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39

Luke

Me: Are you back in your hotel room?

32: Yeah. Can you come over or should I come to you?

Me: I’m on my way. I don’t want you walking around. Unlock the door for me. I’ll be there in a few

32: It’s #740

I waited as long as I possibly could. Once Alice left me, I went out to my car and drove around the city, biding my time. Sebastian constantly tried to call me, but I kept hitting ignore. He, Sierra, and my dad all came to Chicago for the tournament this weekend, but I couldn’t face them just yet. Not until I see Lennon.

Night has officially fallen, and I knew it would take a bit for Lennon to get back to the hotel and settled, but now I can’t wait anymore.

When I get into the elevator, I say a silent prayer that my keycard will work and that Alice didn’t get it shut off when she surely cancelled the rest of my reservation this afternoon. But the scanner turns green, and I’m able to press the button for the seventh floor.

The doors open, and I peek into the hallway. It’s thankfully empty, and I quickly make my way down the corridor, watching for 740. I almost pass it in my rush, but the door swings open, like someone was watching for me.

Although, it’s not who I was expecting. Grace shuts it as soon as I’m inside. Her red hair is thrown up in a bun, and she shifts on her feet, unsure of what to do with my presence here, clearly.

“Hey, Coach,” she says softly, but not meekly. Her eyes are narrowed as they take me in, a new sharpness behind her assessing gaze. This isn’t a look from an athlete to their coach. This is a look from a girl to her best friend’s boyfriend.

Boyfriend .

The title sounds so juvenile, so regular, compared to everything I feel for Lennon.

“Hi, Miller.”

Lennon lies on the queen sized bed closer to the window. I immediately cross over and stand at the edge, looking her over.

Her hair is a tangled mess and exhaustion weighs down her features, but she’s intact. Beautiful, safe, and wonderfully intact. My resilient girl.

Her lips tilt in the faintest of smiles, and despite everything that has transpired today, I know we’ll be alright.

Grace clears her throat behind us. “I’m gonna head to my room then, if you’re good?” She directs the question toward Lennon who gives her friend a nod of approval.

“Thanks. Text me in the morning when you go to practice?”

“Coach said you’re not supposed to come.”

Lennon lets out a frustrated groan. “I know, I know. Just…keep me in the loop, okay?”

Grace nods. “You got it, Killer. Sleep good.” She glances at me one last time, a warning look of you better not hurt my friend or it won’t matter that you’re my coach , before she leaves.

I contain my amusement, but it makes Lennon chuckle. “I’m shocked you didn’t just burst into flames on the spot.”

“Me too.”

“Coach Maver got her her own room tonight so I could get uninterrupted rest and not be woken up as Grace comes and goes for practice.”

“That was smart. I take it Grace knows?” My gut clenches thinking about who else might. I guess it doesn’t really matter at this point, though.

“Yeah. I mean, we haven’t really talked about it yet, but she asked me if there was something going on when we were riding back here after the game, and I didn’t want to lie to her anymore. I’m sorry, I should’ve told you first but?—”

“Do not apologize for that. Plus, it’s not like she’s the first one to find out today.” I wince.

“None of the other girls asked me about it. I think they may have their suspicions, but Coach Maver said not to discuss it with anyone.” She picks at her fingernails. “Did she talk to you?”

I sit on the edge of the bed and squeeze her thighs through the comforter. “We’ll talk about that later. I need to know how you’re doing. Are you okay? How are you feeling?”

Lennon shifts so she sits higher on the bed, back propped against the headboard. “I’m fine.” She pats my hand reassuringly. “No concussion or broken bones.”

“Are you dizzy at all? Ears ringing?”

“Luke, I’m fine.” She smiles softly. “I promise. My neck and shoulders are a little stiff, but it’s all good. I’m cleared to play Sunday, too.”

Thank god for that. I can’t imagine if she would’ve worked her ass for months to get here and then come up just short.

“God, Lennon.” My heart clenches. “When I saw you get hit…I—I genuinely didn’t know what to do with myself. All I saw was a replay of my own hit but a thousand times worse because it was you .” My voice cracks, and I grit my teeth.

“Hey,” she whispers, and her soft hands cup my jaw. She raises my head until our eyes lock and tears brim in hers. “I’m alright. I’m right here. It’s okay.”

