Chapter 26
Catherine Celia
By the time the elevator doors opened on my parents’ floor, my hand was no longer in Hunter’s.
It had been for exactly three seconds on the ride up.
Three seconds of warmth and pretending that walking into my parents’ apartment with him beside me was something brave instead of something that might ruin everything.
Then the doors opened. We walked down the hall in silence.
Every step toward my parents’ apartment made my chest tighter, until breathing felt like something I had to actively remember how to do.
Hunter stayed beside me, close but not touching, his jaw set and his shoulders tense in a way I rarely saw from him.
He looked like a man walking into a hit he had no intention of avoiding.
I unlocked the door because apparently my hands could still function even though the rest of me had gone numb.
The second we stepped inside, Jaden looked up from the couch.
He was sprawled sideways with one foot on the coffee table, a bowl of popcorn balanced on his stomach.
Mila sat on the floor in front of him, brushing a doll’s hair.
Mom was at the island in leggings and a sweatshirt, going through a stack of patient charts on her laptop.
Jaden’s eyes moved from me to Hunter. Then back to me.
“Why are you with Hunter?” he asked.
Mila turned around too, her ponytail swinging. “Where’s Isla?”
My stomach dropped.
Mom looked up. Her gaze went from Hunter to me, then back again. Her expression changed immediately into a quiet, sharp maternal suspicion.
“Mila,” Mom said, closing her laptop slowly, “take your things to your room for a bit.”
Jaden sat up. “What about me?”
“You too,” Mom said, but she was still looking at me like she already knew the bomb I was about to drop on her. Mila followed him down the hall, glancing back twice before Jaden tugged her along and whispered something that made her gasp. My mother waited until their doors closed.
Then she looked at us. “What’s going on?”
Hunter shifted beside me. “It would be better if Cole were here too.”
Mom went very still. The front hallway felt suddenly too small.
“Hunter,” she said carefully.
Before he could answer, Dad walked out from the hall near the bedroom, phone in one hand, reading glasses pushed up on his head.
“What’s better if I’m here for?” he asked.
Then he looked up. His gaze landed on me. Then Hunter, and finally Mom’s face. Something moved through his expression so fast I almost missed it. Confusion. Concern. Recognition. Then panic. His eyes dropped to my stomach.
“Oh, for—” He swore under his breath and moved toward Hunter so fast my brain barely caught up. “You got my daughter pregnant?”
“What?” I shouted.
Hunter ducked before Dad’s hand could connect with his shoulder.
“Cole,” Mom snapped.
“I’m not pregnant,” I yelled.
Dad froze. He looked at mom then at me then at Hunter.
Hunter straightened slowly, one hand up. “She’s not pregnant.”
Dad pointed at him. “You do not get to speak first.”
Hunter’s mouth shut. My stomach twisted from the way Dad came at him ready to accuse him while Hunter stood there looking like he deserved Dad’s wrath.
Dad looked at me again, breathing hard. “You’re not pregnant?”
“No,” I confirmed.
Dad exhaled. “Why is he here with you looking like he’s about to confess to a crime?”
Hunter turned very slowly toward him. “I care about Catherine.”
Dad’s jaw tightened. “She’s CC to me.”
My throat tightened.
Hunter’s voice stayed low. “Cole.”
“No,” Dad snapped. “You don’t get to make this sound reasonable.”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen behind your back,” Hunter continued, keeping his voice even.
Dad laughed once, but there was no humor in it. “You didn’t mean for what to happen?”
Hunter’s jaw flexed. “Catherine and I have been seeing each other.”
The room went silent. Mom closed her eyes for one second. Dad looked like someone had hit him. He looked hurt. The anger had been easier to handle. The hurt was worse.
His gaze moved to me. “CC.”
My eyes burned immediately. I hated that he called me that and that it sounded soft. I hated the way he was looking at me with such utter disappointment.
“Dad.”
His eyes searched mine. “When you said you were going to Taylor’s…”
Tears hit before I could stop them. “Not every time,” I said quickly. “Sometimes I was with Taylor. Sometimes I was with Hunter.”
