“Beck—"
“Not right now, Aaron. I have to find Brody. He seemed really upset.”
“I just thought you should know that Pierce has been saying some other things. About you and Brody.”
I stop short and spin around, looking down at Aaron, who is a good six or seven inches shorter than me. “What did he say? Wait.” I shake my head and resume walking. “Nope. I don’t care. I’ll deal with that asshole later.”
Everyone knows by now that Pierce is a vindictive piece of work and mostly full of shit. Just because he dug up a few truths about Brody doesn’t mean anyone will believe him about me.
Why am I thinking about that anyway? Why am I worrying about myself at all, when Brody needs me?
Coach McCoy sees me charging towards him and says something to end his conversation with the official. I hear the official say that a police officer will be arriving soon to take statements.
“Police?” I ask incredulously.
Coach nods and gestures for me to keep my voice down.
“Mr. Jamison wants to file charges for assault.”
My face flushes hot with rage. “Seriously? Was his nose even broken?”
“No, he got lucky.” Coach scoffs. “Miller obviously held back. Otherwise, Pierce would have been out cold.” He gives me a pointed look. “Not that it makes it okay what Mr. Miller did.”
I wave him off. “Pierce had it coming. And yeah, I know I’m supposed to be the captain and keep order, but I might have done it myself if I’d been in the room to hear the things he was saying about Brody’s family.”
“Between you and me, I might have liked to see Jamison get knocked on his ass.”
I snort a small laugh. “That part I did see, and it was pretty awesome.”
Coach clears his throat and pulls his shoulders back, getting back to business. “Anyway. We’ve got a shitstorm waiting for us at home. Do you have any idea where Miller ran off to?”
“I was hoping you knew,” I say, looking around at the last few Nebraska wrestlers walking around. “His old roommate was on the team. The guy I wrestled, Leo something. And there was, um, a guy with them. Small guy, with sandy hair and freckles. Looked kind of…” I want to saysoftorcuteorpretty,but change directions mid-sentence. “They looked close,” I say, the words tasting like battery acid on my tongue.
Coach nods. “I’ll talk to their coach and see what I can find out.”
“Coach McCoy, how bad is it?”
“Jamison’s parents are already calling a lawyer. I expect the athletics director and the dean will be involved once the assault charges Pierce is filing from the hospital are filed.”
“A hospital, seriously?” I feel an entire ocean’s worth of rage rushing through my veins. I’m bloated and sick with it. “That’s ridiculous, and everyone who was in that locker room knows it.”
“I know,” Coach cuts in, holding up a hand. “I heard enough about it already, believe me. I’ve gotten statements from a few of the guys already that Miller was provoked. That will matter, but it doesn’t erase the fact that Miller swung first. Unfortunately, Jamison’s family has the pull to make things very bad for him. I’m going to do what I can, but this is serious.”
I swallow hard. “What’s going to happen?”
“For now? He’s suspended,” he says. “Indefinitely. No practice, no meets, no team activities until the administration decides what to do. I’m going to be straight with you, Beckett.” His gaze meets mine, unflinching. “If the Jamison family pushes this the way I expect they will, there’s a good chance that Mr. Miller will be expelled. At best, he’ll lose his scholarship.”
I hear the words, but they don’t quite land. They hover in the space between us like smoke.
Brody is going to be expelled. There’s no way the Jamison family won't throw their weight around.
If I could have just swallowed my pride and my jealousy and listened to my gut, I could have stopped him. The moment I saw the pain in his eyes and the tears tracking down his face, I knew something was wrong. I should have reached out, held him back, made him talk to me.
But talking was always his thing, and I was too much of a chickenshit to let anyone see me show another man affection. Because God forbid another man reach out and touch someone’s shoulder or comfort them.
I want to be holding him right now.
“Is there anything I can do?” I ask Coach McCoy, hating how small my voice sounds.
