"You're fine," I rush to assure her. "Indie was more curious why he was here. Right?"
Knocking her elbow, I arch a brow. She nods.
"Yeah, just wondering."
Juliet stares at us for a long beat before sitting back. "All right. Mollie, can you text me the top five most popular TikToks you've made this month? I need to include them in my monthly report."
"Of course. We'll just let you get back to work." Grabbing my bag, I pull Indie along with me. She makes a frustrated sound, still trying to get her shoe on, but I straight up don't care.
When we get a little way down in the hallway, I whisper, "Okay, Savard can't join this team. For like a hundred reasons."
"Right there with you. In fact, I don't know why you didn't just tell Juliet. She seems nice enough."
I bite my lower lip. "The thing about telling my story is that I can't put the genie back in the lamp. Once I tell someone, the story becomes a scandal. My power, whatever I had, is gone. I want to be sure that I've really thought it through so this doesn't somehow blow back on me."
Indie tugs on a strand of blue hair, thoughtful. "I can see that. But what now?"
"I don't know. Let's go grab lunch somewhere and hatch a plan. If you're still with me, that is."
"Every minute of every day, I'm with you." She offers me her elbow. "Come on. Cheese fries are calling our name."
Following Indie, I find myself distracted.
This whole time I’ve thought my hands were tied. I thought I’d signed my voice away when I signed that paper. My ankle throbs and I’m angry all over again.
But I’m not powerless anymore.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Thorne
Coach Ryan blows his whistle, clapping his hands. "Passing drills. Let's go. Line up two by two."
I drift to the line, pairing with Theo. It's three-quarters of the way through practice and I'm dragging. Admittedly, I stayed up too late with Mollie. She was in my bed again, giggling and kissable. And I liked it, so much so that I pitched the idea of her moving into my room permanently.
Being Mollie, she didn't just simper at the thought. She arched a brow and asked, "But what about your precious sleep schedule?"
And I kissed her just to show her what I thought about that. I think I'll have movers come into the house while we're at work tomorrow and move all her stuff so that will be the end of our little discussion.
I want her with me. Doesn't she get it?
As I half-ass it through practice, I catch myself staring at Mollie more than is strictly necessary. We have an unspoken agreement that we shouldn't do anything that spills our secret.
But that's hard on a day like today, when I'm watching Mollie filming a lot of content with Theo and Konstantin at the center. I spend the entire practice glaring at them, feeling like a possessive caveman because she's paying more attention to them than me.
Beck elbows me when I let another puck slip past me because I'm glaring over my shoulder. "What the fuck, Thorne? I always knew you had an ego, but are you really this upset over not being the center of attention for once? HockeyTok still worships you, you dick."
I grunt, rubbing the spot he hit. He thinks that I'm worried about the fame? So be it. Better that than his very sexy little sister.
"I'm just keeping an eye on Kuznetsov," I lie.
Yeah, him and every other man with eyes. We skate to the bench to grab some water. I notice Konstantin saying something to Mollie, close enough that they're almost touching. She makes a gesture that I don't recognize and he bursts out laughing.
If I could piss a circle around her to let everyone else know that she's mine, I would. I slide a glance at Beck.
Mollie's scared of his reaction to our news, but I'm losing patience with keeping our relationship a secret. Not telling Beck means that Mollie is fair game for anybody on my team.
Or, god, other teams. I don't think I can handle it. Mollie keeps putting it off, saying that she's enjoying how simple things are. And I do recognize that in order to cheat, she’d have to be into it. There’s no chance of that happening.