Dad’s face tightened. I could see him putting the pieces together. The nights I came home late. The times I said Taylor needed me. The way Hunter had been around at lunch. The way I had probably looked at him when I thought no one noticed.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry I lied. I didn’t mean for it to become this. I didn’t mean to fall for him.”
Dad’s expression hardened. “These things don’t just happen.”
Mom cleared her throat. We all looked at her.
Her brows lifted pointedly. “Cole.”
“Sometimes they do,” she said calmly. “Not every relationship begins in the neat, approved way parents hope for their children.”
Dad muttered something under his breath.
Hunter stepped forward slightly. “I know I should’ve come to you sooner,” he said. “The secrecy made it worse. But I care about Catherine, and we were trying to figure out what this was before we hurt anyone.”
Dad’s gaze snapped to him. “You were hoping for more time with my daughter?”
Hunter absorbed that like a hit. “Yes.”
Dad’s nostrils flared. “I hate that answer.”
“I know,” Hunter said and bowed his head.
Tears slipped down my cheeks. “I care about Hunter. I didn’t want to hurt you. I love you both so much. But this became bigger than I knew how to handle.”
Dad turned to me, and I almost wished he hadn’t because he looked so deeply wounded.
“I know this looks bad,” I continued. “I know it’s complicated. But he treats me well. He listens to me. He cares about me. I’ve never felt like this before.”
Mom’s face softened.
Dad saw it and looked betrayed all over again. “Do not soften Holland.”
“I’m listening to our daughter,” Mom said, which gave me a slight reprieve from the tension in my chest.
“I’m listening too,” Dad replied.
“No, you’re imagining ways to hide Hunter’s body,” Mom countered.
Dad pointed at Hunter without looking away from Mom. “He’s standing too close to my daughter.”
Hunter immediately stepped back. I almost laughed, but it came out as a sob.
Mom sighed. “Everyone come sit.”
“No,” Dad said.
“Cole,” Mom said in her I-mean-business tone.
Somehow, we ended up in the living room. Dad sat on the edge of the armchair like the couch had personally offended him. Mom sat beside me. Hunter took the opposite end of the couch, leaving space between us.
Mom folded her hands in her lap. “How long has this been going on?”
Hunter looked at me before answering. I nodded because I could not find my voice.
“Just over a month,” he said.
Dad made a sound. Mom shot him a look.
“I’ve had feelings for him longer,” I admitted.
Dad’s head turned slowly toward me.
I wiped my cheek. “Since I was a teenager.”
Dad closed his eyes. “Wonderful. So, this is a teenage crush.”
“Cole,” Mom warned.
“It was a crush,” I said quickly. “That’s all it was. Hunter never did anything inappropriate. He barely noticed me that way.”
Hunter’s jaw tightened, but he did not interrupt.
Dad opened his eyes and looked at him. “You better not have.”
“I didn’t,” Hunter said firmly.
For the first time since we walked in, there was something in his voice that did not sound apologetic.
I took a shaky breath. “I think part of why I liked him, even then, was because he reminded me of you.”
Dad looked at me like I had just said something impossible. I pressed on before I lost my nerve. “The way he puts Isla first. The way people trust him. The way he’s kind when no one’s watching.” My voice softened. “The way he makes me feel safe.”
Dad looked away. Mom reached for my hand. The room stayed quiet for a long second. Then Dad looked back at Hunter, and the softness disappeared.
“Do you understand what this does to the team?”
Hunter nodded. “Yes.”
“No, I don’t think you do.” Dad leaned forward. “You’re my captain. You’re supposed to set the tone in that room. I trusted you.”
Hunter’s face changed. I could tell Dad’s words hit him hard.
“I know,” Hunter said. “And I’m sorry about the secrecy. But I’m not sorry about the way I feel about Catherine. You know me, Cole. You know I don’t give my heart easily.”
“I trusted you with my players, my family.” Dad’s voice roughened. “With her.”
Hunter looked down. “I’m sorry.”
My chest hurt so badly I could barely breathe.
