Except Ryder. He was the only one who didn’t look like someone had snatched his favorite toy. Instead, there was a rare, secretive smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, like he knew something the rest of us didn’t.
I approached him, hoping for some kind of clarity. He looked up, the grin still there. "Great game, Coach!"
He wasn’t wrong. We had won. But it wasn’t because the team played particularly well. Teddy had been the one who carried us tonight. Two goals, blocking shots, delivering monster hits. He’d been a man possessed.
I crossed my arms, then let them fall, unsure what to do with them. The anxiety started crawling up my spine, making it harder to keep still. “How long has he been planning this?”
Ryder’s smile deepened, and he shook his head. “Not sure he was planning it at all.” A surprised laugh escaped him, a bitter, almost awe-struck sound. “Damn, Ted.”
I could tell Ryder was in shock, but there was something else there too—a kind of reverence, almost like he admired Teddy’s sudden decision, even if it was a complete surprise.
“Why would he do this?” I asked, needing some kind of explanation, but I wasn’t sure I could even make sense of it myself.
Ryder scrubbed his face, a look of disbelief still on him. "Why does Teddy do anything? Hell, I don’t know." Then, his expression softened, and his voice grew fond. "But I’m damn proud of him. I fucking love that man."
I nodded, my chest tight. I loved him too. God help me, I did. But I didn’t want him to give up his career for me. Not foranyone. It wasn’t fair.
"Where is he?" I asked, the need to see him rising in me like a tide.
"In with Doc," Ryder replied, his tone turning more serious.
The door to the locker room opened, and the media flooded in, cameras clicking and voices rising as they searched for Teddy, eager to ask him a million questions. But he wasn’t here.
I turned, my feet already moving toward the hall where the trainers and Doc had their offices. The door to Doc’s office was cracked, and voices drifted out.
“You made the right decision,” Doctor Pravesh said, her voice calm and reassuring.
Teddy was silent for a moment, the weight of her words hanging between them. “I know,” he finally replied, his tone steady but thick with emotion. “I’ve second-guessed a lot in my life, but this…” He took a slow, measured breath. “This was crystal clear. I’m ready to move on, Doc. Ready to be out of pain and figure out what comes next.”
“You’re taking this better than I expected,” she said, a note of admiration in her voice. There was something in the way she spoke, something more familiar than the usual doctor-patient rapport. I could feel it, the undercurrent of history between them. Of course there was. This was Teddy Valentine. He had a past with everyone, it seemed.
I couldn’t help the mix of emotions that stirred inside me. Somehow, I’d ended up tangled with the team’s biggest playboy. And yet, I didn’t care. I knew him, at least in the way that mattered. Maybe I didn’t know everything, but I knew his heart. It didn’t matter what had come before me or the fact that I wasn’t the first forbidden member of the staff he’d been involved with. I understood him, and that was enough for me.
I knocked softly on the door, the desire to see him overwhelming.
“Come in,” Teddy’s voice called from the other side.
When I pushed the door open, my eyes immediately found him sitting on the exam table in nothing but compression shorts. His chest was a map of bruises, but it wasn’t the bruises thatcaught my attention. It was his knee. Swollen, angry, bruised with not an inch of unscathed skin surrounding it. "Fuck, that looks brutal," I muttered under my breath, the sight making my stomach churn with sympathy.
Teddy flashed me a grin, his trademark cocky smile that made my insides flip. “You could kiss it and make it better,” he teased, the words a playful challenge.
Doctor Pravesh cleared her throat, but there was none of the discomfort that my fellow coaches had when they saw me around Teddy. She didn’t flinch, didn’t tense at the sight of us together. They had a history, sure, but it was clear she had nothing but respect for him.
He looked different. Lighter. Like pressure of the decision he’d made out on the ice had finally lifted from his shoulders, like the burden he’d carried for so long was no longer his to bear. He gave me a wink as I approached, and something inside me melted, softening with the intensity of it.
I’d never been the type to easily fall under the spell of a man’s charm, but with him? With Teddy? I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anyone. And it surprised me every damn time.
"Is he going to be okay, Doc?" I asked, though my words were more for myself than for her. “Or is the brain damage just part of the package now?”
Teddy shot me an asshole smirk, his eyes dancing with mischief.
I raised an eyebrow, not backing down.
Doctor Pravesh looked between us, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. She was beautiful in a way that felt almost otherworldly—dark hair, striking features, eyes that held so many stories. I could see why Teddy was drawn to her, but she was so different from me. So delicate. I had no such softness about me. There was nothing gentle in my nature.
Tentatively, I reached out, my fingers brushing the skin above his knee, the warmth of him radiating through my touch.
Teddy winced, and my stomach dropped.
