The incessant dinging of a phone yanks me out of the deepest sleep of my life.
Disoriented, I blink into the semi-darkness of dawn, trying to figure out if the phone is real or if it was just a dream. I’ve barely had the thought before the dinging starts again, this time in stereo.
“Someone better be dead,” I grumble, rolling over and burying my face in Cam’s chest, pulling the covers up over my head and growling when the phones keep going.
Cam’s body stiffens against me, his breath a short gasp as he rockets up in bed and fumbles for the switch on the bedside lamp, turning it on and grabbing his phone. I understand immediately, and dread curls in my stomach as I go from half asleep to entirely awake in less than a second.
Riley.
Ethan.
I don’t say anything, just lay a hand on the back of his neck as he unlocks his phone with trembling hands. He leans back intomy touch, opening his messages and scanning the screen before letting out a long, slow exhale, his entire body deflating in relief.
“It’s okay.” He turns and drops a kiss on my head, lingering there and inhaling deeply, like he’s breathing me in. His entire body relaxes, and everything inside me warms at the way he’s taking his comfort from me. I wonder whether that will ever stop being the best thing ever. I doubt it. “Everything is okay.”
But then Cam’s phone buzzes again in his hand, and when my phone starts up again, I remember what woke us up in the first place. “What the fuck is happening?” I mutter, reaching over to grab my phone. I click on my own messages, seeing thirty-seven new ones in the Smart Bitches chat, a bunch in my family chat with my parents and siblings, some from Tyler, and a few from Brian and Liv. All of that would be normal but for the fact that it’s four o’clock in the morning and the messages keep rolling in.
Smart Bitches
Maya
Holy fuck, Maddy, are you okay?
Sarah
I’m about to burst into flames. I’m going to CUT A BITCH.
Sophie
Someone talk me out of putting my mad hacking skills to use and making this bitch’s life hell.
Maya
Don’t look at me. I’m talking you out of nothing. Revenge must be paid.
Emmy
Me either. I’ll defend you if you end up in jail.
Caitlin
No one is hatching a revenge plot, and no one is going to jail today.
Maddy, I just booked you a flight from Denver to Pittsburgh that leaves in two hours, and I emailed you the details. Don’t take the team plane. We’ll be at the airport to pick you up. All of us. We’re going to figure this out, I swear to fucking god.
Emmy
That article is SO MUCH TRASH. My computer is out. I’m going full vengeful lawyer on her ass the second the courts open.
Article.
Fuck.
Closing out of the group chat and ignoring the rest of my messages, I hit the browser icon and type my name into the search bar. It’s the first result, the headline from a local sports blog screaming the news I’ve been keeping mostly a secret for months. “Renegades Most Eligible Bachelor Off the Market: All the Details on Cam Lowry’s Secret Relationship with Team Psychologist Maddy Wright.”
Anxiety grips my spine as I click on the link, my eyes scanning the screen. It’s short, mostly speculation and nothing solid, but it names me as team psychologist, the daughter of a former NHL legend, and the sister of a current one. It names my mom and her firm. And it gleefully congratulates me on locking downthe hottest single dad professional sports has ever seenall while questioning the ethics of a team medical professional engaging in ahot and heavyrelationship with a player.
Before my brain can even take in all the words, my eyes land on the pictures.
