Page 41 of Her Player

I had to go find Victoria.

“Our game this Friday is the big one,” Coach said. “Detroit Pirates. Our greatest rivals, and the only other team in our division that’s undefeated, and that was with their starting line sick at the beginning of the year. Winning against them won’t be easy. It’ll all come down to who wants it more. So who wants it more?!”

“We want it more!” Jett exclaimed.

Coach’s downturned frown surveyed all of us before he bellowed again. “I said who wants it more?!”

“We want it more!” the team exclaimed.

Coach grinned and said it again. “Who wants it more?!”

I stood to my feet and slammed my locker closed. “We want it more!”

“Who wants it more?!”

“We want it more!”

“WHO WANTS IT MORE?!”

“WE WANT IT MOOOOOORE!”

The stomping of our feet was peppered with the sounds of some of the guys pattering their hands against the metal locker doors. I joined in with the team, leading them in a rousing chant that filled us with a second shot of adrenaline by the time the team poured back into Caldwell Arena. While they all turned right with some of them headed to the weight room for a nice cooldown workout, I turned left. I wanted to know how Victoria felt about waking up alone this morning after what happened between us last night.

I didn’t even get five steps down the damn hallway before Coach barked behind me.

“Stone!”

I turned and watched him crook his finger at me. I slung my duffel bag over my shoulder and walked back over to him.

“What’s up, Coach?” I asked.

He looked at me for a long moment. Not angry exactly. The look of a man who had already done the math and didn’t love the answer. “I saw you coming out of her room this morning.”

I didn’t say anything.

“I’m not going to tell you what to do,” he said. “You’re a grown man and so am I and we both know that ship has sailed.” He crossed his arms. “But I need you to understand something.”

“I’m listening.”

“That woman has been holding this franchise together for fourteen years alone. She buried her husband, raised her daughter, and built something out of nothing while the whole city watched and waited for her to fail.” His jaw tightened. “Brynn is just now starting to breathe again after everything the media put her through. If this goes sideways, it doesn’t just hurt you. It lands on all of them.”

I held his gaze. “I know that.”

“Do you?”

“I’ve known it since day one of this team, Coach.” I kept my voice even. “Why do you think I waited?”

He studied me for a long moment. His expression went quiet. Not quite approval but close enough.

“Be careful with her,” he said finally. Quieter this time. Like he actually meant it as advice and not a warning.

I nodded. “Anything else?”

He swept his eyes down my body before pushing past me. “See you back at the house.”

“The hell happened to you, Stone?” Jett asked with a smile on his face as he cranked out some pull ups. “You look like someone gave you something to think about.”

I dropped my bag in the corner and picked up hand weights without answering. Coach’s words were still sitting in my chest, not heavy exactly but present. That woman has been holding this franchise together for fourteen years alone. I knew that. I’d always known that. But hearing him say it out loud, a man who didn’t hand out words like that without meaning them, landed differently.