Chapter Three
After All This Time
Ariana
Present
I realized with acute agony that it didn’t matter how long I’d had to prepare for this exact moment, no amount of time or composition could properly brace me for Shane McCabe slamming back into my life.
It was like being struck by a steel beam picked up in the winds of an F5 tornado, the way his eyes latched onto mine, the rest of the world fading to black around us.
I blinked and saw him as a twenty-one-year-old kid sitting two rows behind me in a lecture hall.
I blinked again and saw his eyes squeezed shut, his brows pinched together as he kissed me reverently with shaking hands.
Another blink and I was drenched in rain, screaming at him not to leave me, heart breaking when I realized he’d already made up his mind.
A final, rapid set of blinks had me back in the present, where I did my best to school my features and bury every memory right where they belonged — in the past.
But my eyes betrayed me, dragging slowly over the man he’d become.
Shane stood tall and solid in his tailored suit, broader through the shoulders than I remembered, his frame carrying the unmistakable marks of discipline and care.
The years had filled him out, hardened him in places, honed him in others.
His dark hair was trimmed shorter now, brushed back neatly, though a few rebellious strands still fell forward, softening the severity of the look.
Faint lines bracketed his eyes when he focused, proof of laughter and strain and everything life had carved into him since we were young.
And when his gaze met mine again — steady, piercing, achingly familiar — I felt it in my chest, the same way I always had.
He looked like a man who knew exactly who he was.
And worse — like a man who still knew exactly how to undo me.
“There he is!” my husband said, opening his arms like he and Shane were long-lost brothers as opposed to complete strangers who would now be forced to work together.
Fortunately, he had the good sense to drop that wide embrace and extend a hand for Shane’s in the last moment, when Shane finally unglued his shoes from the ground and made his way over to us.
“Coach McCabe, your reputation precedes you. Nathan Black.”
“A pleasure to meet you, sir. Excited to work together.” Shane’s voice sounded odd when he said the words, though no one in the room would notice but me. I hoped they also wouldn’t notice how his eyes flicked to me, his jaw flexing before his strained smile was back on my husband.
“We’re going to make magic, you and me,” Nathan promised, still grasping Shane’s hand in his as he clapped him on the back with his free hand. “Just you wait and see. I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve.”
The way he grinned with that comment made my skin crawl.
What an unfortunate thing to feel around my husband, and yet I knew him well enough to know when he was joking, and when he was making a threat.
I was well versed in the latter.
As if he couldn’t help himself, Shane’s eyes slid to me, and this time, he indulged in letting them stay there. And because it would be impolite to look anywhere else, I held his gaze.
It sliced through me like a razed wire, even after all this time.
“Ah, yes,” Nathan said, standing straight before he curled his arm possessively around my hip and tugged me into his side. “This is my beautiful wife, Ariana.”
Shane’s nostrils flared at the word wife.
His eyes didn’t leave mine, the gaze piercing through me like a spear.
And then his hand came forward.
That little motion shouldn’t have had my throat tightening. It was just a handshake, a polite formality that was natural and expected in that moment.
But the world went silent as his fingers reached for mine.
I told myself to breathe, to be normal, to remember where I was and who I belonged to.
Still, my pulse betrayed me, drumming so hard in my throat it blurred my vision.
And when his palm met mine, the years between us disintegrated, heat blasting from the point of contact and sizzling every nerve in my body.
That hand was warm and rough, but worst of all, it was familiar in a way that made my knees threaten to give.
For a second, neither of us moved. Shane shook my hand before holding it too long to be professional, too short to ever be enough.
He hesitated when it was the appropriate time to break the contact, eyes flicking between mine, and then his fingers tightened around my hand, his pointer finger gently pressing into my wrist like he was trying to speak some sort of secret code to me with just that touch.
And here we were, standing in the moment of truth.
Would he pretend like he didn’t know me, or admit our history?
My stomach twisted with a fear I couldn’t quite name.
Part of me braced for Shane to speak — to say my name like he used to, to expose the history I’d buried so carefully — and the thought sent a sharp spike of panic through my chest. I could already imagine Nathan’s hand tightening at my hip, the warmth of his possessiveness tipping into something colder, something dangerous.
