I’m currently living in the aftermath of a full-blown emotional natural disaster—epicenter: Las Vegas. Casualties: my grip on reality and everyone’s relationship status.
My boss? Secretly married.
Our future team captain, Luca? Also secretly married.
And me? Secretly falling for a man I absolutely, definitively,cannothave—yet somehow find myself in dangerously close proximity to on a regular basis.
And the best part? No one knows about any of it.
Except me, of course.
I’ve officially become the keeper of everyone's secrets. A human vault of messy, high-stakes drama. And suddenly, what used to be a dream job is starting to feel more like a liability withbenefits.
Meanwhile, my job as a therapist makes it a little easier to keep quiet about my feelings for Grant, too.
I’m trained to listen more than I speak. To hold space, not fill it. To stay neutral, no matter what storm is brewing under the surface. So I keep my face calm, my voice steady, and my feelings buried under layers of professionalism and practiced restraint.
It’s ironic, really—helping everyone else make sense of their emotional chaos while quietly drowning in my own.
What I would give to drown in that man’s bath water.
It makes no sense that Grant and Ican’tbe friends. No matter how much we try to avoid each other—or how strategically unavailable I make myself to dodge any accidental run-ins—we somehow keep ending up in the same places. Circling the same conversations. Avoiding each other is becoming impossible.
And honestly, running into each other was even more inevitable. Especially since I’m Marlow’s friend now. Sure, technically her employee too, but above all,herfriend. Which means crossing paths with Grant was likely going to be part of the equation.
So instead of pretending he doesn’t exist, or constantly looking for exits and rehearsing neutral smiles, I make a choice.
I decide to be Grant Mills’ friend.Justhis friend.
Because it makes sense.
Because I’m a professional.
Because I can handle it.
And maybe because I could really use a few good friends right now, too. Especially as the leaves turn and the holidays approach. I don’t like being alone.
And since I respect Marlow too much to let this completely inappropriate, entirely inconvenient attraction to her father ruin the bond we’re building, I make the only choice that feels halfway sane.
I decide to take them both. Marlow and Grant.
Just. Friends.
Nothing more. No mixed signals. No lingering looks. Just boundaries, maturity, and deep, controlled breathing when Grant Mills walks into a room.
I’ve got this.
Chapter twenty-two
Life Lines & White Lies
Grant
Present day
It’s the first home match since the new player arrived, and for once, all three of us—me, Xavier, and Will—are in the same place at the same time like over-invested uncles. Normally, we’d split duties or tune in remotely, but ever since Marlow joined the front office, we’ve all been hovering closer. Protective. Proud. Quietly making sure she doesn’t drown in the deep end.
She’s good at what she does, but she’s still new. Still figuring out how to hold her own in a world that demands twice as much from women and still gives them half the credit. And even though she’d probably smack me for saying this out loud, she somehow feels like all of our responsibility.