The Short Version
If you want to know whether Shane and Ilya get a happy ending, here is the quick answer. Yes, they end the book together, with Shane’s parents knowing, a charity planned and a promise to stop hiding someday.
But the how matters, so I’ll walk you through the last stretch from the spring of twenty seventeen to the final page. Everything below comes from the book text, and I use chapter numbers so you can check me.
Where Things Stand
By Chapter Twenty-One, it is April twenty seventeen, and the secret arrangement has become something bigger. Shane has just taken a hard hit from Ilya’s own teammate, Cliff Marlow, and he’s in a Montreal hospital.
Ilya visits the next morning. He touches Shane’s face and hair, and Shane invites him to his cottage for two weeks. Ilya, who is afraid, gives a coward’s answer. He says maybe.
Both Of Them Plan to Walk Away
In May, Shane is recovering at his parents’ house in Ottawa. He tells his mother that he and Rose Landry are just friends. He is deeply in love, and he is sure Ilya will end things once the playoffs are over.
Ilya was planning exactly that. In Chapter Twenty, he sat in Moscow after his father’s funeral and decided he had to end it, because the stakes for him are higher. But he can’t do it.
The Kiss on Live Television
In June, the Stanley Cup goes to Scott Hunter’s team. On camera, Hunter kisses a man in street clothes, in front of everyone. Shane texts Ilya, and they both watch.
Ilya has been alone in his Boston penthouse for weeks, and the sight breaks something. He calls Shane and says one sentence. He says he is coming to the cottage.
Two Weeks Alone
In Chapter Twenty-Three, in July, Shane picks Ilya up at the Ottawa airport, and they both wear caps and sunglasses. They drive two hours to the cottage, and each admits he is terrified.
Chapter Twenty-Four is the first full day. Shane grills burgers, and Ilya asks about Shane’s family. Shane admits his parents don’t know he is gay, but that he thinks they’d be fine.
The Campfire
That night at the fire, Ilya tells Shane something he has never told anyone. When he was twelve, his mother, Irina, died, and his father told everyone it was an accident. In fact, she took a bottle of pills, and Ilya found her.
Shane holds him. He almost says the words, and a loon screams overhead, and both men laugh. It’s the emotional center of the book.
I Love You
Chapter Twenty-Five is where the plan appears. Shane lays out an idea for a future. Ilya will play for Ottawa, Shane will play for Montreal, and the two cities are two hours apart. They would start a charity together, so people get used to seeing them side by side.
Later in the same chapter, in bed, in a scene I won’t describe, both of them say I love you out loud. Afterward, Ilya says it in Russian, and Shane tries to repeat it. Then Shane adds to the charity idea. He wants hockey camps, with the money going to mental health organizations, especially suicide prevention. Ilya says he loves it, and that his mother would have loved Shane.
Caught on the Deck
Chapter Twenty-Six is the one everyone remembers. Ilya pushes Shane off the dock, they swim, and they kiss on the deck. Shane’s father walks in, because he came over to borrow dishwasher tablets, and sees them.
His father leaves without a word. Shane panics, and then he and Ilya laugh until they cry. The plan was to tell his parents in order, and now everything is happening in the wrong order.
The Conversation With Shane’s Parents
Ilya offers to come, and they walk into Shane’s parents’ cottage together. Shane says he’s gay. When his mother asks what Ilya is to him, Ilya says, lovers, which Shane thinks is the grossest word possible.
His mother says they suspected Shane might be gay. What they didn’t suspect was Ilya. But she and his father listen, and the scene ends warmly. Ilya calls himself Shane’s boyfriend, and Shane agrees. They hear Shane’s mom say it has been going on since their rookie season.
The Vodka and the Plan
In Chapter Twenty-Seven, they go home to the cottage. Shane is shaken, and Ilya has a bottle of vodka. Ilya realizes he has just called Shane’s cottage home. They say I love you again.
Then Shane starts planning out loud again. Ilya’s contract with Boston runs out in just over a year, so he could sign in Ottawa, and announcing the charity would explain a friendship. Ilya just wants to go to bed, and he agrees to extend his stay.
Sixteen Months Later
The epilogue jumps to sixteen months later, in Montreal. Ilya now plays for Ottawa, and the crowd boos him. Shane has sold the secret building, Ilya has sold most of his car collection, and together they started the Irina Foundation.
They bought houses: Ilya’s on the Ottawa River, Shane’s in Brossard. Hayden has figured out the truth after a road trip, and he is not thrilled, but he stays a friend.
The Press Conference
At a hotel in downtown Montreal, Shane and Ilya announce the foundation. It will support people suffering from depression and mental illness that can lead to suicide. Shane’s mother, Yuna, is the director and treasurer.
Ilya goes off script and says the foundation is named for his mother. She died when he was twelve. Shane puts a hand on his arm. It’s the moment the book has been building to.
Still a Secret
The last note is hopeful, not final. Nobody in that room knows they are a couple. Shane says he’s proud to be with Ilya even if it stays secret, and Ilya says that when the time is right, they will stop being a secret.
The epilogue closes with Ilya booking a hotel room for a stolen hour together. That’s the real ending: ordinary and private.
The Bonus Story
My edition also has a bonus story, set three weeks before the epilogue. Shane and Ilya host Hayden and Jackie for dinner. It ends with them agreeing they are ready for the press conference. If you want one more scene, read it.
What the Ending Means
Here’s my reading, and it’s opinion. The ending is not about coming out. It’s about choosing each other, and about naming Ilya’s grief in public without naming the relationship.
If you want to know what comes next, reports say The Long Game, the sixth book, picks up a few months later. I haven’t read it.
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