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“Very thoughtful of you.”

I manage a smile, but my attention has already moved beyond her toward the hallway Jubal disappeared down. I know enough about this building to find the quarterback room, and Mom’s ring has already been missing for days because I left it beside his bed. There’s no reason to wait until later.

“Do you know where Jubal went?” I ask before I can talk myself out of it.

Denise glances up from her computer. “Quarterback room, probably. Why?”

“He has something of mine.”

Her eyebrows lift just enough that panic flashes hot beneath my skin.

“It’s not what it sounds like.” I laugh nervously. “Dad said he might have a form I need.”

Denise studies me for half a second before pointing down the hall. “Second door after the film room.”

“Thanks,” I respond, heading out the door before she can ask why a quarterback has suddenly become responsible for my paperwork.

The closer I get to the quarterback room, the harder it becomes to convince myself this is only about the ring. If that were true, I’d find one of a dozen ways to avoid standing in front of him again after telling my father we were strangers. Instead, I’m following the signs toward the quarterback room because I need to make things right between us.

The door is open when I reach it. Jubal stands with his back to me at the far end of the room, one hand braced against the table while he studies something on the laptop in front of him. His shoulders are tense in a way they weren’t when Dad introduced us, and for a second, I’m back in Houston, him sitting next to me with that same rigid stillness.

“Jubal.”

His head lifts, and whatever was on his face disappears so completely that I know I wasn’t imagining the tension. “Calliope.”

“Can we talk?” I whisper, stepping into the room.

His gaze moves past me toward the hall before coming back to my face. The tension in his shoulders loosens, though not much. “Yeah.”

He closes the laptop and waits, but neither of us says anything. Every opening line I imagined on the walk here suddenly feels impossible.

I’m sorry I said we didn’t know each other.

Why are you here?

Did you find my ring?

Finally, I choose the one that hurts the least.

“I didn’t know that you were…” I gesture vaguely toward the room, hating myself almost immediately for how stupid that looks. “This.”

His mouth pulls at one corner, but there’s no humor in it. “A quarterback?”

“That you played football at all.”

“I figured that part out when your dad introduced me.”

The edge in his voice makes my stomach tighten, but I keep going. The need to explain to him what happened in Dad’s office is almost overwhelming.

“I’m not saying that like it explains what I said.” I take another step into the room because standing halfway out the door feels too much like preparing to run. “I panicked, and I’m sorry.”

Jubal looks at me for a long moment before folding his arms over his chest. “For which part?”

“For saying we didn’t know each other.”

“You didn’t owe him the truth.” He looks away toward the closed laptop.

“That doesn’t mean I had to pretend you were nobody.”