Chapter 36
THIRTY-SIX
KENNEDY
HENRY ANDERSON—ALWAYS THE PROTECTOR.
My feet were killing me, and my throat was sore from how much I had talked, but none of it mattered. The event had been a success.
Everyone had gone home, and I hadn’t seen Henry since we parted ways for me to make my rounds. But when I found out his father was in attendance—a last-minute addition no one told me about—I understood why he was nowhere to be found. I didn’t blame him.
It was a bittersweet moment, standing in the middle of the empty venue.
My heart was full, and tears welled in my eyes as I took a deep breath, my gaze landing on the Strikers logo centered on the stage.
The venue crew was already tearing it down—packing up lights, folding chairs, peeling back the illusion.
With every piece that disappeared, something in my chest cracked a little more.
It felt like the end of something I wasn’t ready to let go of.
A symbolic gut punch—my hopes and dreams being dismantled right in front of me.
This was all I wanted. Just one more day of normalcy.
One more day to pretend my career was still going somewhere with this organization.
Because tomorrow morning, when I strolled into Anthony’s office and told him everything, I’d be walking straight into the end of it all.
“Kenny.”
I quickly dried my tears and turned around, finding Henry standing a few feet away from me. His bow tie was untied, hanging around his neck. His hair was disheveled, and his eyes were a little bit red. It cracked my heart.
“I’m sorry I disappeared,” he began to apologize, but I shook my head.
“You don’t have to explain yourself. I saw your father. Trust me, I would have done the same.” My laugh was small, wobbly. It took every ounce of energy out of me.
He took a few steps closer. “We need to talk.”
A heavy silence fell between us. Anxiety slithered up my spine and curled around my chest, squeezing until each breath felt like a battle. I didn’t say a word, because part of me knew. This was it. This was the moment I had to come clean.
“What did my father say to you?” His question was barely audible.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I flinched. It was instinct to be dismissive. Old habits die hard, or whatever.
“Kennedy,” he warned. His eyes met mine in a desperate plea. It gutted me. I didn’t want to be the source of his pain. “Please, don’t lie to me. We’re better than that.”
I took a deep breath, trying to steady the tremble in my voice, trying to will the truth back down my throat.
But it clawed its way up anyway, bitter and heavy.
“He knew everything about me and tried to pay me off to break up with you. I said no, of course, but then…he saw the contract.” I tilted my head up to keep the tears at bay.
“And he put me in an impossible position.” My voice cracked.
I was so angry at myself. I was so adamant about having that stupid contract, thinking it was going to keep everything professional between us.
As if Henry and I hadn’t already been falling for each other little by little.
As if a flimsy piece of paper with some dumb written rules and signatures was going to stop me from falling in love with the man who stood in front of me. The man who saw every part of me.
He stayed quiet, just looking at me, giving me the silent go-ahead to continue.
I shook my head with a deep sigh of defeat. “Your father is not a kind man. He’s out to ruin both of our careers. Which is why I’m telling Anthony it was all my idea.”
“But that’s a lie—”
“I don’t care if it’s a lie. I got you into this mess.
” I let out a short, humorless laugh, the kind that came from somewhere deep and exhausted.
“You think I don’t know you were thinking of me when you came up with this idea?
” I looked at him, my chest aching. “You forget I know you now. I know how selfless and kind you are. I know you’d be willing to risk everything for the people you care about.
And don’t tell me you did this because you cared about your reputation, because we both know it isn’t true. ”
The silence was so thick and deafening, it was suffocating me. Burning my lungs as I held my breath, bracing for impact.
His sigh was heavy. Resigned. “At the beginning, maybe, yeah. But eventually, I wanted to take advantage of it, too,” he said, taking two steps closer. “You can’t take the whole blame. This is not how it works.”
I took two steps back. I couldn’t let him touch me—I couldn’t even meet his eyes, because if I did, I’d break. I’d cave. “I’m not going to make you choose between me and your career. You’ve worked so hard, you’ve—”
“And you haven’t?” he snapped, his voice louder now, raw with frustration as he raked both hands through his hair. “Jesus, Kennedy.”
The room echoed with his words, but it was otherwise empty. No staff. No background noise. Just us, standing in the middle of a night that was supposed to be a milestone in my career. Now it felt like the undoing of everything.
