Chapter Thirty-Six
Cooper
Talon and Kade met us there, and Kade agreed to drive Brinley’s car back. She was upset, and I wasn’t ready to be away from her again.
She climbs into the passenger seat, her hands trembling in her lap until I lift the center console and pull her over to me.
We don’t say much on the drive back to the house. She just leans her head against my shoulder.
I keep my hand on her thigh, and she wraps her arms around mine. Every few minutes, I turn to press my lips against her temple or lean in to inhale her scent. Something to remind me she’s still here. Still safe.
When we pull into the driveway, I climb out and leave the door open to help her down from my side.
“I’m okay,” she whispers when I reach for her hand.
“I know,” I answer even though I don’t.
She’s strong, though, and I have no doubt she’ll be okay. I just want her to know she can lean on me too.
All the lights are still on when we step inside. Owen’s in the kitchen when he hears us enter. He nods toward me as I cut across the room, leading Brinley upstairs without a word.
In my bathroom, I turn on the tub and let the water warm. Steam starts to gather in the mirror, although I can’t bring myself to look in it.
When I step into my bedroom again, Brinley is sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at her wrists. They’re red from the cuffs.
I kneel in front of her without thinking and gently turn her hands over in mine.
“The bath will be ready in a few minutes,” I say.
She nods, but her focus doesn’t leave her wrists.
“You want me to stay with you?” I ask.
She hesitates, then shakes her head slightly. “I think I need a minute. Just… to clear my head.”
“Okay. I’ll be downstairs.” I press a kiss to her forehead and start to stand—
“Cooper.”
I pause, looking back at her.
“There’s something I didn’t tell you,” she says quietly. “I should’ve.”
My chest tightens. “What is it?”
She swallows, her fingers curling slightly in my hands.
“When my car got towed… when it broke down.” She speaks slowly now, like she’s piecing it together as she says it. “Caleb said something looked off. Like it hadn’t just worn down, but rather someone had messed with it.”
I go still. “Messed with it how?”
“He said something about a clamp and a fuel line being loose. I can’t remember all the details, just that it was enough to cause my car to stall out.” She shakes her head slightly. “At the time, I didn’t really think anything of it. I just… told myself it was a coincidence.”
Her gaze finally lifts to mine.
“But after tonight…” She exhales, her voice quieter now. “After the way he pulled me over and everything that was said…”
“You think it was him?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” she admits. “But it feels connected. And I should’ve told you sooner. I just didn’t think…”
I tighten my grip on her hands slightly.
“You should’ve never had to think like that in the first place,” I say, my voice low.
The sound of the water running in the bathroom cuts through my thoughts.
I glance toward the door, then back at her. “The bath’s ready,” I add more gently. “You should get in and try to relax for a bit.”
She nods but doesn’t move right away.
I brush my thumb over her wrist once more before letting go and pushing to my feet.
“I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”
It takes everything in me not to hover as I step out of the room and head down the stairs.
The guys are hanging out in the living room when I come down. Owen’s in the recliner with his laptop in his lap. Talon and Kade are on the couch, controllers in hand.
They all look up when I walk in.
“How is she?” Talon asks.
“She’s… okay,” I say. “Shook up.”
Kade nods slowly. “Yeah.”
I drag a hand over the back of my neck, exhaling. “She told me something else before I came down.”
That gets their attention.
“What?” Owen asks.
“Her car,” I say. “After it broke down, when she went to pick it up, Caleb told her it looked like someone messed with it. Said something had been loosened, which is what caused it to stall out.”
Talon’s expression tightens. “You’re serious?”
I nod. “She didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
Kade lets out a quiet breath. “But now—”
“Yeah,” I cut in. “Now it doesn’t feel like a coincidence.”
I shake my head, jaw tightening. “If someone was already messing with her car, that could explain why we’ve seen his patrol car hanging out in the alley. He was already watching her.”
“And she didn’t tell you?” Owen asks.
“No.” I huff out a breath. “She said she didn’t think it was a big deal.”
Talon leans back, running a hand through his hair. “It all lines up. It’s almost too obvious.”
