Page 130 of Over the Moon

“Listen, this is a mess. I need some time to figure out how to handle this. Randall is not going to drop this, and rules were broken,” Sebastian said. “Let me speak to Wolf, and I’ll let you know how we want to proceed.”

“Wolf, the man who is married to our chief legal?” I said, leaning back in the chair and crossing my feet at my ankles because how could they have a problem with something they’d already done?

“Yeah. That’s the one,” he chuckled. “So, what are you going to do? Marry Eloise to prove your point?”

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees, offended by the question. “I wouldn’t marry anyone to prove a point. But I’d marry the woman I love if she said yes, so sure. I’d marry her tomorrow if she wanted to. I’d walk away from this team to protect her. So you best realize that this is the real deal, and I’m not walking away from her for you, for this team, or for anyone. I’ll play somewhere else if I have to. She’s my priority. Got it?”

“I believe I understand now.” Sebastian nodded, pushing to his feet and motioning for me to do the same. “You can leave. I just need a moment with Coach first, and then I’ll reach out to my brother.”

I turned toward Coach Gable. “I’m sorry, Coach. I should have come to you. I respect the hell out of you. I just love your daughter, and she was not ready to tell anyone. She knew this would fall on her, which in turn meant it would fall on you. But I owed you more, and I apologize.”

He looked up at me, narrowing his gaze, and then gave me the slightest nod. He still didn’t speak, and I couldn’t tell what was going through his mind.

I left his office and dialed Eloise at least a dozen times as I drove to her apartment.

It went to voicemail every damn time.

When I pulled up in front of her building, I jogged to her door and knocked several times.

“Open up, Weeze.”

When the door pulled open, my chest squeezed at the sight of her.

Eyes swollen.

Nose red.

Lips trembling.

I wrapped my arms around her and held her close. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there when you got called in. I didn’t know that was happening.”

She broke down, sobbing, and I just held her there.

And then she pulled back and looked up at me.

“Randall found our notebook. He printed it up for everyone to read,” she said. Her words broke on a sob, and she placed her hand on her chest. “My father read it. He couldn’t even look at me.”

“Randall is a fucking asshole. Your dad will be okay. I briefly explained that this is not some casual fling.” I reached for her hand.

“Did they call you in after me?” She moved to sit on the couch and buried her face in her hands.

“No. Weston told me that he saw you, and we found out you’d been in Sebastian’s office. I went there to straighten this out and find out what happened.”

Her eyes were red and puffy, and she shook her head. “Randall accused me of trying to ruin your career. He also accused me of sleeping with other players on the team. I told you that this would be different for me being a woman.”

“Baby, we’re going to figure this out.” I tried to pull her onto my lap, and she pushed to her feet.

“I’m going to lose my job. My father can’t look at me. We are not going to figure this out, Clark.” She shook her head. “They didn’t even call you in. You aren’t the person everyone is mad at. And trust me, I’m relieved that you aren’t in trouble. I really am.” She cried. “But right now, I am in this alone. I need to figure out how to walk away from this without taking my father down and without hurting your career.”

Tears streamed down her face, and I felt completely helpless. I pushed to my feet and moved toward her. “Weeze, I’m in this with you. You aren’t alone.”

“What if my father loses his job? What if I have to leave, and you remain on the team? How will you work with my dad now? Everyone read our letters. There were intimate things in there, Clark,” she said, and she was crying so hard that she was gasping for air as she rambled off every fear that she had.

I tried to wrap my arms around her, but she pushed me back. “I need you to go.”

“What? I’m not leaving you.” I reached for her hand, and she pulled it away. “I want to be here for you, Eloise.”

She looked up at me, swiping the tears from her face. “Randall probably has someone watching us right now. We’re making this worse. If you really want to help me, you need to leave. I want to be alone.”

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