Page 49 of Unleashed

“I see. That makes sense. I hope my crew is getting some good footage.”

“I think I saw Larry passing beer to your guys with the cameras. Don’t let on I told you, eh? They’ve worked hard, too, right?”

My smile nearly cracked my lips. Coach Mack and his “don’t let ons”. “Yes, they have, for sure.” My fingers trembled in my lap and I was positive Mack could hear the nerves in my voice.

“A little jumpy there, aren’t you, Sutton?”

I shrugged. I was jumpy, but the cause wasn’t something I would spill to the coach. “Malone’s walking around the building. You know how it is when the boss is around.” I waved my hand in the direction of the hall. “The man gives me hives.”

“That bad, eh?” He tipped the brim of his cap up, his eyes sharp on me. “Viggy’ll be here tomorrow, too, don’t forget. Can catch him then, if you want to take off now.”

I laughed, the sound frayed at the edges. “I can’t wait that long.”

“This time of year, things get crazy.” Certainty and an odd sense of reassurance, twined through his voice, reaching me on a gut level. “Sometimes things get twisted up in your head and you can’t see straight. My guys turned to Fred the Iguana and transforming my office into a tropical retreat. What are you turning to?”

“I’m not playing hockey, Coach. My head is fine.” Except it wasn’t. I was as twisted up as I was the days after my life imploded in California. No, worse.

“You think so?” He nodded to my hands. “You’re so fine you’re gouging a hole into your wrist.”

I gasped, my wrist suddenly stinging. I’d gouged an angry half-moon into the underside of my wrist.

“Door’s always open, Sutton.” He tossed me an almost paternal smile, but his words did little to soothe my anxiety. The weight of my actions, the potential fallout, the very real possibility that I’d just screwed my future, sat in my gut like a lead weight. If Coach Mack knew the truth, would that door still always be open?

“Thanks, Coach.” I slid from the stool. “You know what? I’m going to take your advice and go find Adele.” My fingers trembled, and I prayed my voice sounded convincing to my own ears.

I skirted around Mack, nearly knocking into a row of sticks propped against the wall as I hurried out of the lounge and down the corridor. I needed to get away. Away from the players, away from the looming threat of Jack. He might only be a couple doors down the hall at that moment, but I’d put miles between us with my actions.

I burst through the doors to the center’s concourse, nearly running until I could duck into the tiny space assigned to theUnleashedcrew. Adele had claimed a folding table as her editing throne, and sat there now, laptop open, second monitor glowing, a tablet completing her spread.

She glanced up as I burst into the room, her fingers frozen over her keyboard. “Heyas, Lily.” Her face lit up with her trademark smile, big and beautiful and genuine.

I squeezed my eyes closed, fighting back tears. “I messed up, ‘Del.”

The chair’s wheels squealed as I dropped into the seat beside my best friend. The familiar scent of her vanilla coffee and the gentle whir of her computer should have comforted me. Instead, they reminded me she’d been working, picking through footage for future episodes while I’d been playing in Jack’s bed.

She twisted in her seat to face me, the smile slipping. “Girl, you’re pale as a sheet.” Her eyes tightened. “Did you get into it with Malone? Because I swear to God, that man—”

“No more than usual.” My laugh came out strangled. I forced myself to meet her gaze. “I’m sleeping with Jack. We had these amazing few days—”

“Wait,what?” Her shriek probably carried all the way to the Media Center. “You’re sleeping withViggy?”

Heat crawled up my neck, flushed my cheeks. I stared at the production schedule pinned to the wall behind her. “It kinda just happened.”

“Lies.” The sharp crack of her hand hitting the desk made me jump. “Nothing ‘just happens’ with you, Lily Sutton. You color-code your grocery lists. I knew you must be up to something since your texts were kinda slow the last few days, butgirl.” Her emerald eyes locked onto mine. “Spill every last detail. Leave nothing out. Or else.”

So I did. The words tumbled out—chasing him down at Lady Bird Lake, ending up at the same damn patio bar, getting soaked in the rain—the moment our relationship shifted. How we shifted from enemies to something that burned too hot to name. How calling a truce snowballed into his big body in my bed, his hands on my skin, his laugh against my neck at three in the morning. Into these desperate, beautiful days where being away from him hollowed me out.

“I wondered if anything would come of all the sexual tension you two were oozing all season.” Del shot me a know-it-all smirk. “But I didn’t really think you had it in you, Lils. Go you! Scoring with the hockey god!”

My throat tightened. “Can you be serious for a minute?”

“This is serious. How was it?”

I blinked. “How was what?”

She blinked at me, big and slow, like I was the one being dense.

“You are not seriously asking me how the sex was?”

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