Page 21 of Break

She’s mine and I’ll do whatever it takes to prove that, even if it means fighting people off. Even if it means she’s a little uncomfortable, even if it means punishing her for disappearing on me.

Eleven

HOPE

Things seem to have settled down. My father hasn’t called. The guys have kept some distance since they’re focused on actual practice and have no reason to come into my physical therapy room.

Which means I get to work more thoroughly, focusing with a few of the guys who are still recovering and the second-string guys who are facing injuries along with the olderplayers.

One of the guys grunts as he works out his knee. His old ACL injury has been giving him trouble.

“Ben, if it’s sore, we might need to talk to a doctor,” I say softly.

He shakes his head. “No way. I’m finishing this season.”

“No one’s arguing that,” I say with a laugh. “I want to make sure that you’re able to walk without a cane afterward.”

He chuckles, but that’s the end of it. Since he was one of the guys around Knox the other day, looking at his phone, I want to ask what he saw, but every time I nearly build up to it, something else comes up.

I’m sure that he would have told me by now. I’m sure that one of the guys would have made a move on me or hinted in some way. Since no one has and since there’s no tension, nothing from Coach going on, I have to assume that Knox didn’t show them a video of me in a compromising position.

Maybe he doesn’t even have it.

Was it an empty threat? Or did he not realize that I didn’t check the box? To be fair, it hasn’t come up because we just got all the drug and blood tests back. I head over to Jared to check on him.

His shoulder is healing nicely, but at the same time, I’m worried about him. He’s determined to push harder since Dimitri, Jaxon, and Knox have started.

I gently put my hand on his shoulder. “Jared, slow down, please. Working out properly is part of this. If you don’t follow through at the right motion, you’re putting extra pressure on your shoulder.”

Coach Carpenter drops by and meets my eyes. “Why didn’t you approve Knox?”

“You know why. It’s the only box that’s blank,” I murmur, keeping my eyes down.

“He has to be approved or he can’t play. We have a scrimmage coming up, and if I can’t prove he’s good to go, he’s wasted on the bench.”

As much as I don’t want to own up to the fact that I didn’t check that box and I don’t want toinviteKnox to do something, there’s no avoiding it now.

“He can come by in an hour. Jared will be done then,” I whisper.

I force a smile, but Jared stops. “Don’t do that.”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t fake a smile for me. I don’t want that. What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Let’s work on some new stretches. No weights,” I decide.

I show him how to work his shoulder and ways he can do it at home. Once we start to wind down, I’m sure he’s clocked every single moment that I’ve looked away during the conversation. Every single time he mentions the ‘new guys’.

Jared takes a breath. “Hope.”

“Jared?” I answer.

“You know you can talk to me about things, right? I consider us friends. So if there’s something going on with the new guys, if you’re secretly dating one of them or have some history withone of them, you can tell me,” he says and winks. “I’m really good at secrets.”

And I have too many secrets.

I shake my head, resisting the urge to gag at the idea of dating one of them. “No, nothing, they were just some players from a team my dad coached.”

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