Page 94 of Soft
"Relationships are complicated. People are complicated. I'm not going to reduce something that matters to me to fit into a mold you seem to think exists."
He opened his mouth for the follow-up and that was when Royce appeared at my left shoulder. I could see the smirk they wore from the corner of my eye.
"We don't judge couples who meet at work," Royce said, pleasant as anything, their eyes on the reporter with an expression that was technically a smile. Non-technically, it was a threat. "That would be a little hypocritical given our own history, wouldn't it, Kenneth?"
Kenneth, who had materialized just as smoothly on my other side, made a sound of quiet agreement before taking a sip from the drink in his hand.
The reporter blinked, opening his mouth as if to respond.
Royce continued as if they didn’t notice. "We're proud of this team. All of it. The roster, the staff, the people who showed up tonight. That's the story, if you're looking for one. Not a matter of someone’s personal life. Schedule an interview if you want a feature piece."
It wasn't a dismissal exactly. It was a door being closed with such perfect manners that the person on the other side of it didn't immediately realize they were no longer in the room.
He tried once more, focusing back on me. "Would you say then that you and Grizzly are?—"
"Why do you even care?" Gillies stepped up beside Kenneth, soda in hand, expression genuinely baffled. "Do you want to date Wells yourself? Because I can give you his schedule, but I have to warn you, he's not that interesting off the field. Dude is a homebody. He’s got great taste in movies though. Might be your thing."
The conversation died there. Anything else the reporter said would only dig him deeper into the hole of his own making.
I stood in the quiet aftermath of what had to be one of the best interceptions I’d ever witnessed. It sucked to make a football reference, but I’d fret over it later. I didn’t have a better way to describe the beauty of the moment.
Kenneth touched my arm briefly before he left. The gesture was encouraging. As if to say he had my back no matter what. Royce stepped around me, directly between the reporter and myself to get to their partner. The couple left without a glance back.
Gillies was already gone, absorbed back into the crowd as he worked the room. The man was an entertainer on every level. He probably had another group captivated with a joke or two.
The reporter sighed, then left me alone as he took off for the exit. I watched him leave with an immense sense of relief.
I let my eyes wander back to my boy where he was still propped up near the door. This time he wasn’t in conversation with anyone. His eyes were already on me.
How much of that had he seen? Was he the reason Kenneth and Royce showed up? I’d bet a lot of money the reporter had a habit of cornering people.
The privacy we'd kept carefully was thinner now than it had been an hour ago. And still, what I saw in his expression wasn’t panic.
The tightness across my shoulders released. I made my way over to him, positioning my body against the wall next to him. Close, though not nearly as close as I would have liked.
There’d be time formorelater. Being close to him would hold me over until then.
CHAPTER 31
Grizzly
The morning after the event, I made the mistake of checking my phone before I was fully awake.
That was the whole problem, really. My eyes were still adjusting, the room still dim, and I had the phone angled close to see without having to put my glasses on. I found a slew of notifications waiting for me. Two were from Cheyenne, which was unusual for a Sunday. Multiple ones from various Bellport family members. Even Monty had dropped in with a string of emojis I couldn’t make sense of.
Cheyenne’s messages came first since they were the most out of place. The first had ‘Don’t panic,’ followed by the second which was just a link. Obviously I clicked it while wondering what I would possibly need to do damage control on.
I read the headline twice to make sure I was understanding it correctly. It was about a client, just not in the way I thought.
Blue Jays’ Wells and his agent: More Than Business?
Oh, that fucking asshole. There was no need to check who wrote it. I’d known the minute I saw Lexington Beads approaching my Daddy that there would be trouble.
I set the phone face down on the nightstand. Then I stared at the ceiling for a while.
The ceiling was a veryneutralsurface. It had no opinions about what I’d done or not. It simply existed, which felt like the correct energy for the moment.
Just existing.