But there was another fear just as unsettling.
That Shane wouldn’t say anything at all.
That he’d let go of my hand, step back, and pretend I was nothing more than the woman standing beside his general manager. A stranger. A closed chapter. The idea hollowed me out in a way I didn’t want to examine too closely.
I stood there, caught between dread and disappointment, unsure which outcome would hurt more.
“Ariana,” Shane said, sending a wave of goosebumps over my skin.
His lips curled at the corner, like he saw the effect he’d had and loved it, and that made my gaze harden.
Because although my body seemed intent on betraying me, I refused to let it drag me down memory lane like Shane and I had only joy between us.
We both knew that was far from the truth.
“It’s a wonderful surprise to see you here. How have you been?” Shane seemed reluctant to drop my hand, but he finally did with that question, and I immediately folded my fingers together in front of my waist.
Before I could answer, my husband arched a brow. “You two know each other?”
“We had a class together at Boston College,” I said, and I hated how low my voice was when I said it, but I wasn’t surprised.
I didn’t know how Nathan would react to this news, which had me hesitant to speak too loudly.
I hoped to brush it off quickly and not make a thing of it, but I could tell by the way my husband’s gaze narrowed that I wouldn’t get off that easily.
“Is that right?” he asked, that perfectly practiced grin of his sliding back into place easily as he turned to Shane. His grip tightened as he pulled me even closer to him, and I winced against the sharp dig of those fingers into my hip. “Sweetheart, why didn’t you mention this before?”
“I honestly didn’t realize it was the same Shane,” I said with my own practiced, nonchalant laugh.
I was aware of how ditzy my husband believed I was, so I played my part.
And even though it was the last thing I wanted to do, I leaned into Nathan, placing a hand over his chest as I smiled up at him.
“You know how crazy our life has been lately. And that was ages ago, another lifetime it feels. It was just one class together, after all.”
I knew the lie was thinly veiled, but fortunately my husband was a man of discretion. So, he kissed my hair and turned his smile back to Shane. “Well, I look forward to hearing stories of the good ol’ days in Boston.”
Shane’s smile was tight as he slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks, and when a member of the public relations team came over to steal Nathan away and prepare him for the press conference, I was ready to slither back into the shadows and watch him from a distance like I always had.
I waited for Shane to excuse himself, knowing he’d be a part of this press ordeal, too.
But he just stood there, rooted like a tree, his eyes fixed on mine.
When he looked at me that way, I couldn’t help but soften. It didn’t matter how my heart was still broken from his actions, the cracks splitting fresh in my chest at the sight of him as if to remind me not to get too close. Danger, my common sense whispered. Stay away.
And yet I couldn’t move, either.
Shane finally shook his head, the motion subtle, his eyes trailing down my modest navy-blue dress to my nude kitten heels and back up. “I’m sorry for staring, I just… I believe I may be in shock.”
I didn’t want to smile, but damn it if I could fight against the tilt of my lips. “Like seeing a ghost, huh?”
“After all this time, life has brought us back together.”
With that, my stomach soured, and finally, the cold resolve I’d been wishing for found me.
How dare he?
How dare this man look at me this way, all reverent and wonder-struck, and say those words like this was some happy reunion?
“Yep,” I snipped, standing taller and smoothing my hands over my dress. “And you can’t get away from me this time, unless you quit your job. And we all know nothing is more important to you than hockey.”
I held the emphasis on nothing so that he understood what I meant.
And by the way his face fell, I knew he had.
“Ari,” he started, but before he could plead whatever sorry excuse for a case he had, Nathan was back at my side.
He reached for my face to pull me in for a quick kiss, but instinctively, I flinched.
It was only a micro-second of a moment, a reaction that no one should have noticed. Nathan surely didn’t. He smiled post-kiss and told me to wish him luck before he was following the staff to the room where the press was waiting for him.
But when I turned back to Shane, his face was ashen, his jaw slack.
He’d seen it.
And I shouldn’t have been surprised.
This man had always seen right through me, since the very moment we’d met.