He took a step toward me, his jaw clenched. “What about you? Everything you’ve done to get here? If you think I’m going to stand here and let you throw that away for me, then you don’t know me at all.”
“This is an impossible situation your father put me in. He can ruin both of us. Don’t you get that?
And I’d rather go down for it.” My throat bobbed, and it felt like I was gulping thick pieces of broken glass.
I wanted him to understand me, but even if he didn’t, it wasn’t going to stop me.
This was probably the most selfless thing I’d ever done for someone.
But it was the right thing to do. When you love someone with every piece of your soul, when that person shows you there’s more to you than you ever thought possible, it’s easy to let go of the things that, in the grand scheme, didn’t matter.
I could build a career somewhere else. That wasn’t the problem.
But what Henry and I had—that was one in a million.
I felt it in my gut. I felt it in my bones.
It took being in a long relationship, planning a whole wedding with a man I thought I loved, and breaking my own heart to finally understand what real love was really like.
The universe, God—whatever force was out there—put me through those experiences for a reason.
To shape me. To prepare me. Because something better, something truer, was waiting for me on the other side.
And now that I had it, I wasn’t going to let it go. Not without a fight.
“Then maybe we give him what he wants,” he whispered.
My heart sank. It was like the ground dropped from beneath me.
Everything around me blurred. The chandelier above us, the fading murmur of voices in the hall, even the way Henry was looking at me.
It all disappeared beneath the sting of those words.
Tears stung my eyes so fast I didn’t have time to stop them.
My lungs tightened like they’d forgotten how to work.
“What?” My voice trembled, barely audible over the rush in my ears.
“I’m not going to let you sacrifice your career for me.” There was a crack in his composure, a flicker of guilt in his eyes that told me this wasn’t what he wanted. Like he was convincing himself it was the only way.
Henry Anderson—always the protector. Always trying to be fucking noble.
“You don’t get to decide what I do with my”—I jabbed a finger against my chest—“life. I’m not a problem for you to fix. I am an adult capable of making my own decisions.”
“It’s just for the meantime,” he replied weakly.
“No.”
“Kennedy,” his voice cracked. “Please. I am only trying to help.”
“And you think breaking up is the solution?” My voice rose, brittle and sharp as glass. My chest was heaving now, the anger mixing with the inevitable heartbreak in a way that made it hard to breathe.
He flinched but didn’t look away. “I think it’ll keep you safe.”
“Safe?” I let out a breathless, humorless laugh. “God, Henry. You don’t get it. Do you?”
“Get what, Kennedy? That my father is insane? Believe me, I understand—”
“That I would do anything for you, because I love you, you idiot!” The words tumbled out of me, raw and furious and terrified all at once.
I shook my head as my shoulders sagged. “I love you so much it makes me selfish. It makes me willing to give up everything just so you don’t have to suffer anymore at the hands of him. ”
Everything happened in a blur. In the next second, he moved.
Three long strides, and he was in front of me.
His hands cradled my face with a kind of desperation that stole the breath right from my chest, and before I could even blink, his mouth was on mine in a fierce kiss.
It wasn’t gentle or careful. His lips moved against mine like it was the only way he knew how to say all the things he couldn’t voice.
The kiss was every bit consuming, like he’d lost the last shred of self-control and decided that if we were going to burn, we’d do it together—tongue, teeth, heartbreak, and all.
When he pulled back, I gasped for air. My brain was dizzy. My body hummed with euphoria. Every nerve ending sparked beneath his touch, overwhelmed by his presence.
His forehead came to rest against mine, and his breath was sharp before he whispered, voice rough, “I love you so damn much it fucking terrifies me. Which is why we’re going to figure something out—together.
” His eyes searched mine, glimmering with quiet desperation and fierce determination.
“You don’t have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders anymore, because I’m here, okay?
I’m fucking here, and I’m not going anywhere. I’m sorry I even suggested it.”
Tears ran down my cheeks, but he wiped them with his thumbs, holding me like I was something precious. “I understand why you had that reaction. Trust me, I do. But we can’t let him break us apart. I can find another job with another team. Honestly, it doesn’t even have to be sports. I’ll be okay.”
He shook his head adamantly then leaned in and pressed his lips to my forehead. His arms wrapped around me—tight, fierce, protective. The kind of hug that felt like a promise. “We’ll figure it out,” he murmured against my hair. “But you’re not taking the fall for this. Not alone. Not ever.”