Page 111 of Lose You Twice

He takes one step closer, then stops. “I’m sorry it happened here.”

Here.

His rink. His team. His space that I’ve been trying so hard not to make complicated.

“I can handle guys like Coleson,” I say.

“I know.”

“I didn’t want the whole room looking at me,” I admit, grabbing another towel and folding it before adding it to the pile. “And now they’re going to talk.”

“They won’t.”

I look at him again. “You don’t know that.”

“I do,” he says, and the confidence in his expression tells me that what he’s saying is a fact.

“Because you’ll threaten them into silence?”

“If I have to.”

I let out an exasperated sigh and groan.

“What?”

“You can’t control everything.”

His eyes narrow slightly, taken aback by my words. “I’m aware.”

“No, you’re not.” My chest is rising too fast. “You think if you stand there looking terrifying enough, everyone will behave, but Coleson said what he did because he wanted to provoke a reaction, and you gave him one.”

He crosses his arms across his chest. “I gave him a boundary.”

“You gave him proof that there’s something to poke.”

Kai goes still.

The hum of the washer fills the silence between us.

“I need this job,” I say, quieter. “I need it to just be a job. I need people not to think I’m here because of you.”

“You’re not.”

“I know that. You know that, but the rest of the team doesn't."

“Then let them be wrong.”

I let out a small, humorless laugh. “That is such a Kai answer.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you can survive people being wrong about you because you’re already standing on solid ground. I’m not.”

The words leave me exposed.

Moments pass, and when he finally speaks, his voice is careful. “Wren.”

“No.” I lift a hand. “Don’t say it like you want to fix it.”