Too late.
Sent.
And for the first time since NYC started closing in—
it didn’t feel like we were preparing anymore.
It felt like we were already inside it.
Fifty Five
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
MASON
Coach didn’t talk about the media session the next morning.
That was his way of making it worse.
Silence meant it mattered.
Practice started harder than usual.
No warmups.
No easing in.
Just straight into full-contact sets like he was trying to shake something loose from us.
Or from me.
Andre took an elbow to the ribs and swore. “This is personal now, right?”
“It always is,” Luca said.
Coach blew the whistle again. “Reed. Reset your head.”
I exhaled through my nose.
My head wasn’t the problem.
That was the lie.
Everything was the problem.
Rowan. NYC. the interview. the way she didn’t look at me properly after I said “distractions.”
That word sat wrong.
I knew it did.
But I also knew I said it anyway.
And Coach knew too.
Which made it worse.
During water break, Luca leaned closer.
