Page 65 of Nash

I rake my fingers through my hair, shaking my head. “We haven't been able to connect much lately. We've been busy, her with a viral page and all the attention that's getting, and me on the ice, trying to get us to a Cup situation.”

“Do you even know who she is?” Daniel calls from his locker as he shoves gear into his bag with a little more force. I can tell he's imagining that bag is my face, but there is shit all I can do about it.

“I do,” I say back, taking one step forward, but Clay moves in front of me again. “She can't know?—”

“Shedoesknow. She's known since the first string of comments started. She doesn't care. All she cares about is views.” Daniel cuts me off.

Anger slices through me, hot and boiling on Reese’s behalf. “You don't know her, man,” I promise. “This is a giant misunderstanding.”

Daniel rolls his eyes. “Damn. Now I almost feel sorry for you. She has you wrapped around her pretty little fingers. Do you even know that she's got a date set up with Darrell, to talk about her helping him the same way she helped you? Guess your videos with her aren't getting enough attention so she's going to have to cook up something else with someone new in order to keep it going. Bigger and brighter things. It's fucking pathetic.”

He throws his bag over his shoulder and storms out of the locker room, leaving me standing there, looking like an idiot.

Because I didn’t know that.

She hadn’t told me about any intention to do videos with Darrell.

Clay huffs and stalks off now that the fight threat is gone.

I look to Pax and Lawson, silently questioning everything Daniel just said. “She's not,” I say, completely dumbfounded. “Right?”

My heart clenches at the idea that this really all is just a game to her. That she never liked me and was just using me for views and good sex.

And if that's all it was, then why did she say she wanted to stop pretending when I did?

I mean, fuck, I'd been deep inside her, driving her wild with lust, so maybe she would’ve agreed to anything in the moment, but it’dfeltreal.

Everything between us felt real.

She wouldn't set up dates to create drama on the page, right?

Icy doubt clings to my insides.

My mind spins with the worst possibilities.

I can’t findanysense of solidarity.

“Tell me you two don't know anything,” I say to my friends. “Please,” I beg. “Please tell me you have no clue what's going on because I swear to God if you've heard something from Monroe or Blakely and didn't tell me I was being played for a fucking fool?—”

“Breathe,” Lawson says. “Nash, you just have tobreathe,” he says again. “I don't know anything. I promise.”

I cut my eyes to Paxton.

“I don't know anything, either,” Paxton says. “But I know Reese, she wouldn't do anything malicious on purpose. But youtwo are the ones who set this up as a fake thing. Have you ever actually confirmed that it wasn't?”

I rub my palms over my face, my entire body shaking from the adrenaline. “I thought we did,” I say.

“You thought?” Lawson ask. “You need to be certain about that shit, man,” he says. “Otherwise, you're getting pissed at her for something she may not even know she's doing wrong. You said so yourself, in the beginning, this was supposed to just be fun.”

“Fuck,” I say.

I pull out my phone, dialing her number and holding my phone to my ear, the breath tightening my lungs with every ring that goes unanswered.

“Voicemail,” I say, hanging up. “Either of you have any idea where she is?”

Pax is the first to make a face, so I glare at him.

“I heard Monroe say something about her going to the coffee shop after practice to meet up with one of the players to talk about videos.” He grimaces. “Only know that cause Monroe was going to stop by there and get me a coffee.”

---