Page 17 of Try Line Hearts
Carmody clapped his hands. “Warm-ups in ten. And Byrne—stick around a minute.”
Kaine glanced forward, something questioning and warm flickering across his face. For half a second, their eyes almost met.
Byrne looked away.
He didn’t dare.
“Good leadership yesterday,” Carmody said once the room emptied. “And good protection.”
Byrne’s shoulders went tight. “Protection?”
“When Kaine got hit late.”
“That was enforcing standards.”
Carmody’s brow lifted. “Sure. If that’s what you want to call it.”
Byrne bristled, heat flaring sharp behind his ribs.
He hated how people seemed to see through him. Hated how easily intent got written onto his actions, whether he wanted it there or not.
“Look,” Carmody went on, softer now, “you and the new lad work well together. Use it. Don’t shy away from it.”
“I’m not shying away,” Byrne said.
He was absolutely shying away.
Carmody clapped him on the shoulder. “Then keep at it. And maybe breathe once in a while.”
Byrne nodded stiffly.
He didn’t breathe properly until he stepped outside, cold air snapping into his lungs like punishment.
Training kicked off under an iron-colored sky.
Warm-ups were crisp. Passing drills sharp. Byrne anchored the structure the way he always did—calm, efficient, disciplined to the point of rigidity. Kaine matched him stride for stride, joke for joke with the others, flash for flash of speed.
They were opposites in motion.
And yet—Lucas couldn’t stop noticing how their rhythms locked together. How Kaine anticipated him without trying. How it felt less like learning and more like remembering something they hadn’t done before but somehow already knew.
During a line attack drill, Kaine cut late on a read—the kind of gamble rookies weren’t supposed to take.
It should’ve blown up.
Instead, Byrne felt the shift a heartbeat early and fired a pass he had no business making.
Kaine caught it clean and split a gap that hadn’t existed a second before.
The squad erupted.
“For fuck’s sake, boys,” Cillian Ward laughed. “Leave some chemistry for the rest of us!”
“Captain’s new golden child!” someone shouted.
Byrne jogged back into formation, face carefully blank, neck burning.
Kaine fell in beside him, breath puffing white in the cold.
