His eyes searched my face.
I said it plainly, because that was what he needed. No performance. No pretty line to hide behind.
“I love you. In this kitchen. With your father on the phone. With consequences coming. None of that makes it smaller.”
His breath caught.
Then his forehead dropped to my shoulder.
I wrapped my arms around him and held on. He didn’t fall apart loudly. He just shook once, hard, like his body had waited until the call ended to admit what it had taken from him. Tiny leaned his full weight against both of us, a hundred and something pounds of poorly timed support.
Jace’s voice came muffled against my shirt. “Your dog is crushing my foot.”
“He’s emotionally invested.”
“He needs boundaries.”
“He learned from you.”
That got a weak laugh out of him.
The next morning began with rules neither of us liked.
Separate alarms. Separate showers. Separate cars. No lingering by the side entry. No kiss at the door that could stretch into hands under clothes and make both of us late. No text that looked harmless to anyone else but would put me right back in his apartment in my head.
Jace hated every second of it.
So did I.
He stood near the door with his equipment bag over one shoulder, dressed in his own hoodie, though I was almost certain one of mine had disappeared into that bag during the night. His sneakers were untied. He noticed me looking and muttered, “I know,” before crouching to fix them.
Progress, not a miracle.
When he stood, he counted off on his fingers. “Practice. Gym. Media availability for exactly three minutes because Tessa threatened actual bodily harm. Attorney at one.”
“My attorney at one thirty.”
“Tessa at three.”
“Yes.”
“No closed doors.”
“No private spaces.”
“No texts that sound like we’ve seen each other naked in the last twelve hours.”
“We have.”
“Terrible legal defense, Coach.”
“Don’t use it.”
He stared at me for a beat too long. His attention dropped to my mouth, and the whole room tightened around the thing we were not doing.
I waited.
He made a pained noise. “This responsible version of us is deeply annoying.”
