Page 124 of Only in Your Dreams

It happens fast. A couple of players closest to us rush over, taking Noah by the arms to drag him away. The momentum of having him ripped from my grip unsteadies me, giving Mike the upper hand. He gives my shirt another wicked tug, turns me around.

“You’re the coach, aren’t you? The one keeping him away from home,” he spits at me, fisting the front of my shirt. “Keeping him away from his mother, making her cry—”

“We should go speak in my office—”

He jerks me closer. “I’m not interested in talking.”

“I’m not fighting you—”

I only manage a glimpse of his fist winding back before it collides with my face.

I stagger back, only dimly aware of the sudden uproar around me. The blurred shapes of players converging on us as my ears ring. But Mike isn’t done with me. He manages to catch my shirt again. To deliver another punch to the side of my face a moment before he’s tackled to the ground, leaving me bent over and spitting blood.

* * *

It’s the first time I’ve dreaded the sounds of Melody coming home.

In hindsight, I should have called her. Should have let Brooks call her when he asked if I wouldn’t rather have her with me while I got checked by the team’s doctors. As bad as I didn’t want her to see me like that, dazed and covered in my own blood, it might have been better to give her a heads up to what she’s about to walk in to.

“Zac, are you there?” she calls from the front door. I hear her bag drop onto the staircase before she moves down the hall.

“In the kitchen,” I call back. I stand with my back to the doorway, holding an icepack to the right side of my face. Just the act of raising my voice sends a sharp, searing pain through my brain.

“You’re home early,” she says, finding me. I hear her set something down on the counter behind me, and the smell of fried food fills the kitchen. “I was expecting to have time to snoop around before dinner. I brought takeout from Sheffield’s.”

“I thought you’d have finished all your snooping by now.”

“It’s a big house. Lots of nooks and crannies to inspect.” I can feel her eyes on my back. “Zac? What’s going on?”

I sigh, bracing a hand on the counter. “Don’t freak out, okay?”

“Yeah… you can go ahead and assume that I’ll start freaking out the second you ever say something like that. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing bad. I just got a little banged up at work today.”

“Zac.” My name comes out a little shaky as she rounds the counter. Mel stares at the icepack covering half my face. “What happened?”

She tugs at my arm until I let it fall away.

“Zac. What the fuck happened?” Her voice is several notches higher than usual as she stares at my face, horrified.

“There was a thing at practice today—”

“A thing at practice? Look at you—are you okay? Did you get this looked at? Whathappened—”

“I’m—hey, I’m fine. No, fuck, please don’t—” Her eyes fill with tears and I pull her in just as she lets out a sob. She buries her face in my chest, letting me rub my hand up and down her back. “It’s just a little bruising, okay? The swelling will go down quick—”

“You have a cut over your eyebrow!”

“Honestly, it doesn’t even hurt.”

She pushes off my chest to get a look at me, cheeks stained with tears. “What happened?”

“It was a—”

She wrenches out of my grip, eyes bloodshot but narrowed now. “Don’t you dare downplay this. Who did this to you?”

“No one—”

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