The second we pull into the Disneyland lot, nerves start buzzing under my skin.
It’s too early for nerves. Too early for butterflies. And way too early for the way my pulse kicks up when Auguste kills the engine and gets out like this is just another normal day.
He comes around to open my door before I can reach for the handle.
I step out, squinting up at the castle in the distance, the sounds of early morning park-goers already filling the air.
That’s when it hits me.
The players. The PR team. My dad.
They’re all going to be here.
As we start walking toward the entrance, I slow down, then stop entirely.
“Maybe I should go in first,” I say.
He squints down at me. “What?”
I gesture vaguely between us. “So no one sees us arriving together.”
His expression doesn’t change.
Just blank. Quiet. Unreadable.
“I mean… it might be weird,” I continue, fumbling the words now. “For me to show up with you. I’m supposed to be on assignment. This is your team. I don’t need anyone thinking there’s… a thing.”
His green eyes drag over my face. To my mouth. Back to my eyes.
“Isn’t there?”
My heart stutters.
“I—” I swallow. “That’s not the point.”
His mouth twitches. Not quite a smile. Not quite not.
“Just give me five minutes,” I mutter, turning quickly toward the gates.
Auguste doesn’t follow. But I feel him watching me. Tracking every step like it costs him not to reach out and pull me back.
And some part of me—the part Delilah would raise a glass to—likes it way too much.
ELEVEN
COURTNEY
Disneyland smells like popcorn,sunscreen, and nostalgia.
It hits me the second I step through security. Kids laugh. Music swells from speakers hidden in flowerbeds. The kind of joy that only exists in this kind of place—manufactured but somehow real, too.
I shift my camera bag on my shoulder and glance around for the team.
“Bambiiii!” Jayden’s voice cuts through the crowd like a whip crack. “About time!”
I turn just in time to see him strut toward me in Mickey ears and mirrored sunglasses, grinning like he’s on his own personal runway. He throws an arm around my shoulder and pulls me in like we’re old friends and I don’t fight it.
Jayden Morrow is the nicest guy on the team. He’s always smiley but he’s not as mouthy as Matheo Hillier.