instead of academic ones, but he had great intuition.

“Is it because of Connor?” he asked.

I turned to him while he sighed, shaking his head.

“Honestly, you were way too far out of his league,” he said. “And I’m saying that as your brother and your biggest hater. You always deserve the best, Hope, because you always give your best.”

“So if you’re still upset because you guys broke up, then it’s just a waste of time.”

I shook my head with a smile.

“Don’t worry, Lee. It’s not because of him.”

Even then, he didn’t look convinced. I guess, this was the limit of his intuiton. He still didn’t get that I wasn’t upset because

of Connor but because of his idol, Levi Reeve. But then again, who would be able to guess that?

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