Page 157 of Scrum Heat

“I checked the comments earlier.”

I glance at her.

She’s still focused on the thread. “I know I’m not supposed to. Harper’ll lose her mind if she finds out. But I just... I was curious. Wanted to see how things were settling.”

She snorts, but it’s not funny. “They’re not settling.”

A breeze pushes through the yard, and the wind chime rattles. She keeps her voice light, but her shoulders shift, almost as though she’s bracing.

“They’re getting meaner. Smarter. It’s not just slut jokes and bonding shit now. It’s my family. My body. Stuff I said in interviews.” She pauses. “Stuff I didn’t.”

I don’t say anything, but my thumb strokes over the back of her hand.

“I don’t know,” she says, quieter now. “Sometimes I think I’d prefer a punch to the face. At least you know where that’s coming from.”

I can’t help it. I freeze.

She feels it, and her head tilts toward me.

“What?” She turns fully now, leaning on her other hand. “Jax?”

I look at her as she waits, and for some reason—maybe because she’s here, maybe because I’ve been carrying it too long—I answer.

“My stepfather used to hit me.”

She swallows thickly, but her face doesn’t change.

“I wasn’t trying to compare,” she says softly.

“I know.”

“I was just—”

“I know,” I repeat. “It’s not the same.”

But the way she said it stuck in my chest anyway.

“He wasn’t... full-time violent. Not always. Just enough that I learned fast. How to read the house when I walked in. How to disappear.”

She goes still beside me.

“I stopped leaving stuff out. Got good at being quiet. At not giving him reasons.”

I glance at her. She’s still here, still steady.

“I left when I was sixteen. Never looked back.”

She doesn’t speak, but her fingers wrap tighter around mine.

“I think Finn knew,” I add. “He was around a lot back then. Never asked, but he could tell. He just... stuck close.”

There’s a pause. A shift in the air.

“You didn’t deserve that,” she murmurs.

“And you don’t deserve this,” I say quietly. “The constant shit from people who wouldn’t last a second in your shoes.”

Her mouth twists. “Yeah, well. Apparently I’ve got the kind of face that makes people furious on the internet.”

---