I swallow hard. “I don’t know yet, but I’ll figure it out.”
Rory’s lips find mine, the softest, sweetest brush of a kiss that sucks all the air out of my lungs.
I want to deepen it, swipe my tongue through her parted lips and lose myself in her, but the sound of someone knocking on the door stops me from doing so.
She pulls back alarmed, eyes wide. “Shit. It might be my dad. I wasn’t exactly… put together when he left yesterday.” In a breath,she’s off the bed, grabbing a pair of sweatpants from her dresser and dragging them on.
I follow her through her apartment, prepared to hide in the damn closet if I need to. A second later, I watch her sag with relief when she looks through the peephole. “It’s just Fitz.”
When she opens the front door, he steps past her into the apartment.
And then I remember Fitz has no fucking clue that we’re together.
Fuck.
His shocked expression meets mine, and his brow shoots up to his hairline. “Cairney? What the hell areyoudoing here? I’ve been freaking the fuck out, man. Trying to figure out how the hell we’re going to fix this shit an—”
Rory steps between us, lifting a hand to stop him. “Fitz, wait. You know about Cillian?”
“Yeah, duh. The whole team knows. Your dad sent an email earlier today, before breakfast.” His ass hits the chair as he flops down into it, crossing his arms over his chest. “Fuck that. There’s no goddamn way that shit is for real. I don’t believe it for a second. That’s why I’m here; because we gotta figure this shit out andpronto.”
A weird, fuzzy feeling blooms in my chest that he’s even here, believing that I wouldn’t do this, ready to fight.
I hoped that the guys on the team would believe me when I said that there has to be a mistake, but shit, I wasn’t sure. The same with Rory. There’re two positive tests so I get the doubt.
We’ve been through a lot in the short time that I’ve been here, but it feels like we’re forming a brotherhood. The way it should be between a team, especially in rugby. Rugby’s about family. Maybenot blood, but the family that you find. That’s part of the reason this is such bullshit because the timing is something.
Right when we’ve bridged the gap between us.
“I know. We know. We just haven’t exactly figured out how we’re going to do it,” Rory says, sinking down beside him on the couch.
“So.… let’s just get the elephant out of the room, yeah?” he says, looking between Rory and me.
Then Rory’s head whips to look at me, and I look back at Fitz. And we’re all bloody looking at each other.
I stay glued to my spot, unsure of how to go forward. Is this the right time to tell him what’s been going on between us?
“Someone’s set you up. I mean, that’s the only logical conclusion to be drawn,” he finally says, and Rory deflates beside him, eyes still wide.
What he says should be a relief, not having to drop this bomb between us in the midst of everything that’s going on, but if anything it makes my chest feel heavier. I don’t want to keep things between us a secret, and if there’s anyone I trust outside of Rory or Ais, it’s Fitz.
“Rory and I are together.”
The space between his brow furrows. “Yeah, I know. We’re all together.”
“No, mate, I mean together,together. She’s my girlfriend,” I say quickly, clearing up the confusion written on his face.
“I am?” Rory blurts out.
“You are?” Fitz says at the same time, their words overlapping.
“I mean, I thought that’s what was going on here. I mean, welove each other, that means we’re dating, yeah?” I respond, reaching up and rubbing the back of my neck.
Rory rolls her lips together. “Yeah, but like you hadn’t officially asked me, so I wasn’t sure if we were going to, like, put a label on this.”
There’s a loud whistle, and we both look over at Fitz. “Can we focus for a second? We’ll come back to… this in a minute. First of all, we have to figure out how the hell we’re going to prove Cillian’s innocent. Kind of hard to have a relationship from two thousand miles away, Ror.”
He’s right.
