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Hart raises his hand, a smirk playing on his lips. “Question: what were their names?”

CJ scrubs a hand over his face, hiding a chuckle. “Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, and Mike Smith.”

“Fucking knew it!” Hart laughs. “They were at the brewery that night. Total dicks. Which one got sparked up?”

“Mike,” Matthew answers.

“He gonna live?” Hart asks.

“He is,” CJ answers.

“Can’t wait to tell Brooksie.” Hart chuckles.

“All that said, we’re still asking for check-ins until after the game. You have two more days that you are required to do so. We’ll revise when you win on Sunday.”

“Two days in our own beds,” someone hoots.

* * *

After practice, half the team still plans to go to Hart’s. Me? I got called to the office, and Ryan Brooks is the one walking me.

Before we turn the corner, I ask, “Anywhere you and I can talk alone for a minute?”

“Yeah.” He nods left. “My office.”

Ryan is in charge of maintenance, but his office isn’t full of parts and pieces; it’s pretty damn plush. When we walk in, he doesn’t sit behind a desk; he sits in one of the two chairs on the opposite side. Behind the desk are bookshelves with binders lined up neatly and pictures—so many pictures—of his kids,of Lo.

The door opens, and Jade walks in. “Oh, hey, Kolby.”

“Jade.” I try to smile, but she sees it’s not in earnest.

“Do you two need …?” She stops. “I can come back.”

“No,” I say loudly. “I’m sorry. I just … this is difficult and not thought through, but it needs to be done. It’s good you’re here.”

“Okay?”

“Sit, babe.” Ryan stands.

“Sure thing.”

“Gonna start by saying Lo already knows all of this, and if she’s already told you, it’s okay.”

“That she loves you?” Jade smiles. “That you love her? We figured that out?—”

“No.” I shake my head. “But yes, too.” I start pacing and have to stop myself to take a deep breath and tell them, “I don’t want this in the media. I don’t want this whispered about in the locker room or the stands, but the people I hope are in my life for the rest of it to know.”

“Go on, son.”

Son, he called me son, and fuck, that tightens my heart in a way I just don’t understand but do. Regardless of whether he feels that way, in two minutes, at least I had it for that long.

“My name wasn’t always Kolby Grimes; my name used to be Ryan Johnson, and I killed my father when I was fifteen.”

I expected silence, but that’s not what I get. I expected Jade to be the first to respond, but she isn’t.

It’s Ryan, with a quiet rage in his voice when he asks, “What did he do to you?”

* * *