Page 86 of Trade It All

“I knew something was going to happen. I fucking knew it.”

“Dean.”

“And I still let you tell me you were fine.”

He is spiraling so fast I can practically see it happening. The guilt. The anger. The self-hatred.

I push off the wall and step right into him.

Hard enough that my palms hit his chest with a soft thud. He stops.Looks down at me.

“You are amazing,” I say firmly, shoving him once more when he opens his mouth to argue. “Do you hear me?”

His lips part. No words come out.

“You came when I needed you,” I tell him, my voice shaking now not from fear but from how deeply I mean every word. “You protected me. You stood between me and him before I could even blink.”

His breathing is still too fast. His eyes still too wild. So I press my hand flatter over his heart. Grounding him the way he always grounds me.

“I could not ask for a better partner,” I whisper. His throat moves. “And I could not ask for someone better to love.”

Chapter 36

Dean

Maddiepracticallyshovesmeout of her office. Not physically at first. Verbally.

With that stubborn set to her jaw that tells me arguing is pointless because she has already made up her mind and I am the only one still pretending there’s a discussion to be had.

“Dean,” she says, both hands flat on my chest, pushing me back a step toward the busted doorway. “You have to go.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“Yes, you are.” Her tone says she will absolutely drag me by my ear if she has to.

Under any other circumstance, I might find it cute. Right now I find it infuriating.

“Maddie—”

“No.” She lifts a finger between us. “You have a team to coach andI have a job to do.”

I stare at her. She stares right back. Still shaken. Still pale. But there’s steel there now too, and I know that look well enough to understand what she’s really saying.

Tyler doesn’t get to take this building from her. He doesn’t get to make her hide. He doesn’t get to turn her into something fragile. She sees the moment I understand because her expression softens.

Just slightly. “I will not be scared in my own arena,” she says quieter now. “And I know I’m protected.”

That last part hits me square in the chest. Because she says it looking right at me. Like she meansyou.

I exhale hard through my nose and force my hands to unclench. Every instinct in me is screaming to keep her in my line of sight, to lock her in my office, in my truck, in my damn apartment—somewhere Tyler can never get near her again.

But if I do that—he wins. And she’ll hate it.

So I lean down, press one hard kiss to her forehead, and rest mine there for one second longer than necessary.

God, I love her. I hate this. But I love her.

She slips around me and heads down the hallway to find Luka so they can go do their pre-warmup locker room clips like this is a normal damn game day.