He laughed. “You’re already there with me, man. You just don’t know it yet. And spoiler alert…it is sweet.”
Parker leaned back, a towel slung around his neck. “He’s got that look we all had. The one where you’re pretending it’s just curiosity. I’ll just save you the suspense—it never is.”
The guys’ laughter filled the room again, but I barely heard it.
Because they weren’t wrong.
Even if I wanted to fight it…I was starting to wonder if it was already too late.
I could still feel her against me, the way her body trembled.
Ophelia.
I twisted the cap back onto the water bottle and leaned forward, elbows on my knees.
I wasn’t sure what the next step was…I just knew it involved me finding her.
And keeping her.
Not because I was supposed to, but because Ineededto.
Fuck.
The hallway outside the locker room was mostly empty now, the sound of the crowd long gone. There was nothing but the echo of my sneakers against the concrete and the faint hum of lights burning overhead.
My hair was still damp from the shower, my hands jammed in my pockets, the collar of my hoodie brushing my jaw. I should’ve felt calm by now—the interviews were done, the press had gotten their sound bites, the trainers had cleared my ankle.
But calm wasn’t happening.
My pulse was still running the game like it hadn’t ended. Every time I blinked, I saw her…the flash of her eyes in the tunnel, the way she’d whispered when she spoke like she didn’t know if she was allowed to talk to me or not.
I didn’t think I could go the whole night without seeing her again.
Jace had somehow hacked into the school records system earlier—on his phone, of all things—and pulled up the dorm list like it was nothing. He’d texted me her room number during the postgame press conference with a winking emoji and the wordsDon’t do anything I wouldn’t do.
Which, considering who it came from, covered exactly nothing.
I hadn’t even opened the message yet, afraid that once I saw it, I’d use it.
But standing in that hallway, the temptation was about to kill me.
I could picture it, me standing outside her window, watching her lie in bed, her hair spilling across a pillow.
My fingers itched toward my phone.
Just to look. Just tosee.
One glance.
I was still trying to decide which version of crazy would make me feel less pathetic when I turned the corner—and stopped short.
“Matty!”
Lizzie came tearing down the hallway, her pigtails bouncing, the sleeves of her orange hoodie flapping past her hands. She was half flying, half tripping, and I barely had time to catch her before she collided with me.
“Whoa there,” I said, laughing as my little sister wrapped her arms around my waist. “You trying to take me out before next week’s game?”
“You won!” she said, muffled against my chest. “You said you’d score for me!”
