7. Chapter 7
Chapter seven
~LILLY~
The villa the Academy’s rented opens right onto the beach. White stone steps lead down through dune grass. There’s salt in the air. The ocean is so close I can hear the waves folding over themselves beyond the terrace.
Dom really did go all out.
The main villa, where the adults are staying, is all glass, shaded balconies, and huge windows turned toward the sea.
The kids and counselors have their own villa a little farther down the property, tucked just enough away that, in theory, the adults might occasionally know peace.
In theory being the key phrase, because the place is full of children who just realized they’re spending the weekend in a beach house with a pool, a private path to the water, and no parents hovering within immediate reach.
They’ve been losing their minds since we got here.
I already picked my room earlier, dropped my bag, and stood there for a full minute just taking it in. I have a huge bed, white curtains moving with the sea breeze, and a balcony with a direct view of the water.
It’s only Friday through Sunday this first year, which feels short, but there’s a reason.
It’s the Academy’s first camp, and preseason is close enough now that the team can only spare so much time before hockey takes over everything again.
The camp could’ve run for a full week without the players.
Dom could’ve attached his name to it, made an appearance for photos, and let everyone else handle the rest.
That was never going to happen. Nothing with the Academy happens without the Captain being here. He’s like that with everything tied to this place. Hands-on, and the kids feel it.
They’re currently being herded toward their villa by the counselors, impossible to contain. A couple of them are still dragging bags too big for their bodies. Beside me, Dom watches them go with his hands braced on the terrace railing.
“They’re gonna tear this place apart,” he chuckles. “You settled?”
“Yes.” I smile at him.
“Room okay?”
“Okay is underselling it a little.” I laugh softly.
That gets the faintest hint of a smile out of him.
“This place is insane,” I say, looking back toward the sea for a second.
He follows my line of sight out toward the water. “Figured if we were doing it, we might as well do it right.”
That sounds exactly like him. And he has. The whole setup makes that obvious. It’s all thought through. I know he didn’t want the first camp to feel like a compromise just because it had to be shorter.
The counselors finally get the kids moving again.
“Found you,” a female voice behind us says.
I turn to see Jessica Brooks walking toward us from the open doors of the villa, sunlight catching in her caramel-blonde hair.
I met her this morning when everyone first arrived, and liking her took about thirty seconds.
She’s kind without feeling sugary, easy to talk to, and there’s something quick and alive in her that keeps you on your toes in a good way.
Dom turns at the sound of her voice, and the change in him is immediate. He just lights up at the sight of her.
Jessica gets to us and touches his arm first, then rises on her toes to kiss him. Dom meets her halfway, leaning down to reach her lips and wrap an arm around her waist.
I look away for half a second out of instinct, smiling a little to myself. When I look back, she’s got one hand resting lightly at his waist.
“I’m making coffee,” she says, looking at me now. “You want one, Lilly?”
“Yes, please.”
She leans up and kisses Dom again, quicker this time, then asks, “Does the Captain want one too?”
“I’ll have some of yours.”
“You can have all of mine.” She winks at him.
“Oh my god, you guys,” I laugh, shaking my head.
Dom glances at me with a smile. “Believe it or not, she wasn’t always this nice to me.”
Jessica turns to him immediately. “I wasn’t nice because you were an arrogant jerk.”
“And you were a raging b—”
She lifts a brow at him, making him rethink what he was about to say.
“Beautiful woman,” Dom corrects himself.
Jessica gives him a playful look, then turns back to me. “Normal milk?”
“Yep.” I nod, holding back a laugh.
An engine cuts through the morning, loud enough to pull everyone’s attention. Both Dom and Jessica turn their heads.
Down by the path, one of the players, Tanner, whistles. “Holy shit.”
The sound gets closer, then the car rounds the bend, and I take it in. Black, low, sharp as a weapon. My stomach drops hard enough to take several organs with it.
The black car Nora and I stared at through my living-room window is currently rolling up the driveway.
No.
No, that can’t be right.
My thoughts scramble uselessly over themselves, trying to catch up. Why the hell would that car have been outside my house?
It rolls to a stop near the front of the villa, engine purring low for one last second before it dies. The whole terrace has gone subtly still around it. Dom lets out a short, disbelieving laugh beside me, shaking his head like he genuinely cannot believe what he’s seeing.
