I toss the shirt aside and stalk forward. Lennon takes a surprised step back, but I gently scoop her up. An excited squeal pierces my ears as I carry her into the bathroom. “You good?” I ask.
“Stop asking me, I’m fine.”
Making sure my balance is in check, I step into the tub and slowly sink down. It’s a tight fit but just means I get to hold her closer.
Which after today, sounds perfect to me.
I lean back against the wall of the tub and adjust Lennon to sit between my legs. Her naked skin rubs against mine in the confined space, and I soak in the touch without any barriers.
“Ahhh.” She lets out a satisfied sigh as the warm water laps over our bodies. “Good call. This feels nice.”
I nudge her to lean back on my chest, and once she does, I pull the hair tie from the end of her braid and begin untangling the long strands with my fingers. She practically melts into me,always loving when I play with her hair. It’s basically her love language.
We sit in silence until the tub is full, both relaxing and taking comfort in each other’s presence after a day from hell. But our reality has crashed down around us, and it’s time to finally face it.
Lennon stiffens slightly, like she’s come to the same conclusion. “So,” she starts, “I’m assuming Coach Maver spoke with you?”
“Yeah. But first, I want to know how your conversation with her went.”
“When I was back in the room with Dr. Ray, I could tell something was off with her and the way she was looking at me. And then he said something to her, and I could feel the shift in the room.”
I wince. “That’s on me. I might have called you ‘baby’ in front of him.” She tries to crane her neck to look at me, but I stop her. “No, no extra strain on it tonight.”
She relaxes back into me. “Well, that makes a lot of sense. I figured something had happened for her to ask me about it. She said she had proof but wouldn’t say what.”
Proof? She didn’t have any proof. A hell of a lot of suspicion? Yes. But cold, hard evidence? No. “She just said that so you’d confess.”
“Yeah, I’m realizing that now…” She trails off. “I denied it when she first asked, but then when she said she had proof, I told her that yes, we were together, but that it was mutual. I promise I?—”
“Shh.” I rub her shoulders, kneading out the knots I find. “You don’t have to defend it to me. I don’t blame you for telling her.” It bothers me that Alice would even ask Lennon something like that when she was fresh off of a hit where she was literally knocked unconscious on the ice.
But I’m sure she was just as taken off-guard by the situation as I was panicked by it.
“Did she grill you?” I ask.
“No. Once I told her that it was mutual, she told me to get some rest and she’d send Dr. Ray back in.”
Alright, well I’ll give Alice that at least.
“She didn’t say anything else to me about it after I was cleared to rejoin the team on the bus back here tonight. She only stopped me long enough to tell me to take tomorrow off practice and she was going to get Grace her own room so I could rest uninterrupted. I’m assuming you talked to her, though?”
“Yeah,” I say on a heavy sigh.
“That doesn’t sound good.”
I snort, and Lennon runs her hands up and down my calves. “It went as expected.”
“Do you still have a job?”
“Your boyfriend is now unemployed.”
She tries to turn around again. “Seriously?”
I hold her in place. “Yes. Now sit still.”
“Yes, Coach.”
“Not anymore,” I tease, but there’s nothing funny about the situation. “She basically asked me if I crossed a line, and I couldn’t lie to her. Not point blank like that, and not after my outburst after your hit. It would’ve been fruitless.”
