Page 71 of What It Means To Be Found

But Connor didn’t seem to care as he kept stepping into her space. She would immediately step back, her eyes flicking around as bodies swarmed the area outside of the locker rooms. The area where friends, families, and sometimes reporters waited to meet with players.

John had followed me out, taking his husband's hand as they left. I found my group of friends next. It was easy to do since Josh was the easiest to spot, even with his baseball cap underneath the hood of his sweatshirt. He also wore sunglasses, which no one questioned for some reason, even when we were indoors.

However, Josh and Courtney were not paying attention because they were talking to a large cluster of fans who recognized them, separating themselves from the rest of the group, including Eloise and Connor. She was shorter than Connor and refused to meet his gaze for more than half a second at a time. And still, he just kept talking, stepping closer and closer until they were near the wall.

Beck and Adam were somehow separated from Eloise as well, on the other side of the fandom, but I could see Adam looking over the crowd and tugging his girlfriend’s hand, trying to make it over to where Eloise was clearly needing help. Taylor, who was on the other side of Josh and Courtney, staying back, saw Adam’s struggle and followed his gaze to where Eloise was cornered. They cracked their neck once before grabbing Courtney’s shoulder and gesturing with their chin to what was happening.

Eloise clearly required assistance, and none of our friends were able to immediately help her out.

I was disturbed by the sight of my agent so infatuated with her. A number of things clicked in my brain seeing the two of them. The woman Connor had spoken to me about who had ghosted him, the awkward meeting at Eloise’s clinic, and everyone’s general reaction to his presence.

Holy shit…Eloise was the woman Connor wanted to try hooking up with again.

Absolutely the fuck not, the words repeated themselves in my head over and over. I thought I saw someone start to approach me, but I ignored them when my feet started moving again.

Eloise had already made it perfectly clear that she had no desire to sleep with, or even talk to Connor again. But he didn’t care. He just ignored her obvious dismissal and had been for months at this point. That knowledge infuriated me even more.

I marched toward her, my hockey bag bumping into some other players that I passed, but I couldn’t find it within myself to apologize to anyone.

Eloise’s eyes found mine, and I wasn’t sure what expression my face was making, but when I saw her shift and start to walk toward me, I felt my chest expand. She flicked her eyes at Connor, clearly saying something dismissive to him, but he halted her obvious attempt at a retreat with a quick hand placed on the wall behind her, essentially locking her in.

At that, Courtney’s eyes widened in clear alarm as she followed Taylor and Adam, leaving her fiancé to his fans, in an attempt to get to Eloise’s side.

But they were too late because I was already there.

“I’m just saying,” Connor’s voice was low, and part of me wanted to hurl when I realized he was trying to sound seductive, “It’s not like—”

“Nice game, Logan!” Eloise’s voice was high and riddled with nerves, and it made certain instincts prick up inside me. I had reached my hand up to grab Connor’s arm holding her hostage, but at the mention of my name, he had quickly dropped his arm and turned a surprised expression towards me.

Now my hand hovered in the air for half a second, and I was going to drop it again, but Eloise instead took my lifted hand as an opportunity to embrace me in a tight hug.

I froze, my eyes meeting Courtney’s wide ones, and Adam’s lifted eyebrow once he and Beck finally made it over.

I blinked my surprise away and wrapped my lifted arm tight around Eloise, successfully making it look like I had also been going in for the hug the entire time.

Connor’s eyes bounced between me and Eloise, clearly trying to assess the situation.

I wanted to flip him off behind Eloise’s back, but I refrained.

“You two know each other?” Connor asked, his hands gently fisting themselves in the pockets of his slacks as Eloise released her arms from around my neck. I wanted to hurt him. Possessiveness overpowered me. I knew it was stupid, and that Eloise and I were both trying to keep our extracurricular activities private, but I didn’t care at that moment.

This was the only reason that could explain why I kept my hand on Eloise. It had wrapped around her lower back during the hug, and even though she released me and stood on her feet, I kept my hand firm on her waist, my fingertips gently digging in enough to keep her from stepping too far away from me.

Courtney clocked my grip with surprised interest, while still mostly behind Connor’s shoulder. Her eyes met mine for a brief moment before she spoke up, making Connor turn to look at her, and to force him to take a step back to expand the circle of conversation.

A step farther away from Eloise.

“What a gong show that game was!” Courtney smiled.

I gave her an unimpressed look because there were no excess fights or problems during the game. She clearly just pulled a random hockey term out of her ass.

“Uh,” Connor looked just as confused before he decidedly ignored Courtney and refocused on Eloise, his gaze doing a double take on my hand still holding her waist. “Are you all going to the bar?”

There was a bar right next to the rink in Anaheim that the players were known to visit after home games. It was large and had both an indoor and outdoor seating area, making it an obvious choice to celebrate wins with the fans. Connor’s invite wasn’t a polite one, and maybe I was paranoid because he was clearly interested in the woman that I was seeing, but it held a note of dismissiveness. Of challenge. Like he was trying to find an excuse to lose this group that had suddenly surrounded and ruined his chances of talking to Eloise.

“Of course!” Beck spoke up, interlacing her fingers with Adam’s hand. Josh had finished with his fans, but stayed back behind Taylor, studying the odd exchange with a cool mask while Taylor crossed their arms and let their gaze trail around the room. “Eloise and Logan promised to do shots with me.” Beck winked, making Courtney’s lips part in a conspiratorial smile as she noticed the sudden stiffness in Connor’s pose.

Eloise was also a stiff board next to me, but with one gentle tug on her waist, she stepped closer into my space, almost leaning into me. The message was clear, and Beck had helped out by speaking about us as a pair, that Eloise was unavailable.

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