Page 2 of Red Zone

Mediating. Yeah, I’d been doing that since I was a kid. Back then, it wasn’t about football plays; it was about stopping my parents from tearing each other apart. I could still hear their voices echoing through the walls—my mom’s sharp tone, my dad’s booming retorts, and the silence that followed when one of them finally stormed out.

Their relationship was aWar of the Roses–style dumpster fire. And it had screwed me up in ways I hated admitting. It was the reason I kept women at arm’s length, why I couldn’t let anyone get too close. Letting someone in—like Skye—was a risk I wasn’t sure I could take.

After they’d finally split, Mom took off and got herself another family. My older sister and I’d never heard from her, but we weren’t parentless. Sometimes—okay, often—I thought we would have been better off if our drunk-off-his-ass dad hadn’t volunteered to stick around.

I shoved the thought aside, gripping the water bottle tighter. “Someone has to keep you idiots in check.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kylian clapped me on the back. “Don’t think I didn’t see you zoning out just now. What’s eating you?”

“Nothing,” I lied, straightening. “Just thinking about the upcoming game.”

But it wasn’t the game. It was everything else—the past, the future, and the mess in between.

“You’re sure?” Ares’s voice softened, cutting through the haze. “If something’s up, we’ve got your back.”

I forced a grin and clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m good. Focus on fixing your routes instead of worrying about me.”

The words felt hollow, but I wasn’t about to unpack my baggage in the middle of the locker room. Not with pro scouts watching, playoffs on the line, and my dreams dangling just out of reach.

I showered and changed, caught up in my head as we left the locker room soon after and made the short drive to Kylian’s off-campus condo, where Ares and I also lived. We let ourselves in. I followed Kylian, dropping my bag to the right of the door then moving aside so Ares could enter. It was quiet inside, echoing the emptiness I’d felt after seeing Skye. I glanced around the open floor plan from the decked-out kitchen to the living room with the oversized couches and large-screen TV.

“Where are the girls?” My stomach growled, and I glanced longingly at the kitchen. I’d hoped Kylian’s fiancée, Aurora, would be cooking something when we got home.

“Brielle is hanging out with her sister and convinced Aurora to go with. I think they’re shopping?” Ares shrugged, his backpack landing with a thump next to where I’d left mine.

“It’s too quiet without them here, isn’t it?” Kylian asked, voicing what was running through my mind.

I grunted a response. Brielle, Ares’s girlfriend, might as well have moved in. She was here more often than not. I wasn’t complaining, or not really. It’d been more of an adjustment when Aurora had shacked up with Kylian, invading our space last year. But if I was being honest, I loved them filling the room with their feminine energy and laughter. It didn’t hurt thatAurora was a goddess in the kitchen. With her talents, that girl had a gold mine of a career, and we all reaped the benefits.

The other side of me was glad they weren’t home. The easy affection the couples had only accentuated my loneliness that I refused to broadcast.

I made a beeline for the fridge. Homework could wait—and so could the pending discussion with the guys about Skye—my stomach couldn’t. I swore it was eating itself with how loud it rumbled. Yanking open the door to the fridge, I peered inside.Score!Aurora had left us some sort of casserole. I pulled it out, tearing off the instructions, and instead of reheating it in the oven like the note probably said, I cut a giant piece and nuked it in the microwave. When I flipped over the sticky note, a laugh burst out of me.

“She called it?” Kylian dropped onto one of the island’s barstools.

“Yep.” I tossed him the note from Aurora addressed to me for when I disregarded her reheating instructions and instead noted how long for the microwave.

Ares grabbed two more plates, slid one to Kylian, and they both cut two equally large pieces. The microwave dinged, and I took my food out so Ares could put his in. None of us said anything as we tucked into dinner.

The silence wouldn’t last, and I was glad because I needed to vent about seeing Skye. After I shoveled the last bite, rinsed my dishes, and put them in the dishwasher, they were done with their dinner too.

I went to the living room, where I fell onto the couch then rested my elbows on my knees, head cradled in my hands.Skye.My body ached from fighting the need to pull her into my arms despite the initial shock.After all this time, why does she still have the power to bring me to my knees?“What the fuck?” I groaned. “She’s Coach’s niece?”

“Did you know?” Kylian grabbed an apple from the bowl on the island then sat on the opposite couch.

I jerked upright and glared. “You’re kidding, right?” My head rested back against the cushion, and I marveled at the sheer insanity of the situation. “If I’d known her connections?—”

“Please.” Ares snorted then fell onto the couch and faced me, his arm stretched over the back of it. “It was freshman year, and you were unleashed. No one could have rationalized with you over consequences.” He shrugged. “It wouldn’t have mattered then because Coach Becket wasn’t our coach until sophomore year.”

I paused in defending myself. Even I couldn’t disagree with what I was like as a freshman. And though he wasn’t our coach then, he was now. “But”—I swiped my hand down, chopping through the bullshit—“now that I know, it makes things easier.”

“Does it?” Ares’s brows climbed his forehead.

“You were pretty gone for her,” Kylian chimed in with another truth bomb I didn’t want verbalized.

But he wasn’t wrong. The fallout from our fling had resulted in sleepless nights of missing her laugh, the feel of her beneath me, the vision of a future I’d never thought I would have—and that was only after being with her for two months. I’d fallen for her, hard and fast.Love at first sight?I’d never believed in it—until she happened. “She cut ties. She made her point crystal clear.” She didn’t want me the way I had wanted her.

“Why was that?” Kylian asked the question I’d never been able to answer.

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