Dad dragged a hand over his face. “So, what now?”
The question sat in the room like a grenade. Hunter looked at me. I looked at him. For the first time since this started, wanting each other was not enough.
Hunter swallowed. “I still want to date Catherine.”
Dad’s jaw tightened.
“But I understand that her position with the team makes that complicated,” Hunter continued. “More than complicated.”
“I’ll quit,” I said.
Hunter’s head snapped toward me. “No.”
Everyone looked at me.
I sat straighter even though my hands were shaking. “I can leave the internship. I can ask Larkspur Medical to place me somewhere else. Or I can take something at the hospital full-time. I don’t want this to affect the team.”
“No, Catherine. You aren’t giving up on your dreams,” Hunter said, firmer.
“Hunter,” I replied softly. “I can’t allow you to give up something you earned because of me.”
“It’s my choice to make,” he said.
“No.” His eyes held mine. “I can’t let you do that.”
Dad watched us carefully.
Hunter turned back to him. “I’ll ask for a trade.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
Hunter didn’t look at me. “I’ll talk to management. If this becomes a conflict, I’ll ask out.”
“No,” I said.
“Catherine.” His voice was low. “I can absorb the hit better than you can.”
“No, you can’t.”
“Catherine—”
“No.” My voice cracked. “You don’t get to blow up your life and call it protecting me.”
The room went very still. Dad and Mom were silent. For once, neither of them interrupted. Hunter looked at me, and the pain in his face almost undid me.
“I don’t know how to do this without hurting you,” he said quietly.
My tears came harder.
“I don’t know how to do it without hurting you either,” I replied.
We had hit a dead end. The thing neither of us had wanted to look at too closely because sex and texts and stolen nights had made it easy to pretend the answer would appear if we loved each other hard enough.
But love, or whatever terrifying almost-love this was, did not change the fact that he was the Dallas Blaze captain and I was the coach’s daughter working with the team.
Mom squeezed my hand. Dad looked exhausted. Hunter stood slowly.
“I’m sorry, Cole. I never meant to hurt you or your family,” he said, his head bowed.
I looked up at him. “Where are you going?”
His throat moved. “Home. You should be with your family.”
“We haven’t solved anything,” I said, feeling like my heart was cracking in two.
“I know,” he replied, completely defeated.
“Hunter.”
He looked at my parents, then back at me. “I’m sorry.”
I stood too. “Don’t.”
His eyes held mine. For one second, the room disappeared. My parents. The team. The consequences. All of it. There were only him and me. Only the man who had made me feel wanted, safe, and seen, now standing in my parents’ living room looking like he was breaking in two.
“I’ll call you,” he said.
I nodded. Then he left. The door closed behind him quietly.
That was worse than if he had slammed it.
I stood there for a few seconds after he was gone, staring at the empty space he left behind.
Then I turned and walked to my room before anyone could stop me.
The second the door shut, I broke. I cried into my pillow like I was sixteen again.
Like the world had narrowed to one impossible ache.
Like I had finally found something I wanted with my whole chest and the wanting itself had become the problem.
I did not know how long I cried before there was a soft knock on my door.
“CC?”
Mom.
I wiped my face even though there was no point. “Come in.”
The door opened slowly, and she stepped inside.
She looked less like my mother the doctor and more like my mother who had once sat on the bathroom floor with me after Julian broke my heart and told me I didn’t have to be okay before I was ready.
She closed the door behind her and sat on the edge of my bed.
For a minute, neither of us spoke. Then I said the thing that had been tearing through me since Hunter walked out.
“I’m falling in love with him.”
Mom’s face softened. “Oh, sweetheart.”
I dropped my hands. “I worked so hard. I studied. I volunteered. I finally got a chance to be with the team, and now it feels like if I choose Hunter, I compromise all of it.”
Mom’s eyes glistened.
“And if I choose my career,” I whispered, “I lose him.”
She reached for my hand.
I let her take it. “I don’t know what to do,” I admitted.
Mom squeezed gently. For once, she didn’t have an answer.