Page 130 of Mending Hearts
He considers that.
“And if your parents thought they’d win by dragging us into the open,” I add, unable to keep the edge from my voice, “then they miscalculated. Because now we get to decide what this looks like.”
He watches me carefully, something steady building behind his eyes. “You really are all in,” he says.
“I’ve always been all in,” I reply. “I just never had the chance to stand still.”
My words pull a soft smile from him.
“So,” I say after a moment, “we don’t let them stain your retirement. We don’t let them rewrite your career. And we don’t let anyone reduce this to a scandal.”
He squeezes my hand. “And if someone tries?”
I tilt my head slightly. “Then I release a new single called ‘Brand Alignment’ and make a fortune off their hypocrisy.”
He huffs a breath that’s half amusement, half disbelief.
“That and we go to the competitors of the brand that’s even contemplating ending your contract and sign with them for free.”
“You’re impossible.”
“Probably.”
But the tension has shifted now. It’s still here—the anger, the uncertainty, the looming media cycle—but it’s no longer directionless. It has direction.
And for the first time since this exploded, it feels like we’re not reacting. We’re planning.
19
OLLIE
It’s surreal,sitting around my larger dining table, holding Rafe’s hand like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
The table is the same one I’ve eaten a thousand solo dinners at. The same one I’ve signed contracts on, planned offseason schedules, read scouting reports and pretended my life was orderly because the surface looked clean. It feels too small for what’s happening now. Too domestic for the scale of the fire outside. The building is quiet for the moment, but I can stillfeelthe press downstairs like a low-grade vibration in the bones of the place.
Rafe’s hand is warm in mine. His thumb keeps rubbing over my knuckles like he’s checking I’m real, like contact is the only thing keeping him from snapping into two pieces.
Eric sits across from us, posture straight, shoulders relaxed in the way of someone who’s worked long hours without stopping to notice he’s tired. Rachael is beside him, one leg crossed over the other, phone face down on the table like she’s actively refusing to let the world interrupt her while she triages it. She has a legal pad in front of her, but she hasn’t written much. She doesn’t need to. Rachael’s brain is basically a filing cabinet with a bloodhound’s sense of smell.
Miles is in the kitchen, moving around the open-plan space like he belongs here. He has an apron on, which is ridiculous and somehow exactly right. The smell of garlic hits the air, then oil warming in a pan, then something herby and bright. He’s humming under his breath, not quite a song, more like the sound a person makes when they’re trying to keep the atmosphere from tipping into catastrophe.
The whole setup feels like a strange collision of worlds—my career life, Rafe’s public life, our secret life, all mashed together in my loft like the universe is finally done letting me compartmentalize.
Rachael leans forward slightly, elbows on the table. “Okay,” she says, calm and precise. “We all agree on one thing. We cannot let Ollie’s parents define the narrative.”
Eric nods once. “They’ve created a moral framing around this. That’s what’s dangerous. Not the marriage itself—the implication that he lied to fans and teammates as a character flaw.”
I increase my grip on Rafe’s hand without meaning to.
His jaw flexes, his gaze fixed on the table like he’s imagining it as my father’s face.
I swallow. “They didn’t just out the marriage,” I say, voice steadier than I feel. “They outed… context. They made it sound like I’ve been running a con.”
Rachael’s expression softens a fraction. “And that’s why we address it,” she says. “Not with a defensive apology tour. With boundaries. With facts. With clarity.”
Rafe’s thumb pauses over my knuckles. “And without giving them more oxygen than they deserve.”
“Exactly,” Rachael replies. “We don’t get pulled into debating your parents’ morality. We don’t explain their worldview. We don’t dignify it.”
