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“Dude, calm the fuck down!” Marcus yells.
“You’re gonna get in more trouble than you’re already in, man. Cut that shit out!”
My friends’ yells don’t calm me fully, but they sober me enough that I don’t go after Bastian when he smirks at me from the floor. His face is bloody red, but he’s the one with the look of triumph.
Because he won. I was on thin ice before. Now? I’m falling into the depths, and the dark, frigid waters are closing over my head. I’ve lost my career and my woman all in one fell swoop.
It’s over.
58
REESE
The end of the game flashes across the locker room television. Brutal defeat. Not even a single goal scored. That’s the end of the season. There will be no playoffs for this sorry squad.
The team doesn’t come back into the locker room right after the game. Nope, it’s straight to the press conference. These things are brutal under normal circumstances. They’re worse when you’ve just had your ass handed to you in front of millions.
And yet all I can think of is Olivia.
Every emotion that would have been put into giving a shit about this fiasco is instead channeled toward her. How maybe I would feel something if I knew that I could go back to her. That, without her… what’s the point of any of this shit?
There is no point, that’s what. It’s just a dumb sport with stupid politics I’ve never liked to follow anyway.
I don’t think—I bolt out of the locker room right around the time they start to ask the team about my absence. Coach is gonna kill me, but I don’t care. I have to do something.
The press thronged outside the room, those unlucky bastards who couldn’t get seats, try to stop me for a word. But I brush right past them and kick the door open.
The door bangs open so loud that everyone has to stop and stare at me. The team is a mix of shocked and annoyed to see me barging in. Coach is pissed. His eyes look like they’re about to pop out of his head.
The press, of course, is eating it up as I storm to the stage where my team sits arranged in front of microphones.
I’m too quick for any of them. I pick up a mic and start to speak.
“All of you probably know by now the shit show that’s going on,” I say, dodging out of Coach’s way as he tries to discreetly snatch the mic away from me. “A secret baby. A sex scandal. About par for the course for Reese Dalton, huh?”
The room ripples in laughter. I don’t even crack a smile.
“Yeah… It’s funny, isn’t it? Except, not really. You see, all this shit started because frankly, I’m a dumbass. I made a mistake I didn’t even realize I made. I slept with someone. Apparently, didn’t even wrap it. P.S.A. for you young ones with more years to blow than me: don’t do that.” I smile sadly. “But I don’t regret it. You know why? Because that mistake led to one of the best things in my entire life: my daughter. And if I hadn’t made that mistake, I would have never met Olivia. Both of those girls are the best thing ever to happen to me. Violet’s such a sweet little girl. She looks at me like I hung the fucking moon. You know how terrifying that is, having someone trust you so much because they just don’t know what a trainwreck you are? And then there’s Olivia… She’s held me together better than anything these last few months. And you know what? Yeah, yeah, it was also probably a dumb idea to start up something with my nanny. I don’t care. I’m so far past caring. Because I love her.”
Flashes begin blinding me as the cameras go apeshit. But all I can think about is how easily the words roll off my tongue. How true they are. How long I’ve been waiting to say them.
I break out into a huge grin. “I love Olivia Carter. I can be benched forever and I still won’t give a shit. Say whatever you want about me, but that woman is the best damn thing in the world and there’s nothing anyone can say to change my mind about that. I’ll even say it again.”
I take a deep breath, and speak loudly into the mic for the whole goddamn world to hear.
“I love Olivia Carter!”
59
OLIVIA
This is insane.
The Bulls lost. Badly. Reese wasn’t even on the sidelines to watch, but I know wherever he was, it had to have been painful for him. This is the end of their season… and who knows what’s going to happen to Reese since he was benched and the rumor mill is still churning?
My stomach flips and twists into knots.
“Hey, why don’t we watch something else now that this is over?” Quinn suggests. She’s been a real trooper, sticking with me at Mom’s house since she got back in town. She’s indulged in every self-destructive behavior I can think of, from entirely too much boxed wine to more of my repulsive sugar-overdose sandwiches. She even sat through an entire hockey game with me, just to let me feel that much closer to Reese even if he wasn’t even out there.
