The Mistake

The second installment in the Off-Campus series, the story follows John Logan, a junior defenseman on the Briar University hockey team, and Grace Ivers, a Briar freshman, through a relationship derailed by Logan's emotional baggage and the long road he takes to win Grace back.

Logan shares an off-campus townhouse with his teammates and closest friends: Garrett Graham, the team captain; Dean Heyward-Di Laurentis; and Tucker. Despite outward confidence and a reputation as a player, Logan harbors a secret infatuation with Hannah Wells, Garrett's girlfriend. He copes by partying and cycling through hookups, a pattern Tucker confronts him about on a car ride to a frat party.

At the same party, Grace, a 19-year-old from Hastings, struggles with her tendency to babble around attractive guys. Her childhood best friend, Ramona, who has spent the year obsessing over Dean, is off elsewhere at the party. Grace briefly glimpses Logan outside a bathroom after one of his hookups, and though the encounter is fleeting, she feels a sharp pull of attraction. Days later, Logan accidentally knocks on Grace's dorm room while looking for a teammate's party. Grace, nervous and rambling, lets him use her phone. When he notices she is watching a movie, she invites him to stay, and they spend the evening sharing gummy bears and easy conversation.

The chemistry between them escalates quickly. Logan kisses Grace, and they fool around, but he finishes first and leaves abruptly. Grace, whose only prior experience was a high school boyfriend, fakes her orgasm to spare his ego. Logan suspects the lie and is consumed by it. On Monday, he shows up at her dorm unannounced and, after she confirms she didn't climax, performs oral sex on her. He gets her number and leaves, but the connection between them has deepened.

Logan's personal life is far more complicated than Grace knows. His father, Ward, is a longtime alcoholic who runs an auto repair shop in Munsen, a rundown town near Hastings. A car accident years earlier crushed both Ward's legs, and he returned to drinking to numb the chronic pain. Logan's older brother, Jeff, dropped out of college to manage the shop, and the two brothers struck a deal: Jeff holds down the fort while Logan earns his degree, then they switch. Logan has never entered the National Hockey League (NHL) draft despite having the talent, because his post-graduation future is the garage. He lies to his friends, letting them believe he was passed over.

Over the following weeks, Logan and Grace grow closer. He runs into her at a movie theater on her birthday, and when a hockey groupie spreads rumors on social media claiming Grace fabricated the hookup, Logan drives to the dining hall and publicly kisses Grace to silence them. He takes her to a water tower in Munsen, where they share stories about their families. Grace tells him about her divorced parents, her father in Hastings, and her mother in Paris. Logan reveals his father's drinking.

But Logan realizes that part of his attraction to Grace is that she distracts him from his feelings for Hannah. Stricken with guilt, he decides he must end things. Grace, coached by Ramona to be confident, invites Logan over intending to lose her virginity. When she reveals she is a virgin, Logan stops abruptly, confessing he is in a bad place emotionally and has been using her as a distraction from someone else. Grace, devastated and humiliated, orders him to leave.

That same night, Hannah confronts Logan and asks point-blank if he has feelings for her. He admits he does, but as he describes what he wants, Hannah identifies the truth: He never says he wants those things with her specifically. He wants the intimacy and companionship she and Garrett share. Logan realizes she is right and that Grace was the person who actually gave him those things. He calls Grace repeatedly, but she ignores him.

The betrayal deepens when Logan forwards Grace a text Ramona sent him just minutes after learning Grace was upset, offering to "comfort" him. Numb and gutted, Grace arranges to spend the summer with her mother in Paris, where she gets a makeover and works on rebuilding her confidence. She ignores both Logan and Ramona for months.

Logan endures a miserable summer in Munsen, working long shifts at the garage while his father berates him and mocks his hockey aspirations. He tries to sleep with a local woman but finds the encounter hollow compared to what he felt with Grace. When Garrett visits, Logan finally confides everything: his father's alcoholism, his decision not to enter the draft, and his bleak plans. Garrett urges him to make the most of his final year and to make things right with Grace.

In August, Logan spots Grace reading in a Hastings park and apologizes. Grace forgives him but declines a date, saying she is not ready, "at least not right now" (147). Logan seizes on the phrasing as a sign of hope.

Grace begins her sophomore year with a fresh outlook. She bonds with her new roommate, Daisy, lands a producing job at the campus radio station, and cautiously reconnects with Ramona. She also begins casually dating Morris, the station manager. Logan, undeterred, buys Grace a muffin, kisses her at a frat party while she is on a date with Morris, and then visits Morris to apologize and declare his intentions. The two unexpectedly bond, and Morris later tells Grace he is stepping back, calling Logan a stand-up guy who deserves another chance.

Grace devises a list of six elaborate romantic gestures Logan must complete before she will agree to a date, including writing a love poem, creating a personality collage, obtaining blue roses, making origami hearts, posing for a boudoir photo, and securing a celebrity endorsement. Logan tackles each one with dogged determination, enlisting Garrett and Hannah for help. Grace, privately won over since the poem, agrees to a date once all six tasks are complete.

Their first date at a fancy Italian restaurant in Hastings lasts two hours. They become an official couple. Over the following weeks, their relationship deepens through honest conversations about trust, jealousy, and their pasts. Grace spends a weekend at Logan's house, and they have sex for the first time. Logan realizes he is falling in love.

Coach Jensen, the Briar hockey team's coach, tells Logan that the Boston Bruins' assistant general manager wants him to practice with the team's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, essentially a tryout. Logan, agonized, declines because of his promise to Jeff. During a drive home from dinner with Grace's father, Logan tells Grace about the time Ward abandoned his mother at a hospital for a three-day bender when Logan was a child. Grace silently realizes she loves him.

When Ramona sends Grace an emergency text from a motel where she is being held by opposing hockey players who refuse to let her leave, Logan drives Grace to the motel, confronts the players, and retrieves Ramona. The incident sharpens Grace's understanding of Logan's fierce loyalty, a quality that also binds him to his own father.

Shortly after, Jeff calls Logan to check on Ward. Logan finds his father passed out in vomit, clutching a bourbon bottle. He bathes and dresses Ward like a child, experiencing a panic attack. Later, when Grace's father calls him "son," Logan breaks down crying. The next day, he spirals, telling Grace he believes she will eventually leave once his grim Munsen life begins. Furious at his lack of faith in her, Grace tells him, "I love you, you stupid jackass" (284), and storms out.

Logan stages a grand gesture: He calls into Grace's campus radio show and tells the audience he is in love with Grace Elizabeth Ivers. Grace runs to him, and they reconcile. He tells her he wants to marry her one day and that every available second will be hers.

The crisis resolves when Coach Jensen, without Logan's knowledge, visits Ward and discusses alternatives. Ward, ashamed that Logan had to care for him and is sacrificing a career with the Bruins, calls a family meeting. He announces he is entering a six-month in-patient rehab program, will apply for disability, and plans to sell the business or hire someone until Jeff returns. He tells Logan to make it to the Bruins practice. Logan leaves the house grinning, free to pursue his dream.

An epilogue set two years later finds Grace and Hannah watching Logan and Garrett play for the Boston Bruins from an executive suite at TD Garden. Logan spent one year in the AHL before being called up to the NHL. Ward has been sober for nearly two years. Grace, in her senior year, shares an apartment with Logan. Reflecting on how Logan and Garrett dreamed of wearing Bruins jerseys since freshman year, Grace affirms that some dreams really do come true.