Page 405 of Playing Dirty
Mentally.
Because everything here had weight attached to it.
Scouts watching.
Media presence.
Staff evaluating.
Even silence felt like it was being recorded.
Coach stood at the side, arms crossed.
No instructions.
Just observation.
Which meant we were being tested immediately.
Luca missed an early read.
Coach didn’t react.
That was worse than correction.
Mason drove, passed, scored.
Still didn’t feel clean.
Because part of him was aware of something else entirely:
Rowan was watching.
Not emotionally.
Professionally.
But still watching.
That changed how everything felt.
ROWAN
Writing started slower than I expected.
Not because I didn’t know what to say.
Because I knew too much.
Mason wasn’t a headline.
He wasn’ta narrative.
He was… layered.
And that wasn’t something people liked reading.
Mia’s words came back to me:
