I stared at the texts for a full beat, jaw clenching.
Cam always had a way of being both annoying and right.
I tossed the phone onto the empty seat beside me a little harder than necessary, the thunk louder than it needed to be. The screen went dark, but the words stuck.
Push the chemistry.
Cute moment.
The whole thing made my skin itch.
This wasn’t who I was. I didn’t do fake flirting or charming smiles. Hell, I barely did real ones. And now I was supposed to stage some highlight-reel moment like we were on a romcom poster?
No thanks.
But…
I ran a hand down my face, scrubbing at the tension behind my eyes.
The league was watching. So were the sponsors. The press. The other teams.
And Daphne? She might’ve signed on for this whole charade, but she didn’t exactly sign up to be treated like a hostage either.
The other night she’d laughed at something Adam said, then looked over at me like she was trying to catch my reaction. She’d seemed… relaxed. Happy, even.
It shouldn’t matter. It wasn’t real.
But if I had to keep this up, maybe I didn’t need to grit my teeth the entire time.
I leaned my head against the window, cold glass biting at my skin, and exhaled slowly.
One cute moment.
I could fake that. Probably.
Maybe.
The hotel lobby buzzed with noise—guys grabbing room keys, talking over each other, someone tossing a pack of gum across the room and narrowly missing Derek’s head.
I wasn’t in the mood.
Didn’t wait for Cam’s speech or Beckett’s inevitable attempt to rally the team for a bar run. I took my key card and headed for the elevator without a word.
The quiet didn’t last long.
When I opened the door to the room, she was already there.
Daphne sat cross-legged on the bed, laptop propped on her thighs, fingers flying over the keyboard. Her ponytail was half up, half falling out. Glasses perched low on her nose. The hoodie she wore was oversized—gray, slightly frayed at the cuffs—not mine, but close enough that my pulse spiked, anyway.
She looked up at the sound of the door. Blinked once. “You’re staying here?”
I dropped my duffel by the wall and let the door swing shut behind me. “Apparently.”
“Cam said… well. Cam said a lot of things.”
“Of course he did.”
There was a pause. Her gaze shifted to the bed. She stepped aside, motioning with her chin. “There’s only one.”
