Both things are true. They live next to each other in me and they’re not getting smaller.
He needs to hear it from me. He needs to hear it from me before it shows up in a comment thread or a podcast or a piece of mail Riley has to flag for legal, and the longer I wait the worse the version is when it lands.
Tomorrow.
I’m going to tell him tomorrow. I open my personal notebook.I’ve had the word for a while. Long enough that writing it isn’t discovery anymore. It’s just me being annoying and late.
I write it small near the margin anyway.
Pick up my phone. I’m going to text him. I don’t know what I’m going to say. I’ll figure it out when I —
Open messenger. One waiting. Not from Jax.
Heard you’ve been having fun in Canyon Bay, NV. Funny thing — people are starting to ask about the V. North angle. Wouldn’t take much to help them along. Thought you should know before it moves. — G
NV.
My stomach drops so hard it almost hurts.
Not because of the message. Because of that nickname.
Because for half a second I am back in Tampa, sitting across from Griffin Novak while he smiles like he knows exactly which parts of me are easiest to make small. Two letters, and suddenly Canyon Bay feels less like a place I chose and more like a room with no exits.
My notebook’s on the table. The word I just wrote inside it.
He was right there. I could’ve just—
No.
I press my palm flat against the cover like I can keep the thought trapped if I hold it down hard enough.
I have a flight to Vegas in six hours.
So I do what I’m good at.
I turn the panic into logistics.
I pack.
Chapter twenty-four
Jax
WewinGame4in Vegas.
Five to two. Aiden gets one. Two goals against — both flukes, both situations where I read it right and the puck found a way anyway. Neither the hand. I know the difference now.
Twenty-eight saves and we’re up 3-1 in the series and on a bus heading back to a hotel that the Vegas franchise put us up in like they’re trying to win something off the ice too.
I’ve been in road hotels for twelve years.
This one isn’t a hotel.
The Vegas team handles their visiting opponents the way Vegas handles everything — too much, on purpose, becausetoo muchis the brand. The starting goalie gets a suite. The captains get suites. The coaches get suites. There is a card on everynightstand from the GM personally welcoming us and a bottle of something nobody’s going to drink because we’re playing again in two days.
Brody read the card out loud on the bus and got a standing ovation.
Nova’s two rows back.
