I watch as the surgeon leaves and Coach Pretore and Andre talk a little bit more by themselves. Finally, Coach turns away and walks into the middle of the room. Andre steps out into the hallway and calls the rest of the team in. We all file in, filling the room up with our brawn. Most of us have our arms around our wives or girlfriends, everyone needing to hang on to someone for support. Olivia’s hand tightens in mine, and I glance over at Alex as he stands behind Sutton, his body almost wrapped all the way around her.

“Zack is out of surgery and did fine. He’s got some plates in his wrist, and he’s probably going to be out for the first part of the season. The coaching staff and I will figure out how to replace him on his line.”

Coach Pretore rubs a hand over his tired face, and he’s choked up when he says, “Needless to say…that’s not the real tragedy. We lost a member of our family and all of you knew Gina…she was a devoted mother and a kind, selfless woman. Zack’s going to have a hard road ahead of him. I know he’ll be stronger because he has this team’s support. I have no clue what’s going to happen this upcoming week with our game schedule. We have the home game on Tuesday but are supposed to fly out Thursday for a game in Pittsburgh. I’m expecting we may need to cancel with a makeup game, depending on when Gina’s funeral is going to be. I’ll have to talk to Zack and her parents. Until then…Zack’s not going to be able to see anyone tonight, so I suggest you all go home and get some rest.”

“Coach…will you be the one to tell Zack?” someone in the back of the room calls out.

“Yeah…Suzie and I will stay here until he wakes up. Then we’ll go in and talk to him. Now go on…everyone get home and get some rest.”

I stand from my chair, pulling Olivia up with me. Her cheeks are wet with tears and I take a moment to wipe them off while she stares at me with sad, sad eyes. I pull her in for a hug, letting my arms around her and hers around me be about the only comfort we can glean at this point.

Alex claps me on the back. “Hey…you two want to go get some breakfast?”

I look down at Olivia and she nods. “Yeah…sure. Let’s meet over at Bunky’s. Over on the Fayetteville Street Mall.”

Alex and Sutton nod, giving us both a short smile. We all walk out of the waiting room, the entire team walking with heavy hearts and bowed heads. We’re all thinking the same thing.

How will Zack ever get past this?

—
After breakfast, which was a subdued affair, Olivia and I head back to my house.

“I think I’m going to take a shower,” Olivia says softly as she walks back into my room. I don’t follow her, but rather go to the kitchen. I pull a bottle of water out of the fridge and twist the top off.

I can’t believe Gina is fucking dead. I don’t know when the reality of it will hit me, and I imagine it will take a bit longer for Zack to comprehend what’s happened. My heart aches for him in a way that I know would not have hurt if I hadn’t met Olivia. Now that I’ve seen what it’s like to have someone who you care about—and who cares for you—it just puts a different perspective on things for me.

Setting the bottle down, I walk back to my bedroom and hear the hiss of the shower running. I walk that way, taking my clothes off as I go. Olivia’s body is barely visible through the frosted-glass door of the shower, but I see enough to make my cock start to swell. Her hands are on her head, which is tilted backward under the spray. It pushes her breasts out…and, yeah, I fucking need her.

As I open the shower door, she turns her face over her shoulder to look at me with droplets of water coating her long eyelashes. She moves forward a few feet to make room for me, and I close the shower door behind me. The majority of the spray is hitting my back, so I reach out and pull Olivia closer to me. Drag her right up against me so my entire front is pressed to her back. My cock is hard as a rock, and yet it impossibly gets harder still when she curves an arm upward to reach around the back of my head. Her head falls back and rests on my chest.

“Are you okay?” she asks, her voice filled with sweet care as her fingers massage my neck.

Wrapping one arm around her waist, I bring my palm up to cover her breast. Leaning down to nuzzle her neck, I say, “No. Not really.”

“What can I do to help you?” she murmurs, arching her back so her breast pushes up harder against my hand. My arm around her waist drops and my fingers start playing between her legs. Light, silky touches…subtly teasing. Her breath catches and she spreads her legs a bit wider for me.

“Let me get lost inside of you,” I say in a low voice, slowly sinking a finger into her heat.

Olivia moans, rolls her hips, and pants out, “Yes.”

That one word of surrender fires my blood hot, and my cock pulses against her backside with aching need. Once I get inside her, all the terrible thoughts churning through me will finally be put to rest. At least for a little while.

“Olivia,” I say urgently…desperately. “I want to fuck you…without a condom. Tell me it’s okay.”

“I’m on the pill,” she whispers, her hips now moving in such a way that she’s riding my finger.

“And I swear I’m clean. I’ve never been with a woman without a condom before. I promise.”

“I trust you,” she says, and then it’s all over for me.

I push against her body until she steps right up against the back wall of the shower. Pulling my hand out from between her legs, I capture her by the wrists and raise her arms above her. “Keep your hands up there,” I tell her as I plant her palms against the tile.