The Hockey Captain Wants His Plus-Size Ex Back Chapter 07
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then Cole laughed.
It was a short, ugly sound.
“No,” he said. “She isn’t.”
Easton did not react. His hand stayed around mine, firm and warm, as if he had all the time in the world.
Cole looked at me. “Mia, enough.”
There it was again. That tone.
Enough.
Be quiet.
Come back.
Behave.
I used to mistake it for care because it meant he was paying attention to me. Now it sounded exactly like what it was: ownership.
I lifted our joined hands slightly.
Cole’s face changed.
“You’re doing this to punish me,” he said. “I get it. I deserved it. But don’t drag Easton into our problems.”
“We don’t have problems,” I said. “We have an ending.”
“We don’t end because you say so.”
Easton’s jaw tightened.
Vanessa stood a few feet away, humiliated in front of the team she had ruled for years. Her eyes moved from Cole to me to Easton, and hatred settled over her face like frost.
Cole ignored her.
“Mia,” he said, softer now. “I made a mistake. Vanessa was never serious. I panicked because of scouts and the championship and everything people expected from me. But I was going to fix it.”
“When?”
He had no answer.
I smiled faintly. “After the next championship? After graduation? After you found someone better?”
His mouth tightened. “Don’t be cruel.”
That almost made me laugh.
Easton stepped forward. “She said no.”
Cole turned on him. “Stay out of this.”
“She is this.”
Cole’s hand curled into a fist. “You think because she lost weight, you can just take her?”
The crowd made a low sound.
Easton’s expression went flat.
I held his arm before he could move.
“No one took me,” I said. “I left.”
Cole stared at me like the words were impossible.
Then pride came back to save him.
“Fine,” he said. “Keep playing house with him. But don’t come back when you realize he doesn’t know you.”
Easton’s voice was quiet. “I know enough not to be ashamed of her.”
That landed.
Cole’s face went red.
For a second, I thought he would swing right there in the arena. But there were too many people watching, too many phones already raised. So he forced a smile instead.
“You’ll regret this,” he said.
“No,” I said. “I already did my regretting.”
Then Easton and I walked out.
The hallway outside the arena was colder and almost empty. My legs shook as soon as the doors closed behind us.
Easton noticed immediately.
He turned me toward him. “Breathe.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re shaking.”
“I just became cheer captain, humiliated Vanessa, rejected Cole in public, and got announced as your girlfriend. I’m allowed to shake.”
The corner of his mouth moved.
“Fair.”
I looked at him. “You really announced it.”
“You looked like you needed backup.”
“I did.”
His eyes softened by a fraction. “Then I’m glad I was there.”
Three days later, Cole cornered me outside the library.
I had just finished practice. Easton was at the rink. I was halfway down the steps when Cole stepped out from behind a pillar.
“Mia.”
I stopped.
He looked worse than I expected. His hair was messy, his eyes bloodshot, his usual golden-boy ease cracked at the edges.
“I need to talk to you.”
“No.”
He moved in front of me. “Please.”
The word surprised me. Cole did not say please unless he wanted something badly.
“I didn’t sleep,” he said. “I keep seeing you with him.”
“That sounds like your problem.”
His jaw worked. “I know I hurt you.”
“You humiliated me.”
“I know.”
“You denied me.”
“I know.”
“You called me disgusting.”
His face went pale. “I didn’t—”
“You did. Maybe not on the microphone. But enough people heard.”
He covered his mouth with one hand and looked away.
“Mia, I was stupid.”
“You were cruel.”
He flinched.
Then he reached for my wrist.
I stepped back.
Before his hand could touch me, Easton was there.
I did not know where he came from. One second I was alone with Cole. The next, Easton’s hand closed around Cole’s shoulder and pulled him back.
“Don’t touch her.”
Cole shoved him. “This is between me and her.”
Easton hit him once.
It was fast, clean, and controlled. Cole stumbled against the stone railing, blood blooming at the corner of his mouth.
I grabbed Easton’s arm. “Stop.”
He stopped immediately.
Cole looked up at us, breathing hard, more shocked than hurt.
Easton’s voice was cold. “Try it again, and I won’t stop at one.”
Cole wiped his mouth. His eyes moved to me.
For the first time, there was fear in them.
Not of Easton.
Of losing.
That night, Cole had the dream.