All Chapters of Taming A Hockey Rebel : Chapter 21 - Chapter 29

Lila’s POV Five minutes ago, I had been annoyed that Ryder was now in my place of work and now butting into what was supposed to be my away-from-him time. But what I didn’t think about was the fact that Clint was also here, and Harper being the loud mouth that she was, decided to introduce Ryder and Clint.To each other. Officially. And yes, what you’re thinking is very correct. This is in fact the moment where my life completely falls apart. Because my best friend's boyfriend, and my fake boyfriend were becoming acquainted, which meant that even after this nightmare ends, Ryder is still going to stick around. Why? Because Clint and Harper totally fuck with him. What a huge bonus for me. Unfortunately for me, I worked at the counter, and not inside like Harper, which meant I got a front-row seat to whatever strange friendship was currently developing between Ryder and Clint. “Come on,” Ryder leaned back in his seat, slinging an arm over the backrest. “You've gotta at least try o

Lila’s POV I can’t believe Harper did this to me. Or you know what? I can believe it. This was Harper we were talking about. The same Harper who had practically adopted Ryder the second he showed up in town. The same Harper who somehow found a way to defend him every single time I complained about him. Of course she was going to set me up. At this point, I should’ve seen the double-date ambush coming from a mile away. Yet somehow, the crazy animal still managed to catch me off guard.Traitor. Ugh. I pushed through the kitchen doors and immediately spotted the culprit, stacking cups near the sink, and the second our eyes met, she had the guts to smile. I glared, but her smile only widened, and the only thing I could think of doing was glaring harder. “Hi.” I didn’t say anything to her. “Still mad?” Not a word. “I’m taking that as a yes.” Jenny looked up from where she was wiping down a tray. Her gaze bounced between us, then back again. “I feel like I missed something.”“Ye

Ryder’s POV When I placed the bet with Lila, I didn’t actually expect her to stand a chance. I didn’t expect her to be capable of winning. In my defense, she was Lila. The same girl who argued with me at least five times a day. The same girl who somehow found something wrong with everything I did, even when I was very much in the right. The same girl who could turn a simple “good morning” into a fucking debate. It was only natural for me to assume she’d crack within minutes. Well I was wrong. Very wrong in fact. Because a whole damn seven minutes had passed, and this girl hadn’t said a single word to me. No matter what I did, or said to her, she didn’t crack, she just stayed quiet, and I was slowly losing time.I glanced at her feeling slightly defeated, but she didn’t even bother to acknowledge my presence, or maybe tease me about it. I let out a low sigh. Well this was becoming a problem. I hated losing, let alone to someone like her. She would never let me live it down. I

Ryder’s POV My chest heaved with a small sigh as I gave the question another thought before answering. “I… I don’t know.” “Thought so too.” Coach nodded slowly, tapping on his chin. “So why don’t you let me do my thing?” I didn’t say anything, I just looked away from him, watching a bird fly past the window, and then I realized this was the right time to bring up the motive behind my visit. “Uh…” I rubbed the back of my head. “Hey, there’s a reason I came to your office.” “Mhmm.” Coach clasped his hands together leaning closer with a knowing look in his eyes. “And what’s that?” He asked, his expression remained patient. Waiting. I glanced down at the papers spread across his desk before looking back up. “Well…” I hesitated. “The only reason Lila agreed to all of this was because I promised I’d… help her get a scholarship too.” I waited for a reaction from him, but there was nothing. Not even a twitch of his eye or tilt of his head. Which somehow made it worse. So I had no other

Lila’s POV You’d think that whatever it was that was going on with Ryder was a one day thing, and that maybe he was going to get over it by the next day, and then start being his normal self again. But no, I was wrong. Ryder didn’t go back to his normal self, or even the day after that. A whole freaking week had passed and he was still acting weird and distant. And the annoying part of it all was it wasn’t like he was avoiding me. He came to every training session we held, even ate lunch with us once in a while, still made some occasional jokes, but they were… less than usual. They were less him. I couldn’t explain it properly, hell it sounded like I was saying a whole ton of rubbish, but it was like someone had turned his personality down by twenty percent. Okay scratch that forty percent. It was not enough for other people to notice—though he didn’t even interact with many people outside of our friend group for me to come to that conclusion—but it was enough for me to notic