The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife (Blair and Grayson) novel Chapter 164

Chapter 164

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The movie room was dark except for the screen.

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Ivy had claimed the whole left side of the couch like she always did, blanket up to her chin, red bowl of popcorn between us.

I was home for a week. Then it was back to Monaco for the race. I was trying not to think about that yet. I wanted to enjoy this quiet moment, away from all the chaos.

“You always cry at this part,” I said.

“I do not.”

“You do. Lady Finds Northie. The dock scene. You go silent and then you sniff like you have allergies.”

Ivy kicked me under the blanket. “Watch the dog, Shaw.”

I watched her instead, for a second. She has lived in our house for five years now. She had been twelve when the accident took her parents. Mom and Dad had brought her in without making a speech about charity. She was just Ivy after that. My sister on paper. Adopted or not, I was protective of her in a way that made Grayson roll his eyes and made me stay in the hallway too long when she had a boy on the phone.

I’d never been that protective of anyone else before. I didn’t know why. Maybe I felt sorry for her, maybe there was a deeper reason I chose to ignore.

Sometimes the protectiveness sat too close to something else. Something I refused to name.

Not on a couch with a dog movie and seven days until Monaco.

Lady ran through snow on screen. Ivy mouthed the line before it happened. I flicked popcorn at her hair. She threatened to tell mom I had a death wish before Monaco. We were laughing when the lights came on.

Richard Shaw stood in the doorway.

“Stop the movie.”

Ivy hit pause. Ivy did not look at me. She looked at Dad like she already knew the air had changed.

I stood up. “What’s wrong?”

Dad did not sit. He never sat when it was business.

“You will be marrying Olivia Monroe by the end of this month.”

The room seemed to shift.

“What?” I laughed once, not because it was funny. “You are joking right?”

“Do I look like I am, son?”

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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife

I stood up. He was actually serious.

No. I’m too young. I have my whole life ahead of me. I have a grid in seven days. I am not marrying Blair’s sister because William Monroe is in a bad mood.”

Ivy had gone still beside me. Not laughing. Not even blinking. She did not look happy about the news. Something in my chest kicked at that and I pushed it away because I could not look at it now.

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