Page 182 of Heal Me, Love Me

I took a long drink, then settled back against the headboard. “How bad was the media?”

He took a sip of his coffee. “Not terrible.”

That answer immediately made me suspicious. “Meaning?”

He sat in the chair Coach Phil had vacated. “Meaning every reporter wanted to know why I lost my mind in the cage.”

I winced. “Sorry.”

“Stop apologizing.”

I took another sip of water. “What’d you tell them?”

“The truth.”

I arched a brow and he smiled.

“Well, not all of it. I basically just reminded them that we’ve known each other for a long time, that we trained together, and that I didn’t like knocking out somebody I care about.”

I looked down at the water bottle in my hands. “Oh.”

For some reason, learning he’d said that publicly affected me more than I expected. It wasn’t as if he admitted anything, but after so long of pretending we didn’t matter to each other, hearing Rowan openly acknowledge that he cared about me felt like a big deal.

My phone started ringing before I could say any of that. I saw Marcos’s name on the screen and answered it. “Hey.”

“How’s your head?”

I closed my eyes. “Feels pretty crappy, but I’ll live.”

“That’s good. So …”

His tone immediately told me this wasn’t just a wellness check.

“I heard some things around the venue after you left last night.”

“What things?”

“Nothing major.” He paused. “Just enough to make me think I should call before someone else does.”

I glanced at Rowan, then said, “Sounds sort of major.”

“I guess that depends. Are you and Cross dating?”

At this point, there was little reason to lie. “We’ve still got things to work out, but yeah, I think so.”

“Okay.”

I blinked. “Okay?”

“Yeah.”

That wasn’t the lecture I’d been expecting. “That’s it?”

“What do you want me to say? I represent professional athletes; they usually date a lot. People did see some things backstage, and I wanted to remind you that you don’t need to let the media force you to make decisions before you’re ready.”

“Yeah, I don’t think either of us is ready to go public with anything. Not until we talk some more.”

“That’s understandable. I’ve got other clients whose personal lives became public before they wanted them to. Trust me, it’s easier when you control the timing. I’ll take care of a few things on my end, and you guys try to stay under the radar for now.”