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"Who?"
"The ex," I clarified as I finished getting undressed and rushed to the showers. They followed just as fast. Tate was almost feral at the thought.
I'd hate to be that sorry excuse for a man if Tate ever found him alone.
Honestly, maybe I could arrange that little meet and greet anyway.
"No, how would he?" Elias protested.
"They lived together. You don't think he knew where she grew up?" I scoffed. Abusers were cowards but they often weren't downright unintelligent.
When we finally were done and heading out of the locker room, Coach was moving our way. I bit back a protest and put on a strained smile.
"Coach?"
"I've got some PR events coming up. Macy is right, we need to get our image out there, stop being complacent," he pointed out. The pride in his voice was well deserved. Macy had gone all in with protecting this place, and knowing he was at risk of selling it, I sure as fuck wouldn’t say no to whatever he set up.
"Okay, send us the schedule. We'll make it work," I promised.
He nodded, giving us an odd look before walking away, muttering that he’d had a speech prepared to convince us.
"No more interruptions," Tate growled, shoving through the team to follow the coach back. One look inside told us it was just him back here.
"Fuck, where?"
"Equipment room," I said, shoving the door open and going in. The sounds of the team fell away as the door clicked behind us and a small sniffle had me searching for our girl.
"Macy?" Tate called out. It wasn't an insanely large room, but it was big enough we had to loop the huge line of shelves that ran down the center of the room.
There she was on a chair in the back, tears tracking through her makeup. Her phone was in her hand and when it slipped from her fingers, clattering to the floor, I saw the picture Elias had posted of her earlier.
"What's wrong?" Tate demanded before Elias punched him.
"Dude, read the room. Take a fucking breath."
Tate stepped back, hands up, breathing evenly. Yet even after what Macy went through she didn't flinch at his tone.
"Princess, tell me what's wrong," Elias was pleading with her but I had crouched down to grab her phone, eyes catching on the comments.
Fury boiled in my blood at the hateful words spreading across his page.
Can we stop praising women for being unhealthy?
She's big enough to break a hockey player.
How does she think that looks cute on her?
Of course, there were equally as many positive comments, but it didn't matter, I knew the damage was done. I'd had my fair share of shitty comments after losing a game and no matter how strong you thought you were, nothing could stop the doubt that sank in at venomous keyboard warriors' words.
"Fuck them, you hear me, Macy?" I demanded. She met my eyes, her sky-blue orbs swimming in a sea of tears. My chest ached at the sight. Fuck, I hated to see her sad. She deserved to smile.
"It's so dumb," she breathed out. "I'm better than this."
"Doesn't matter what they say. What counts is what you feel and what we feel. You're fucking gorgeous, princess. We've been hard more than not since we've fucking met you. They're miserable, jealous assholes."
"What did I miss?" Tate demanded. I handed over her phone so he could see for himself. A disgusted grunt followed after he scrolled through, then tossed it over to Elias. "Fix this. Now."
"It's not his fault, his post was sweet," she said before fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.
