His Dangerous Love On Ice Chapter 144: Olive's Pov

"Your first real crush, maybe?" she continued, oblivious to my growing horror. "The one whose mother became such good friends with us? The one you were absolutely smitten with before... well, before everything happened?"

"Mom, how could you..." I started, but the words died in my throat.

What was I even arguing about? She'd already set it up. Judy had already agreed. The reservations were already made.

"This is for the best, Olive," Diane said firmly, cutting off any protest before I could fully form it. "You need to move on from Zane and start building a real life. A serious life. I'm tired of watching you waste yourself on the wrong men."

Her words hit harder than they should have.

"Zane isn't a wrong man," I said, hating how defensive I sounded. "He could be—"

"That's the exact same thing you said about Cole," Diane interrupted, and her voice carried that sharp edge of a mother who'd watched her daughter make the same mistakes too many times. "Word for word, Olive. You said Cole was the best thing that ever happened to you. That he was a dream come true. I watched you drive through pouring rain to get to his games. Watched you rearrange your entire schedule around his needs."

She took a step closer, her eyes boring into mine.

"And now you're repeating the exact same pattern with Zane," she continued. "Making excuses. Defending him. Dying under the pretense of whatever he has to offer while ignoring all the red flags screaming at you to run."

The words slapped through me, stabbing straight through every defense I'd carefully constructed.

And the worst part? She was right.

I had said those exact same things about Cole. Had made the same justifications, the same excuses, the same promises to myself that this time it was different, this time it was real.

Was I really just repeating the same mistake with a different man?

But Zane was different.

He had to be different.

Cole had been selfish, manipulative, using me for connections and then discarding me when someone better came along.

Zane would burn the world down for me. Had already proven it by destroying his own father to save Grayson's company.

Zane would flip tables for me. Would annihilate anyone who dared cross my path.

And that was exactly what terrified me.

Not that he wouldn't fight for me. But that he would. That he'd go too far, destroy too much, burn everything to ashes in the name of protecting me.

Because I'd never been in a position where someone was willing to burn the world down for me.

And I had no idea how to handle that kind of intensity. That kind of devotion. That kind of dangerous, all-consuming love.

"Olive..."

My mother's voice softened, pulling me back from my spiraling thoughts.

She walked toward me, her movements gentle despite her pregnant belly, and placed her hands on my shoulders with the kind of tenderness that made my throat tight.

"It's okay to move on," she said quietly. "It's okay to find someone new. To not stay stuck in the same place, making the same choices that hurt you. I'm not asking you to marry Judy. I'm not even asking you to date him seriously."

She squeezed my shoulders gently.

"All I'm asking is that you go to dinner with him," she continued. "See where it leads. Give yourself permission to explore other possibilities. And if you don't like him, if there's no connection, that's completely fine. There are billions of people in this world, Olive. There's no way you won't eventually find the right one."

She smiled at me, her eyes warm and hopeful and so convinced she was helping.

But all I could think was that no one would ever make me feel the way Zane Mercer did.

Not Judy Byron. Not anyone from those billions of people she was talking about.

Because what I felt for Zane wasn't something you found with someone else. It wasn't something you could replace or recreate or substitute.

It was singular. Specific. Terrifying.

And no matter how hard I tried to deny it, I'd already fallen for him.

It had taken my mother setting me up on a blind date for me to finally admit the truth I'd been running from.

I was in love with Zane Mercer.

And I had absolutely no idea what to do about it.

I raised my head to look at my mother properly.

At her hopeful eyes that reminded me painfully of Klaus. The same shape, the same gentle expression he'd had when he'd ruffle my hair and tell me everything would be okay.

I bit back those thoughts viciously. I wasn't about to venture down that path right now. Wasn't about to think about my dead brother and how much I missed him and how nothing had been okay since he'd left.

"I..." I opened my mouth, the refusal right there on my tongue.

But looking at my mother's face—at how much she genuinely believed this would help me—I couldn't bring myself to crush that hope.

"Fine," I said finally, forcing a smile. "I'll go to wherever you want me to go. But—"

I held up a finger before she could start celebrating.

"If he turns out to be boring, pretentious, or in any way insufferable, I'm not going on a second date. This is a one-time thing, Mom. One dinner. That's it."

Diane's face lit up so brightly it was almost painful to look at.

"Thank you, sweetheart!" she said, pulling me into a tight hug that pressed against my ribs. "Thank you. You won't regret this. Judy is wonderful, and you two were always so good together when you were younger. This could be exactly what you need."

She was still talking as she hugged me, her words muffled against my shoulder, but I'd stopped listening.

All I could think about was how I was agreeing to go on a date with someone I didn't want while the person I actually wanted hadn't spoken to me in over a week.

The door burst open, and Hunter walked back into the kitchen, his eyes widening comically at the sight of us locked in a maternal embrace.

"Whoa," he said, grinning. "Are we having a family reunion? Should I get Grayson down here? Make it a full Sinclair-Monroe moment?"

"Don't be a spoiler," Diane said, but she was laughing as she finally released me from the hug.

Hunter just shook his head, that knowing look still on his face as he caught my eye.

He knew exactly what I was feeling. Knew this was a mistake.

But he also knew I needed to figure that out on my own.