“But I didn’t trust what would happen after,” she adds. “You had a reputation, and I wasn’t interested in being a headline.”
“That’s fair.”
“And because I liked you,” she finishes quietly.
That hits.
“Liked me,” I repeat.
“Enough that I didn’t want to be another story.”
I nod slowly.
“You weren’t off limits because of Mason,” I say. “You were off limits because I knew I wouldn’t treat you casually.”
Her breath shifts.
“That night,” I continue, “I was fresh off a win. Everyone was loud. I was not in a place to do something careful. And you deserved careful.”
She looks down at her hands.
“I didn’t trust your timing,” she admits. “Not your character. Your timing.”
“That’s accurate.”
“I didn’t want to be something you tried on after a good game.”
“You wouldn’t have been.”
“But you couldn’t guarantee that then,” she says.
She’s right.
I step closer.
“So why now?” I ask quietly. “Why did you say yes?”
She leans back against the counter. Doesn’t break eye contact.
“Because I trust you,” she says. “Because you show up. Because when things get hard, you don’t disappear. You lean in.”
I swallow.
“Because I’ve seen you choose Maddie over everything” she continues. “And because you never once tried to flirt your way into something easy with me.”
“That would’ve gone badly.”
“It would’ve gone nowhere,” she corrects.
She studies me now.
“Why me?” she asks.
“Because you’re steady,” I answer immediately. “Because you don’t panic. Because you don’t get dazzled by the hockey stuff. Because you see me as a dad before you see me as a player.”
Her throat moves.
“And because you were never easy,” I add. “You never leaned in just because I looked at you. You made me think.”