Owen’s phone vibrates on the armrest next to him. He glances down at it casually at first, then his brows pull together.
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
“What?” Talon asks.
Owen turns his phone toward us.
“Practice is canceled tomorrow,” he says. “We’re supposed to report in two days for warm-ups before our next game.”
I drop into the recliner across from him.
“They don’t just cancel practice,” Kade says.
“Especially not before a game,” Talon adds.
We all sit there for a second, letting that settle.
“You think it’s because of earlier?” Owen asks.
I don’t answer right away.
I think about Coach’s face when I walked out of his office. About the look on his brother’s face when I showed him my phone.
“They didn’t expect it,” I say finally. “They didn’t think we’d push back.”
Talon exhales. “So what? You think they’re trying to do damage control?”
“Or they’re trying to figure out how to spin it,” Kade suggests.
I drag a hand over my jaw, my attention drifting to the screen as they keep playing. Kade jumps back into the game, Talon chirps at him, and for a few minutes, I just watch, letting the noise drown everything else out.
Time slips by without me realizing it.
“They’re not going to let this just sit,” I say, more to myself than anyone else.
“No,” Talon agrees. “They won’t.”
The room quiets again.
Then I hear it—the faint sound of water draining upstairs.
I push to my feet. “I’m gonna head back up.”
“Let us know if you guys need anything,” Owen says.
“I will. Thanks, guys, for everything.”
As I take the stairs two at a time, it really starts to sink in how far this has gone. Whatever control they thought they had slipped today.
I crack the door open and knock.
“In here,” Brinley mumbles.
Light spills out, steam still clinging to the mirror as she dries her hair. She’s wearing one of my T-shirts again and a pair of boxers she must’ve found in my dresser.
I smile at her, at the way my shirt hangs loose on her.
“Hey,” I say when I take a step toward her.
“Hi.”
I close the door behind me and sit on the edge of the bed, pulling her into me. My hand moves to brush along her arm, down to her fingers, almost like I’m making sure she’s real and here and not still standing in front of those flashing lights on the side of the road.
“Practice is canceled tomorrow,” I say.
She blinks. “Canceled?”
“Yeah. We don’t report until warm-ups before our next game.”
“Is that normal?”
“No.” I shake my head. “Not really.”
She watches me, reading more than I’m saying.
“Do you think it’s because of what happened today?”
I hesitate. “I’ll be honest. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised.”
I pull her into my arms, and she wraps hers around my neck, pressing her forehead against my neck.
“Have you talked to your mom since everything came out?” I ask.
She tenses beneath me, but I try to calm her by running my hand along her thighs.
“No,” she says quietly. “Not yet.”
“Maybe you should.”
She lifts her head to look at me.
“I don’t even know what I’d say. Where I’d even start.”
She exhales slowly. She brushes her finger along the collar of my shirt, as if she’s absentmindedly thinking about how the conversation would play out.
“I keep thinking about the money,” she says. “About how my father paid her years ago.”
I stay quiet, letting her keep talking.
“And we lived like we had nothing,” she says. “We moved constantly. She struggled my whole life. I wore the same coat for three winters, even after there was a hole torn under the arm and the sleeves barely passed my wrists.”
Her voice doesn’t crack despite the frustration I can hear in her tone. It just stays even in a way that tells me she’s said these things in her head a hundred times before.
“I just don’t understand it,” she continues. “If he gave her money, why did it always feel like we had none?”
I slide my thumb slowly along her hip.
“Maybe there’s more to it than you know,” I suggest quietly. “Maybe that’s why you should talk to her about it.”
She exhales through her nose.
“I’m just still so upset. That she never told me,” she murmurs. “About any of it.”
Her eyes lift back to mine.
“You deserve answers,” I tell her.
She looks at me for a moment, like she’s weighing what the price those answers could come with.
“There’s something I need to tell you too,” I say after a second.
Her attention shifts fully to me.
“When Coach benched me… it wasn’t just about my shoulder.”
Her body goes still.
“He brought you up,” I say. “Told me he couldn’t afford distractions. Warned me my future would be at risk if I couldn’t keep my head on straight.”
