Elijah’s hand stays on my thigh, grounding me. Holding me and for a moment, I let myself sit in it.
In the quiet.
In the warmth.
In the feeling that, maybe, we’re finally moving forward. But when Jackson pauses in the doorway of the next room and I catch the look on his face as he answers the call I know something is shifting again.
sixty-four
Jackson
I know it’s bad before she even finishes the sentence. The way her tone shifts. The way she pauses like she’s choosing her words carefully.
That’s never a good sign.
“Jackson… I’m not going to sugarcoat this,” my PR manager says through the phone. “This has blown up overnight.”
I lean against the wall just outside the kitchen, dragging a hand through my hair as I look down at the floor.
“How bad?”
There’s a beat.
“Your relationship announcement is trending across multiple platforms. That alone isn’t the issue.”
Of course it isn’t.
“It’s everything around it,” she continues. “People have identified Lia. They’ve found her accounts. They’ve found... the video.”
My jaw tightens. Of course they have.
“And it’s not just curiosity,” she adds. “It’s turned into a narrative.”
“What narrative?” I ask, even though I already know.
“That this is a stunt,” she says. “That this is a publicity move. ‘Sex tape romance author dates three hockey players’, that’s the angle being pushed right now.”
I close my eyes briefly.
Fuck.
“They’re questioning your credibility,” she continues. “They’re questioning her intentions. There’s speculation that this is a coordinated release tied to a book.”
My head drops back against the wall.
“That’s bullshit.”
“I know that,” she says. “But perception matters, Jackson. And right now, the perception is out of control.”
I push off the wall, pacing slightly now, the tension sitting sharp in my chest.
“This isn’t a stunt,” I say, my voice hardening. “We’re in a relationship. This is real.”
“I understand that,” she replies calmly. “But we need to get ahead of this before it defines the narrative.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“We prepare a statement,” she says. “Something clear. Controlled. We reinforce that this is a private relationship and shut down the speculation before it escalates further.”
