Page 147 of Colliding with Ten

I understood AJ’s anger about the lies, but what did my relationship have to do with his coach and teammates?

AJ leaned forward, picked up his phone from the coffee table, and turned it toward me.

The screen was on a gossip site. The headline: STALLIONS QB LENNOX MONROE AND HAWKS CHEERLEADER - THE SECRET AFFAIR.

Below it, photographs taken from across the street of Lennox’s house. Lennox’s arms around me, his mouth in my hair, my face buried in his chest.

In every frame, it was obvious. There was no spinning this as friends or explaining it as a coincidence. These photos told no other story.

AJ swiped through and showed me more photos, more angles. There was a close-up of him kissing the top of my head and a shot from the side that showed my hands fisted in his compression top.

On another website, there was another headline: HAWKS CHEERLEADER IN SECRET RELATIONSHIP WITH RIVAL QB — TEAM INVESTIGATING POSSIBLE INTEL LEAK.

The word leak made my vision go white. “What?—” I reared back, trying to understand what I was reading. What leak were they talking about? I tried to grab his phone to read more, but he kept it just out of reach.

“I’m not finished,” he said in a rough tone.

He set the phone down beside him, though from his expression, I wasn’t sure he didn’t want to throw it at me instead.

“The Hawks front office called me at six forty-five this morning. Do you know what that call was like, Ayla? Having your employer, the organization that signs your checks and decides your future, call before breakfast to ask if you knew your sister was involved with Lennox Monroe? Then having to say no? Then being asked if I was aware of any information shared between my household and the Stallions’ organization? And then being told not to come in today?” His voice cracked on the last word. “They think I knew and that I was part of it.”

“Part of what? I never shared anything⁠—”

His voice rose half a register. Still controlled, but the rage was building. “It doesn’t matter if you shared. It matters what it looks like. And what it looks like, Ayla, is that to every person in that building, including the teammates I have to look in the eye tomorrow, and the coaches who trusted me, will all know my sister was sleeping with the opposing quarterback while she had access to our injury reports and our players. That’s what it looks like.”

“I never told Lennox anything about the team. I never gave him any information that would compromise anyone. And he never asked.”

“Micah couldn’t walk after that game.” AJ’s voice dropped. It was dangerous, and barely above a whisper. “He came to my apartment and sat on that couch right where you’re sitting, and he couldn’t bend his ankle. The Stallions knew where to hit him. They knew his ankle was compromised, and they ran at it for sixty minutes until he was out.”

“He was limping on the sideline the week before⁠—”

“You think that matters right now?” He stood up suddenly, making me flinch. He saw it, and pain flickered on his face. He’d become someone his sister flinched from, but it didn’t slow him down. “You think I can walk into that locker room and say, Don’t worry about my sister dating Lennox Monroe; she promises she didn’t tell him anything '?" You think that fixes it?”

He was mocking now, in his words and tone. He was beyond listening to me, listening to reason.

Meadow appeared in the hallway. Her face told me she’d heard everything. She looked at AJ, then at me, then back at AJ.

“AJ,” she said. “Let’s⁠—”

“Meadow, please,” he snapped, not looking at her. With those words, he dismissed her. This was not my brother. “This is between my sister and me.”

Meadow didn’t leave, despite his harshness. But she didn’t push into his space.

AJ had laser focus on me. “The fellowship is done. Hill pulled his recommendation. They’ve revoked your access to the training facilities effective immediately.”

Each word removed a tile from beneath my feet. Hill pulled his recommendation without talking to me. He saw the photos and decided. My chest caved.

“They haven’t made a decision about the Flight Crew yet,” AJ continued. “It’s pending further investigation. So congratulations, you can still shake your pom-poms.”

That one was meant to cut, and it did.

I stood. “AJ, please listen to me.” I couldn’t stop my voice from shaking. “I know how this looks. I know the timing is terrible and the optics are awful, and I should have told you when it started. But I swear, I didn’t share information with Lennox. I would never do that. Not to the team or to Micah. My God. And definitely not to you.”

“Not to Micah,” he repeated. He laughed hollowly. “Micah won’t return my calls, Ayla. He’s my best friend. Now he’s not answering. His agent told him to keep his distance until this is sorted.” He glared at me. “That’s what you did. You put a wall between the one person and me in that locker room I trust with my life.”

The room blurred. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, but the tears kept coming.

“And you know what the worst part is? I can’t even be sure Monroe isn’t using you.”