Page 112 of Stand Your Ground

She just said that she felt the same. But maybe it wasn’t as deep as what I was feeling.

What if it was just sex-high honesty, words spilled in the moment, not the kind that carried weight in the light of day?

My legs burned. My chest burned worse.

I couldn’t sit in this. I couldn’t just wait. I needed to do something. I needed something to offer her that wasn’t a groan against her lips in the dark or a confession ripped out of me while I had her pinned against the wall in feral need.

I needed to show her I meant it. That this wasn’t a game. That she wasn’t a joke to me.

Maybe if I could figure out the right way to do that, I’d stop spinning out like this.

In an instant, I hopped off the bike, sprinting for the locker room and praying I wasn’t too late. Most of the guys would be on their way out by now if not already long gone. Vince had been up on the bike with me for a while, but had retreated half an hour ago, and I hadn’t seen the other guys since Coach gave us his post-game speech and released us.

But I held onto hope as I jogged through the arena, and when I slid into the locker room and found all of them there, I took it as a sign from the universe.

Jaxson was fresh out of the shower, a towel around his waist as he padded over to his locker. Aleks and Will were lockedin a conversation — likely about how Aleks got thrown into the penalty box when we really needed him on the ice — and Vince was on the phone, the device nestled between his ear and shoulder as he tugged on one sneaker and then the next.

“Damn, am I glad to see you’re all still here,” I said, wiping the sweat from my face before I hung the towel over my shoulder. “Boys — I need you.”

Will didn’t even look up from where he was packing up his bag. “We’re not going to Boomer’s.”

“God, no,” Aleks added with a scoff. “Especially after you shanked that shot in the third.”

“That’s rich coming from the guy who took a dumbass penalty with five minutes left,” Vince chirped, finally ending his phone call — which presumably was with Maven, since he’d said he loved her and would see her soon.

“Yeah, at least Carter didn’t put us on the kill when we needed him on the ice,” Jaxson chimed in, dropping his towel unashamedly.

“True,” Vince said, grinning. “Carter just managed to fan on a wide-open net instead.”

Aleks barked a laugh. “Seems to be his signature move. Should we name it after you, bud?”

“Oy, did you see number 41? He completely Fabio’d that shot!” Jax added.

“Hey, leave my number out of this,” Vince said with a snap and a point.

The chatter picked up, jokes flying, all of them wearing easy grins as they chirped me incessantly. And usually, I’d laugh with them. I’d dish it right back.

But right now, I was wound tight enough to snap, and that’s exactly what I did.

I slammed my fist into the metal of my locker hard enough to make the whole row rattle. The sound cut the room cold, every head whipping toward me.

“Goddamn it, guys, I am not fucking around!” My voice cracked on the words, raw and loud, my chest heaving. “I am in love with Livia.”

I panted in the silence that proclamation left in the locker room, the guys I was less close with giving each other weary looks before they excused themselves and left me with the core group.

“No, I’m not joking. And no, I’m not delusional either. She and I have been…”How the fuck do I explain what we’ve been doing?“Seeing each other. It was supposed to remain casual and just between us, but I told her the night of Chloe and Will’s party that I wanted more. I told her I loved her.” I swallowed. “And she said she loves me, too.”

Vince’s eyebrows bolted into his hairline, and Jaxson smirked, tugging on a pair of sweatpants as he mused to himself. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

“But now I haven’t seen her in a week,” I continued, my breath labored. “And I’m losing my fucking mind. I need to do something. I need to show her that I’m in this with her,forher, that I’m serious about us. I can’t just sit here waiting for her to call me off the bench like some rookie desperate for scraps.” My hands shook as I ran them back through my hair before letting them fall against my thighs. “And I need you to take me seriously right now. I need all the jokes to stop. I need my friends to help me figure out what the fuck to do. Okay? I need you.”

The silence lasted only a second before Will stood, his brow in a hard line. “Of course, we’ll help. We’ve got you.”

“For sure,” Jaxson added with a nod, stretching a long-sleeve t-shirt over his head before working into it arm by arm. “And hey… sorry for the jokes before. We were just chirping.”

“I know, I know,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I just… I’m really fucking spinning out here, guys, and I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“I think we need you to catch us up a bit,” Aleks said, arching a brow. “Because last I knew, you were like a buzzing fly around Livia’s picnic.”