Page 36 of Rule 3: Never Fake Marry the Coach's Son
Jaws drop around us, but I keep my eyes on Coach. He’s the only one who matters right now.
OSKAR
Shouts and crashes echo from the locker room.
Shit.
I push back from the conference table. “I-I think...”
Daniela’s eyes are wide. I bolt toward the locker room, nearly collide with an irritated and much less friendly looking Vince, then scurry past him. When Pappa said he’d fetch Dmitri for the meeting, this wasn’t what I imagined.
The corridor stretches endlessly. More shouts propel me into a run, my dress shoes squeaking against the polished floor.
I burst into the locker room to find Dmitri sprawled on the ground, Pappa looming over him.
“Did you hit him?” My voice cracks.
Pappa doesn’t bother to look at me. “Go to the conference room.”
Instead, I drop to my knees beside Dmitri, my hand hovering over the reddening mark on his face. “Are you hurt?”
He snorts. “I don’t have fever, Oskar.”
Heat floods my cheeks as I snatch my hand back.
He scrambles up, then pulls me up. I squeeze his hand. He squeezes back.
Pappa stares at our still joined hands. “I can’t believe it.”
Everyone is staring at us.
Finn. Noah. Troy. Axel. Jason.
I bounce my eyes away from their gazes, only to be confronted with a new, stunned expression.
God.
Everyone knows that I have feelings for Dmitri. And everyone knows that Dmitri is straight.
My heart ricochets against my ribs like a badly aimed puck. I stumble, but Dmitri’s shoulder brushes mine, steadying me.
“There’s, um, a meeting in the conference room,” I say. “Vince is there.”
“It will be fine,” Dmitri murmurs with that easy confidence of his.
I nod, but Vince’s thunderous expression suggested otherwise. Nothing about this feels fine at all.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Dmitri
Things are not fine.
Things are not fine when I step into the conference room and take my seat, and things are definitely not fine when Vince starts speaking.
“Let’s be clear,” Vince says. “You too definitely got married?”
Oskar and I nod.