A painful lump forms in my throat, making it impossible to speak or swallow or do anything except feel every painful emotion this day has brought up. I’d say I yearn for the days not so long ago where I felt nothing, but that would be a lie.

It’s because of all the good that Lennon has stirred up that I’m capable of feeling the bad.

“You scared the shit out of me,” I whisper.

Lennon presses her lips to mine. It’s a gentle, tender kiss. So unlike many of our other ones that are fueled by the adrenaline of stolen moments and days of missing each other.

I gently run my hands up her legs, her stomach, her arms, feeling the strength in her body and once again letting it be a reassurance that she’s alright. That she’s strong.

She pulls back and runs her hands over her messy hair. “Sorry, I didn’t get a chance to shower yet. I must smell.”

I lean forward and take an exaggerated sniff, then curl my lip. “Now that you say it…”

She cries out in mock outrage and slaps my arm. “Hey, wasn’t the top of the priority list today!”

I laugh and walk over to the bathroom to peek inside. Luckily, there’s a bathtub. It’s small, but it’ll work. I lay out the small bath mat on the floor and start the tap.

“What are you doing?” Lennon calls out.

Once the water warms up, I set the plug and stride back into the room. “Strip,” I tell her.

She does as she’s told, and I shuck off my dress pants and shirt as well. Her eyes are glued to my fingers as I work each button loose.

“I didn’t get to tell you how handsome you looked earlier,” she muses. Her gaze caresses me, and I make a mental note to dress up more often.

“You like what you see?” I tease.

She bites her lip. “I always like what I see when it comes to you.”

I toss the shirt aside and stalk forward. Lennon takes a surprised step back, but I gently scoop her up. An excited squeal pierces my ears as I carry her into the bathroom. “You good?” I ask.

“Stop asking me, I’m fine.”

Making sure my balance is in check, I step into the tub and slowly sink down. It’s a tight fit but just means I get to hold her closer.

Which after today, sounds perfect to me.

I lean back against the wall of the tub and adjust Lennon to sit between my legs. Her naked skin rubs against mine in the confined space, and I soak in the touch without any barriers.

“Ahhh.” She lets out a satisfied sigh as the warm water laps over our bodies. “Good call. This feels nice.”

I nudge her to lean back on my chest, and once she does, I pull the hair tie from the end of her braid and begin untangling the long strands with my fingers. She practically melts into me, always loving when I play with her hair. It’s basically her love language.

We sit in silence until the tub is full, both relaxing and taking comfort in each other’s presence after a day from hell. But our reality has crashed down around us, and it’s time to finally face it.

Lennon stiffens slightly, like she’s come to the same conclusion. “So,” she starts, “I’m assuming Coach Maver spoke with you?”

“Yeah. But first, I want to know how your conversation with her went.”

“When I was back in the room with Dr. Ray, I could tell something was off with her and the way she was looking at me. And then he said something to her, and I could feel the shift in the room.”

I wince. “That’s on me. I might have called you ‘baby’ in front of him.” She tries to crane her neck to look at me, but I stop her. “No, no extra strain on it tonight.”

She relaxes back into me. “Well, that makes a lot of sense. I figured something had happened for her to ask me about it. She said she had proof but wouldn’t say what.”

Proof? She didn’t have any proof. A hell of a lot of suspicion? Yes. But cold, hard evidence? No. “She just said that so you’d confess.”

“Yeah, I’m realizing that now…” She trails off. “I denied it when she first asked, but then when she said she had proof, I told her that yes, we were together, but that it was mutual. I promise I?—”

“Shh.” I rub her shoulders, kneading out the knots I find. “You don’t have to defend it to me. I don’t blame you for telling her.” It bothers me that Alice would even ask Lennon something like that when she was fresh off of a hit where she was literally knocked unconscious on the ice.

But I’m sure she was just as taken off-guard by the situation as I was panicked by it.

“Did she grill you?” I ask.

“No. Once I told her that it was mutual, she told me to get some rest and she’d send Dr. Ray back in.”

Alright, well I’ll give Alice that at least.

“She didn’t say anything else to me about it after I was cleared to rejoin the team on the bus back here tonight. She only stopped me long enough to tell me to take tomorrow off practice and she was going to get Grace her own room so I could rest uninterrupted. I’m assuming you talked to her, though?”

