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Fucking hell.
I quickly knotted my tie, then shoved my arms into the sleeves of my suit coat. “Did she hear?” I asked through clenched teeth as I sat and put on my black socks and shoes.
“Yeah,” Brady sighed. “But that’s not…fuck.”
“What the fuck are you trying not to tell me, Brady?” I snapped as I shrugged on my winter coat, impatient to get out there and back to the hotel.
“Talia said that Finley mentioned taking care of things and took off.”
“She what?” I shouted.
Brady put his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Don’t shoot the messenger. And to be very clear before you break my jaw, I didn’t know about Talia and Finley’s plans until we arrived last night.”
Okay. I’d find something else to punch.
“I’m going to grab a cab,” I told him.
“I’ll make sure Coach and the staff know.”
“Thanks.” I gave him a chin lift, then stalked out of the locker room.
When I arrived at the hotel, the team wasn’t there yet, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I wanted to have a chance to talk to Finley before everything went to hell and she did something without thinking it through first.
However, when I stepped into the lobby, I realized that the shit had already hit the fan. Lennox stood in front of Finley, arms crossed and feet braced apart as he glared directly at me.
12
FINLEY
I’d hoped to smooth things over with my uncle before Rhodes made it back to the hotel, but it seemed as though we’d used up all of our good luck with the Nighthawks winning their game. Not only was I worried about what Lennox would say to Rhodes, but I was also bummed because I’d been looking forward to enjoying the extra night the team was spending at the hotel since the game had ended so late when you factored in the time change. Instead of celebrating his win in bed with my boyfriend, I had to figure out how to stop him from being benched during the big game in a couple of weeks…or worse.
Before I’d had the chance to explain much more beyond the fact that I had, in fact, been dating the offensive lineman he’d warned away from me, Lennox was glaring over my shoulder. “Rhodes is here already, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
The one-word reply didn’t bode well for me. Or the man I’d fallen head over heels in love with. “Please don’t make a huge deal about this, Uncle Lennox. I’m twenty-one, well beyond the age where I can decide who I’m going to date.”
Lennox crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t care how old you are, Finley. You’re my niece, and it’s my job to look out for you.”
“She doesn’t need protecting from me,” Rhodes promised, sliding his arm around my waist to tug me against his side. “I’d never do anything to hurt Finley.”
“I don’t see how that can be true when you were keeping your relationship with her a secret, Channing.” My uncle narrowed his eyes as his glare intensified. “She deserves a fuck of a lot better than being kept in the shadows. If you truly cared about my niece, you would’ve come clean about this before I caught you red-handed.”
Lennox’s tirade just made me feel even guiltier for talking Rhodes into keeping quiet about us. If it hadn’t been for me, he would have told my uncle about us that first day. I was the one who had created this mess, so it was on me to fix it, as far as I was concerned.
Before Rhodes could respond to the accusation my uncle had just tossed at him, I hissed, “When was he supposed to talk to you? Right after you threatened him at the gala? Or before one of the biggest games of his career while his teammates were all depending on him to be in the right headspace to do his job on the field?”
“Any man worth his salt would do whatever it took to be with the woman he loves,” Lennox muttered. “So either Rhodes doesn’t deserve to be with you, or he doesn’t care about you enough to risk getting on my bad side. Either way, you deserve more from the man you’re dating.”
My lips parted, but I bit back my sharp retort when Rhodes gave me a reassuring squeeze. “I’ve got this, baby.”
“Okay,” I sighed.
Rhodes brushed a kiss against my temple, and I could’ve sworn I saw a slight softening in my uncle’s eyes, but hisexpression hardened again when Rhodes met his gaze. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself, Channing?”
“Finley wanted to wait until our season was done before we talked to you about us being a couple,” Rhodes explained.
“So you’re blaming my niece for this mess?” Lennox growled.
