The Long Game
The Long Game picks up with Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov finally, properly together. Running trails, running a charity hockey camp, and navigating what a real relationship looks like when you've spent years pretending you don't have one. It's mostly wonderful. It's also complicated in the quiet ways that matter: Ilya waking up from recurring dreams about his mother, Shane stressed about everything, both of them still hiding from the public world while privately building a life together.
Ilya starts having depression episodes, and starts therapy with a Russian-speaking psychologist named Dr. Galina, and begins, slowly and painfully, to open up about things he's never said out loud. Shane gets a meeting request from NHL Commissioner Crowell, who makes it very clear the league would prefer their relationship stay invisible.
The cracks that appear aren't about whether they love each other - they're about what that love costs. Shane keeps refusing to take risks with clear boundary set between their private relationship and the public world. He turns down Ilya's invitations to team parties, keeps Ilya at arm's length from his public life. Ilya, who gave up his entire world to be with Shane, finally reaches his limit. "I already chose you, Hollander", and then he kicks him out after a heated argument. Then the Ottawa team plane loses an engine over Tampa, and Ilya, convinced he's about to die, sends Shane private Instagram messages telling him he loves him, probably from the first time he saw Shane in Saskatchewan. Shane sees it from Montreal and realises those messages are supposed to be his last words. Soon after, he drives to their home in Ottawa and proposes to Ilya in the living room full of (electric) candles. Ilya wears his engagement ring around his neck next to his mother's cross.
They're engaged and still closeted, which is its own particular kind of tension. The decision gets made for them when Hayden accidentally captures Shane and Ilya kissing in the background of a FanMail video he sends to a fan named Brad. It goes viral. Shane gets benched. Some teammates are furious at a decade of lies. Commissioner Crowell demands they claim it was a prank. Shane refuses, walks out of their meeting with Crowell saying "I choose him. Come on, Ilya".
The ending gives them everything they'd been waiting for. Troy Barrett comes out publicly in Ottawa . Ilya adopts a stray dog named Anya. Shane signs with Ottawa Centaurs. And on a summer afternoon in a backyard surrounded by their friends and family, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov get married. It's a simple wedding, and they dance to Rihanna's "Diamonds". The epilogue puts them on the ice together for their first home opener as teammates, bickering and proud, chasing one more Stanley Cup. Together, this time.
Official Book Synopsis
To the world they are rivals, but to each other they are everything.
Ten years.
That’s how long Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov have been seeing each other. How long they’ve been keeping their relationship a secret. From friends, from family…from the league. If Shane wants to stay at the top of his game, what he and Ilya share has to remain secret. He loves Ilya, but what if going public ruins everything?
Ilya is sick of secrets. Shane has gotten so good at hiding his feelings, sometimes Ilya questions if they even exist. The closeness, the intimacy, even the risk that would come with being open about their relationship…Ilya wants it all.
It’s time for them to decide what’s most important—hockey or love.
It’s time to make a call.
“I am bisexual,” Ilya said, nodding. “Shane is super gay.”
“I’m regular gay,” Shane argued.
“I already chose you, Hollander.”
Shane.
You are the best thing in my life.
I love you. Always. Maybe from the first time I saw you.
I am thinking only about you right now. A million memories. Thank you for those.
Whatever happens, I am with you. Safe in your heart. I believe it.
“Is this because I almost died?” Ilya teased.
“No. It’s because I almost died.”