Her fingers curl slightly into my shirt.
“He made it clear that if I wanted a shot at playing professionally, I needed to stay away from anything that would complicate things.”
Tears fill the brim of her eyes, but she doesn’t interrupt.
“I thought I was being smart,” I admit. “I told myself I was protecting everything I’d worked for.”
My thumb slides slowly along her back, grounding myself as much as her.
“I pulled away and created distance between us. Not because I wanted to, but because I didn’t know what to do. I was scared of losing everything I worked for, but I handled it wrong. And I hate that there was even a second when you thought I could just leave you behind.”
She’s quiet for a second, like she’s sitting with it.
“I didn’t exactly make it easy either,” she says softly.
I frown slightly. She exhales, her gaze dropping for a second before coming back to me.
“I kept things from you too,” she admits. “The car… I should’ve told you what Caleb said. I just didn’t think it mattered at the time.”
Her fingers curl lightly against my shirt.
“I didn’t tell you my father was your hockey coach, and you had to find out from someone else,” she adds, quieter. “And about you. That you were Rowdy87.” She exhales. “I didn’t know how to say it without everything changing.”
The words hang between us.
“I think we were both just trying to protect what we had,” she says softly. “I’ve had a lot of things feel temporary. People, places.”
“I know.” My hand slides up her back. “This doesn’t feel like that,” I tell her.
Her eyes lift to mine.
“I only stepped away because I needed to figure out what they were hiding. One of the guys on the phone earlier, his name is Reed. He’s friends with Talon. He’s actually dating Talon’s sister, Tatum. Let’s just say he’s the kind of guy who can dig up things people want to keep buried.”
She studies me for a minute, taking in what I’m saying.
“I meant it when I said I wasn’t going anywhere,” I add. “I just needed to understand what we’re dealing with… and make sure you were safe.”
Her hand presses flat against my chest.
“I want you here,” I say. “Because you choose to be.”
Her breath trembles as she leans her forehead against mine.
“I don’t want to leave,” she whispers.
I close my eyes for a second, letting that settle.
When she pulls back, she searches my face. “What are you trying to say?”
My hands settle at her waist.
“I want you,” I say. “Not just this. Not just the moments we pretend don’t mean everything.” I pause. “I want more with you. I want us to have a future together.”
She swallows.
“I love you, Brinley.”
The words don’t feel big when they finally leave my mouth. They feel like something that’s been sitting in my chest for so long, it finally had to come out.
Her breath stutters.
“I love you,” I say again, softer.
Her eyes fill with tears, but this time, she doesn’t try to stop it.
“I’m not crying because I’m sad,” she whispers, her voice breaking anyway.
My thumb brushes along her cheek, catching every one as they fall.
“No one has ever chosen me,” she admits. “Not when it truly mattered.”
The pang in my chest hits like a puck to the chest. She presses her forehead to mine again.
“I want to be with you. I promise it’s not because I’m scared or because it’s what feels easy.”
The breath I let out feels like it’s been stuck in my chest for years.
“I love you,” she whispers.
Hearing her say it back does something to me I can’t quite explain.
I pull her in, kissing her harder this time, like I need her to feel it. She melts into me, her arms wrapping around my neck, holding me there like she doesn’t want to let go.
I ease her down onto the mattress, following her as my hands roam slowly over her sides and hips, taking my time, like I’m relearning every inch of her.
When we strip out of our clothes and I settle between her thighs, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than right here with her.
Her legs wrap around my waist, pulling me closer, our bodies grinding together until I’m desperate for more. I need to feel her, to claim her as mine.
My hand slips between us, brushing over her pussy. We both moan in unison. She’s so wet for me, lifting her hips and aching for more. She trembles as I line myself up at her entrance.
When I finally thrust into her, it’s slow and deep. Her moans echo around my room, her nails dragging over my skin. I press my forehead to hers, holding her gaze. “I love you.”
She responds with another kiss. It’s deeper this time, her hands gripping my shoulders as she holds me closer.
And in that moment, with her beneath me and her arms wrapped around me, I know one thing with absolute certainty.
Nothing about this was ever meant to be temporary.