Callum grabs his duffel and storms toward the stairs. I follow.
In our room, he throws his bag on the bed. “He’s being selfish as fuck.”
“Cal—”
“No. Don’t defend him. We’ve been friends for three years and he’s throwing it all away because he can’t handle sharing.”
I sit on my bed and run my hands through my hair. “I’ve been friends with him a lot longer, Cal. He’s not just upset about sharing. He’s upset about losing.”
“He’s not losing anything. Tiger chose all of us.”
“That’s the problem. He doesn’t want to be one of three. He wants to be the only one.”
Callum paces. “Well, that’s not happening. So he needs to get over it or get out.”
“Yeah.”
He stops and looks at me. “We have a championship to win. We have a team that depends on us. And he’s sabotaging everything because his ego can’t handle not being the center of attention.”
“It’s not about ego. It’s about fear.” I lean back against the headboard. “He’s scared. Same as we are. But he’s dealing with it by trying to control everything instead of just... letting go.”
Callum sits on his bed and stares at the floor for a long, quiet minute. “I won’t let her go.”
“Yeah. Me neither.”
“Think she’s okay?”
“I don’t know. Hope so.”
We sit in silence for a while. Then Callum says, “We’re going to lose tomorrow. You know that, right?”
“Not if we play smart.”
“We can’t play smart when our right wing won’t even look at our left wing.”
He’s right. And we both know it.
Team dinner is at a steakhouse down the street. Long tables, team spread out, coaches at one end.
I end up between Nolan and Asher. Callum’s across from me. Jax is at the far end of the table next to Micah and some of the younger guys.
As far from us as possible.
Micah leans over to Jax and says something I can’t hear. Jax shrugs and doesn’t respond.
Micah tries again. Jax pulls out his phone.
“What’s his deal?” Asher asks me quietly.
“Like Nolan said. Personal shit.”
“Personal shit that’s affecting the team.”
“We’ll handle it.”
“You better. We can’t afford to lose tomorrow.”
Halfway through dinner, one of the guys makes a joke about something. Everyone laughs except Jax.
