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I flip them off without turning around. They're still laughing when I push through the doors.
Assholes.
Every last one of them.
But the closer I get to my car, the faster my mind works. Because Layla is sitting in my library with five women who know this team better than almost anyone.
Women who've watched me build it.
Women who've seen things Layla hasn't.
Carolina in particular knows me from before the Rovers became what they are now.
She knows about Granddad.
She knows how much the team means to me.
She knows I'm not nearly as detached as I pretend to be.
And God only knows what else she's decided my Firecracker needs to hear.
My Firecracker.
Fuck.
I get into the car.
I'm not worried about what they'll tell Layla. Not exactly.
I'm worried about what she'll learn. Because I'm starting to want her to know me.
The real me. I want her to know everything. Well, everything except the one truth I'm still too much of a coward to tell her myself. And if one of those women lets that particular cat out of the bag before I get there?
I'm going to kill every married Rover on my payroll.
Then I'm going to have to figure out how the hell to convince Layla Hawthorne not to leave me.
Chapter 20
Layla
The first thing I learn about the Rovers' wives is that they travel in a pack.
The second? Carolina Barret is absolutely their Alpha.
Not in an obnoxious way.
She doesn't walk into Mitchell's library barking orders or demanding everyone's attention. She doesn't need to.
The other women simply seem to orbit around her. Introductions happen quickly. Finley Jackson, Koa's wife. Annabeth Warden, Luca's. Daniela Jackson—Dani—Tank's wife. Chiara Walker, is Noah's wife.
And Carolina, aka Caro, is married to Coach Dane and, perhaps more importantly for my purposes, Mitchell's former assistant.
That makes her dangerous.
Professionally speaking. Probably personally too.
She's warm when she hugs me hello, but once everyone has settled around the enormous table in the middle of the library, I catch her studying me.