“Yeah,” I say on a heavy sigh.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

I snort, and Lennon runs her hands up and down my calves. “It went as expected.”

“Do you still have a job?”

“Your boyfriend is now unemployed.”

She tries to turn around again. “Seriously?”

I hold her in place. “Yes. Now sit still.”

“Yes, Coach.”

“Not anymore,” I tease, but there’s nothing funny about the situation. “She basically asked me if I crossed a line, and I couldn’t lie to her. Not point blank like that, and not after my outburst after your hit. It would’ve been fruitless.”

“I heard you charged out on the ice for me.”

“An exaggeration.”

She laughs, and it’s music to my fucking ears.

“Yes, I might have done that,” I say. “I told her it was my fault and tried to spare you from the fallout. Which it sounds like hopefully that worked. But I’m not to show up to the game Sunday, and I’m supposed to have my letter of resignation on her desk Monday morning. If I do that and go quietly, and as long as you don’t change your mind about wanting me to be investigated, then she’s not going to.”

“I’d never want that. You know that, right?”

I gently stroke her hair back from her forehead. “I know, baby.”

“What are you going to do? I mean, you finally started to like coaching.”

But I like you more. “I know. I’ll figure it out. It’s not the first time I’ve had to start over with my life.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

She’s quiet for a moment. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d still have a job.”

“Hey, no, none of that. If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be a miserable fucking bastard with no purpose, no feeling, absolutely nothing. You brought me back to life, Lennon. Not this job, not even hockey, but you .”

There are tears in her voice as she says, “I just never want you to resent me.”

I squeeze my arms around her. “Baby, I’d never resent you. Remember how I told you I was once worried about you resenting me because I was taking away your youth and you told me basically to shove it?” She chokes out a wet laugh, and I join her. “Well, I’m telling you the same thing now.”

“Alright, alright,” she relents. After a few moments, she says, “I heard you chewed Aubrey out.”

That would be putting it lightly. Not that she didn’t deserve it, but it was over the line. “Not my finest moment.”

“It was an accident.”

“It was her temper getting the best of her.”

“And yours didn’t?”

“It’s different.”

“How?”

“Because she was protecting her pride. I was protecting someone I love.”

Lennon freezes. Water drips from the faucet in soft plinks .

This time when she tries to turn around, I don’t stop her. Not when I want to look into those hazel eyes of hers and see what color they look more like today. Not when I want to see her face and let her see mine, see the truth in my words, as I tell it to her again.

“I love you.”

Her pink lips part in surprise, and I watch my declaration sink in.

“You don’t need to say it back right now if you?—”

“I love you, too,” she whispers. “Damn, I’ve almost told you it before but I don’t know, I was waiting to see if you would first, but fuck”—she smiles as tears brim her eyes—“I love you.”

Hearing those three words from her — fuck, it’s sweeter than drinking a beer out of the Stanley Cup.

Water sloshes over the edge of the tub, but it doesn’t matter as she kisses me. Deeper this time, like we’re both trying to infuse our words into the kiss. My fingers dig into her waist to hold her steady, while hers tease the stubble on my cheeks. Maybe I’ll tell her one day that I started keeping the stubble just because she loves to touch it so much.

She pulls back, eyes shining, and I feel the happiness on her face through every bone in my body. I once thought it’d be an emotion I’d never feel again. That it was over for me. Reserved for other people, and mine had all dried up.

But she bloomed it in me once again. In the wasteland that my injury had created.

“No matter what happens now,” I tell her, “I want you to know that I am forever grateful that I took this job, just so I had the chance to meet you. And that I’m in this with you wherever life will take us from here.”

A tear slips from her eye and runs down her cheek. But she smiles, teeth gleaming, as she says, “We’re a team. We’re in this together.”

Together.

A team.

I like the sound of that.

We kiss a while longer before the water starts to run cold. I wash her hair for her before draining the tub, drying her off, and tucking her into bed. She protests when I try to leave, and I’m helpless to say no when she blinks at me with those big eyes of hers. Plus, it’s not like we have anything else to lose. I crawl into bed behind her and pull her into my chest. Her familiar scent consumes my every breath, and I relish in the fact that after today, after the scare of my fucking life, I get to hold her like this.

She’s safe. She’s here. She’s okay.

And she’s all mine.