The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife (Blair and Grayson) novel Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

~BLAIR

The stares started the second we reached the family section.

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Even with most of the worst articles taken down, people remembered. Conversations dipped when I passed.

A few phones tilted in my direction with less subtlety than their owners probably intended.

The narrative about me forcing Grayson into marriage and destroying his relationship with Lily had done its damage.

Apologies and quiet corrections online didn’t erase the way strangers now looked at me like I had stolen something.

Olivia linked her arm through mine and muttered, “If one more person side-eyes you, I’m going to start throwing popcorn.”

“Please don’t.”

“I’m just saying. You’d think they’d find a new hobby. ‘Judging Blair Monroe’ can’t be that entertaining.”

I sat down and tried to ignore the weight of attention. “Ignore them. I’m here for the game.”

Olivia dropped into the seat beside me, already scanning the ice. “Good. Because this one should be personal.”

She wasn’t wrong.

Blackridge Wolves versus Southbay Vipers.

Grayson versus Chase. The first time the two captains would share the ice since the weddings, the rumors, and every complicated thing that had happened between then and now.

The Vipers came out first.

Olivia leaned closer. “Oh look. Your ex.. .the asshole.”

Chase skated onto the ice with his team, stick in hand, expression locked into the focused mask he always wore before a rivalry game. He didn’t look up toward the stands. I was grateful for that much.

Then Sophie appeared near the glass, dressed to be noticed, smiling and waving as cameras found her. She blew Chase a kiss and held the pose long enough for phones to capture it. Media attention gathered around her like it had been arranged.

I rolled my eyes and turned back toward the ice.

‘Subtle,” Olivia said under her breath.

“She never is.”

The puck dropped, and the noise of the arena swallowed everything else.

I had watched Grayson play against Chase before. From a distance. As a rival. Tonight was different. For the first time I actually watched him-how he moved, how he controlled space, how the game seemed to bend around his decisions.

He was relentless.

In the first period he picked off a pass at center ice, accelerated past a defender like the man was standing still, and fired a wrist shot that hit the back of the net before the goalie fully committed.

The Blackridge crowd erupted. Grayson did successfully unlocked inted once at the teammate who had trailed the play and skated back into position, already locked on the next shift.

Chapter 27

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They came together along the boards hard enough that the glass shook. The referee’s whistle cut through the noise as the puck squirmed free and a Blackridge winger sent it back to the point.

Grayson was already moving.

He caught the pass on his stick, faked once, and ripped a one-timer through traffic. Another goal.

The arena got louder. Olivia grabbed my arm.

“Okay, I hate how hot that was,” she said. “Like, objectively. The skill. The violence. The jawline. It’s unfair.”

“Olivia.”

“What? I’m supportive of your marriage and also have working eyes.”

By the second period the game had turned into a personal war between the two captains. Chase shadowed Grayson through the neutral zone, stick-checking, body-checking, trying to force mistakes.

Grayson answered by making the next play cleaner than the last. He drew a penalty when Chase’s frustration got the better of him along the half-wall, then set up the power-play goal with a cross-seam pass that split the Vipers’ coverage.

I found myself leaning forward, elbows on my knees, completely locked in. The judgmental stares faded under the sharpness of the game.

Grayson on the ice was nothing like Grayson in a quiet room. Out here he was decisive. Dominant. Completely certain of his body and his timing.

When he scored again early in the third-redirecting a shot at the crease with the kind of hand skills that made the broadcast crew lose their minds, I actually stood up with the rest of the Blackridge section before I caught myself.

Olivia looked delighted. “You’re hooked.”

“I’m watching the game.”

“You’re watching him.”

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