Page 91 of False Catch

"That's not—"

"Bullshit," Beckett interrupts Gray. "We're all feeling it. The pull. The need. The way we orbit around her like she's gravity itself. Jackson just admitted it first."

"By claiming her without—"

"Without your permission?" Eli speaks up, moving to stand beside Jackson. "Maybe that's the problem, Gray. You think everything needs your permission."

Gray's face flushes. "I'm the captain—"

"Of a boat," Eli continues. "Not our lives. Not our choices. Not our feelings."

"Someone has to maintain order—"

"Order?" Zane laughs from the doorway, flour on his shirt. "What order? We're a mess. Have been since October."

"We're undefeated—"

"We're machines," Cameron says quietly, and his contribution makes everyone listen. "Efficient. Effective. And utterly fucking empty."

Gray looks around the room, searching for support, but finds only exhaustion in his teammates' faces.

"So what are you suggesting?" he asks finally.

"Stop trying to captain our emotions," I tell him. "In the boat, you set the rhythm. On land? We're equals. All of us."

"That's not how teams work—"

"We're not just a team anymore," Jackson says firmly. "Reese is right. We're something else. Something more complicated. And fighting it is what's destroying us."

"Accepting it could destroy us faster," Gray counters.

"Could," Tyler agrees, surprising everyone by supporting Gray. Then he continues, "But what we're doing now? It's definitely destroying us. There’s no scenario where we survive in the current trajectory. At least trying something new gives us a chance."

"You want to gamble our futures on unknown probability?"

"I want to stop pretending," I say. "Tomorrow, we have a regatta. We can show up as eight individuals forcing themselves through the motions, or we can show up as what we really are."

"Which is?"

I look around the room at these unique, difficult, extraordinary men. "Complicated. Messy. Real. Connected by something more than just timing and technique."

Gray's control visibly cracks. "And if they suspend us? If we lose our chances at the Olympics? Sponsorships? Pro options?"

"Then we face it together," Bo says simply. "No one gets thrown under the bus. No one takes the fall alone."

"That's not—"

"That's exactly how this works now," Jackson interrupts. "All of us or none of us."

Gray stares at him, and something passes between them. Years of history, competition, respect, and maybe understanding. The realization that Jackson could take this crew, this pack, from him at any minute and he chooses to follow his lead instead. For now.

"This is insane," Gray says finally.

"Yeah," I agree. "But sanity got us here. Maybe it's time to try something else."

He takes a deep breath, visibly wrestling with himself. "If we do this—and I'm not saying yes—but if we do, there have to be boundaries."

"Like?"