"That's not good enough."
I looked up. "What do you want me to say?"
"I want you to say what you actually want. Not what's safe. Not what's easy." His eyes were steady on mine. "What do you want, Liam?"
You. I want you. I want to wake up like this again. I want to know what your stupid meditation app says tomorrow morning. I want your gross towel and your obsessive bed-making. I want—
"This," I said. "I want this."
"This meaning—"
"This." I gestured between us. At the bed. At the room. "Whatever this is. I want to keep doing it."
"Secretly?" He asked.
The word landed like a stone.
"For now," I said.
"For now."
"I'm not—" I stopped. Rubbed my face. "I'm not ready for people to know. I'm not ready for my team to look at me different or for the coaches to make it weird or for—" I stopped again. "Your dad."
Alex's jaw tightened. Just slightly. "My father isn't a factor."
"He's always a factor."
"Not in this. Not anymore." His voice was firm. "I'm done making decisions based on what he wants."
"That's easy to say—"
"It's not easy. It's not easy at all." Something flickered in his eyes. "But I'm done."
I believed him. That was the terrifying part—I actually believed him.
"One day at a time," I said. "Can we do that?"
"What does that look like?"
"It looks like—" I paused. Tried to actually think about it instead of just throwing out words to buy time. "We see each other when we can. Carefully. We don't put labels on it. We don't make big declarations. We just—take it a day at a time and figure it out as we go."
"And the teams?"
"They don't know."
"And if someone finds out?"
"We deal with it then."
Alex studied me. I could see him calculating—running scenarios, assessing risks, doing that Harrington mental math that made me feel weirdly safe because at least one of us was thinking ahead.
"Okay," he said finally. "One day at a time."
"Okay."
"But Liam—" He caught my eyes. Held them. "I'm not going to pretend this doesn't matter. I'll keep it secret. I'll be careful. But I'm not going to act like you're nothing to me. Not anymore."
My throat went tight.