Makes two of us.
“Well,” Jessica says, “looks like he decided to show up.”
I can’t seem to move as the driver’s door opens. And then I understand everyone else’s reaction, because Zed Mercer unfolds out of the car, looking like the whole world should make room for him.
Tall doesn’t even cover it. He steps out, his tattooed arms flexing as he shuts the door, black hair falling over his eyes, and I can’t separate the man from the car at all. They match too well. Same feeling that something has arrived that doesn’t belong to the ordinary world.
My pulse kicks so hard it sends a shockwave throughout my body.
Around us, the reaction spreads fast. Staff exchange looks that are half surprise, half immediate excitement.
And all I can think is... That thing was outside my house. That was his car. A hot, strange wave goes through me, part alarm, part disbelief.
He locks the car doors and lifts his eyes toward the villa.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Dom lets out another quiet laugh beside me.
My throat has gone dry.
For about half a second, nobody moves. Then the whole place breaks open around him. People swarm him instantly. Counselors, a couple of the older kids who snuck back over, even some of the staff—they all move toward him like moths to a very tall, very tattooed flame.
Dom is the first one to get to him. He heads down the terrace steps with calm, purposeful strides. He claps Zed once on the back when he reaches him, saying something I can’t hear from here.
Jessica shakes her head beside me, still watching. “I cannot believe he actually came.”
A few people swarm his car too, looking like they’re complimenting it. Nora and I thought it must have belonged to a neighbor or a guest.
It belongs to neither.
No, there has to be another explanation. Because the one my mind keeps trying to build makes no sense. None. Why would he be parked outside my house? How would he even know where I live? Why would he do that?
A burst of laughter breaks somewhere down near the path, and I blink hard, pulling myself back into the moment just enough to see my father striding over toward him.
He must’ve known he was coming because he doesn’t seem surprised, just pleased.
He reaches the group and says something to Zed that makes Dom step aside with a grin.
Then my father puts a hand on Zed’s massive shoulder, and Zed’s eyes lift to mine.
The force of it is immediate. My body reacts like it always does with him, but my mind is somewhere else entirely.
Just one look and the whole world seems to narrow until it’s just the two of us and the black car gleaming in the sun.
The noise around me starts to blur.
To my left, Stacey and some of the female counselors step around me to get a closer look. I glance at them and immediately wish I hadn’t. They’re looking at him like a piece of very large meat.
Zed doesn’t stay in the center of it for long. He says hello, nods at whoever needs nodding at, letting the moment crest around him without encouraging it too much.
Jace appears from behind the cluster of staff, grinning as he says something that gets the slightest shift at the corner of Zed’s mouth. A couple of the other guys fall in near them, and the whole thing starts moving again.
The crowd begins to loosen, people slowly drifting back toward whatever they were doing before. Zed turns with Jace and the others, heading toward the main villa.
The noise of camp rushes back in around me all at once. But the only thing I can hear clearly in my own head is the question that won’t stop repeating.
Why was your car outside my house?
I’m standing on the shaded side of the terrace with an iced coffee in my hand. Children scream happily somewhere down by the second villa, and none of it is reaching me properly.
I take a sip of the coffee and barely taste it. Jessica is talking, one hip against the railing, sunglasses pushed up into her hair. I nod in what I hope are the right places. Meanwhile, my head is caught in the same vicious loop.
My eyes move when I notice a massive black shape moving inside. Zed walks into the kitchen. He’s by himself near the huge stone island, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge.
“I’m sorry,” I say to Jessica, already setting my coffee down on the railing. “I’ll be right back.”
She turns toward me, mid-sentence. “Oh, sure.”
And I’m moving. I know this is becoming a pattern for me now. Me walking up to him, me finding him, me storming over with my pulse too high and my common sense somewhere behind me trying to catch up.
I cut through the open doors into the cool air and head straight for the kitchen. If he hears me coming, he doesn’t react. He twists the cap off the water bottle and takes a drink, throat working once, then again. He leans one hip against the counter and finally looks at me.
There’s no surprise on his face, as though he’s been expecting me to appear and is only mildly curious about what I’ve brought with me this time.