Page 343 of Power Play

“You were.”

Easton stepped between us before the conversation could sharpen. “He means he doesn’t want to break in front of her.”

The accuracy silenced me.

Briggs’s shoulder pressed briefly against mine. Bliss looked down, and Aura’s face crumpled before she turned away.

I stared through the windows and forced my breathing to remain even. “She doesn’t get to see what this did to me. She doesn’t get to use my pain as proof there’s still something she can reach.”

No one argued.

The room slowly began moving again, but the lightness didn’t return completely. It waited beneath the tension, postponed until everyone knew where Charm would settle inside this new version of us.

I checked the clock. Nineteen minutes remained.

I carried my gear bag to the entryway even though practice remained hours away. I could leave before she arrived, but that would make Charm responsible for driving me from another place I paid for.

I was done surrendering ground.

Rider and Easton returned to the pool table. Briggs joined them and immediately began changing rules nobody agreed to. Cade unpacked groceries while Bliss leaned against the counter beside him, quieter than she had been before. Aura carried more bags to the second cabin with Vivi and Skylar.

I stood in the center of everything and felt separate from all of it.

Ten minutes passed, followed by fifteen. At twenty-two, headlights swept through the front windows.

The lodge went still as a small white car turned into the drive alone.

My body recognized it before my mind finished denying the reaction. My pulse slammed against my throat, and every muscle tightened in preparation for a fight I had no intention of allowing her to start.

The car parked several spaces away from the others, but the driver’s door remained closed.

I pictured Charm sitting behind the wheel with both hands pressed against her mouth. I knew how she cried when she was trying not to make noise. I knew the exact tremor that moved through her shoulders, the color her eyes became after tears, and how cold her fingers would be when she finally forced herself out of the car.

None of that belonged to me anymore.

The driver’s door opened, and Charm stepped into the snow.

I opened the front door before she reached it. Cold air moved through the entryway while I pulled on my Frost jacket and lifted my gear bag from the floor.

Charm stopped halfway across the drive, her boots sinking into the fresh snow as she stared at me. Her face was swollen from crying, and she looked like she hadn’t slept, eaten, or stopped shaking since I closed my apartment door.

My body registered every detail, but I refused to let any of them reach my face.

“Ryan.”

I slid my sunglasses over my eyes and looked past her toward my truck.

She rushed forward when I stepped onto the porch. “Please wait. I know you don’t want me near you, but I need five minutes.”

I turned toward Briggs. “You have the code to my apartment.”

His expression tightened. “Yeah.”

“I left the spare garage remote in the kitchen drawer. Take it if you need it.”

Charm stopped at the bottom of the steps. “Ryan, please look at me.”

I adjusted the strap of my gear bag and walked down. When she moved into my path, I stepped around her.