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As if reading my mind, Cally said, “We’ll make it.”

“We only have eleven minutes,” I said, as if he couldn’t do the math himself.

“I’ll get you there,” Mom said, white-knuckling the wheel at ten and two as she blew past a silver sedan going thirty-five in the middle lane.

Cally leaned into the gap between the front seats, resting a hand on my shoulder. I turned my head and kissed his thumb.

In the rearview mirror, Cally’s eyes went wide with shock.

I let go, making an “oh shit” face at him, and shoved my hands under my thighs.

My knee started bouncing as my mom cleared her throat. “So,” she said, her tone deceptively casual. “This morning was quite the surprise.”

I groaned, slouching down in my seat. “Can we not do this right now?”

“Okay,” she sighed, keeping her eyes on the road ahead. “Some other time then.”

My mom hadn’t asked to discover us snuggled up together half-naked. She probably had a fuck ton of questions, not the least of which were: “Do you know what you’re doing?” and “Have you really thought this through?”

I caught Cally’s wide-eyed gaze again and lifted my eyebrow in silent question. He nodded, giving me a small, encouraging smile.

“Fine.” I hooked a thumb under the shoulder strap of my seat belt and pulled it slack so I could turn to face her. “What do you want to know?”

“For starters—” She clicked on her blinker, looked in her side mirror, and changed lanes. “How long has this been going on?”

“A couple of months,” I answered, redirecting the air vent toward my face.

She rolled her lips between her teeth. “But you’ve only known each other a couple of months.”

“Long enough to know I love him.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes darting my way again before moving to the rearview mirror.

“I love him too, Mrs. Porter,” he said, his voice solemn.

“Barb,” she replied automatically. “And I’m happy to hear that, but …” She trailed off, and I forced myself not to imagine all the ways that sentence could end.

I didn’t want to be uncharitable, but my job—and the hefty paycheck that came with it—had made a lot of things about my family’s life infinitely more tolerable. The moment she’d stumbled upon us this morning, she would have considered all the ways our relationship could negatively impact my career.

The hard truth was that if the Marauders decided Cally and I were a distraction or that we’d broken some code of conduct, they’d protect the player they’d spent years investing in, not the grinder who’d barely made the roster in the first place. And if that happened, my family would be right back where we started—dirt poor and drowning in a sea of debt.

I couldn’t help but worry that “but” was less about my heart and more about my bank account.

“But what, Barb?” Cally asked, his tone even, almost robotic-like.

“Nothing.” She shook her head, signaling for another lane change as we approached our exit. “It doesn’t matter.”

“From the sound of your voice,” Cally observed, “I think it does. To you, at least.”

We coasted to a stop at the bottom of the offramp, and she turned to answer him. “I’m concerned.”

“About what?” The tips of Cally’s fingers sank into the meat of his thighs, but otherwise, there was zero outward evidence that he was anything but calm, cool, and collected.

“His career, obviously,” she huffed, exasperated. “What happens if your team finds out?”

“When they find out,” Cally said. “We’re getting married.”

I couldn’t tell you what my mom’s physical reaction to that news was because the second the words were out of his mouth, I screwed my eyes shut and let out a deep, horrified groan.