LOGINAvery's POVHis hand was warm.That was the first thing I noticed and then I noticed that I had not pulled away and I had a feeling I was not going to and all of that happened in about two seconds without any deliberate thoughts connecting the chain of events.Liam did not look at me when he took my hand. He just reached over and took it and started walking and I walked with him because my legs moved before my brain caught up. By the time my brain did catch up, we were already crossing the field and it seemed too late to refuse our act out.Behind us I could feel the eyes and hear the gasps and murmurs of everyone watching us leave. I did not turn around to look at any of them. I kept my eyes forward and walked.We crossed the field and moved onto the path that ran between the stadium wall and the equipment shed. His hand was bigger than mine and his grip was easy. Not tight, not uncertain, just there, warm and steady and entirely uncomplicated in a way that made it worse to think abo
Avery's POVPriya did not step forward dramatically. She did not raise her voice or make a show of it. She just turned to Brianna and spoke like the answer was obvious and she was mildly surprised nobody had said it yet."Her man?" Priya said. "He cheated. For two months. On a girl who gave him seven months and never once embarrassed him publicly, even when she had every reason to." She looked at Brianna steadily. "And you are standing here calling her the problem?"Brianna blinked. It was fast but everyone around them caught it."I am just saying what people are thinking," Brianna said."No," Priya said. "You are saying what Colton needed someone to say because he just got embarrassed on his own challenge and needed the attention somewhere else. And you volunteered for that." She glanced at Colton briefly and then looked back at Brianna. "So congratulations on that."A few people nearby made sounds that they quickly turned into coughs. Someone at the back of the squad actually laughe
Avery's POVI had been watching Colton's face after he missed the last ball.He was standing in the middle of the field with his hands at his sides and nothing left to say. The whole team had just watched Liam embarrass him cleanly on his own challenge, the one Colton had set up himself with full confidence in front of both groups. That was the part he could not recover from. He had constructed the whole situation deliberately and Liam had taken him apart without breaking a sweat. Everyone on the football team and cheer squad had watched every single second of it without looking away.For a moment the field was just quiet.Then Brianna moved.She did not rush. She stepped forward from the front of the squad with the unhurried ease of someone who had been waiting for the right moment and had decided this was it. She looked around at the crowd the way someone looked around a room they had just walked into and decided they owned, making sure she had the full attention she wanted before s
Liam's POV"Deal," I said.Colton's smile came back fast. Too fast. It was the smile of a man who thought he had just gotten exactly what he wanted and was already enjoying the version of events he had written in his head.The team reorganised itself without being asked. Players pulled back to give us room, forming a loose half circle around the space between the hash marks, the way a crowd always arranged itself around something it expected to be worth watching. The squad on the track had stopped pretending to run formations. Everyone was watching now and nobody was hiding it.Tate fell in beside me while I pulled on my gloves."You know you did not have to say yes," he said quietly."I know," I said."He is trying to humiliate you in front of both groups.""Let him try," I said.Tate looked at me for a second and then stepped back without another word. He understood that I knew exactly what I had gotten myself into. Colton was already talking to two of the other receivers, loose an
Liam's POVThe field went quiet as I walked.It didn't go quiet all at once. It spread outward from the point where people first noticed me heading in the wrong direction, one player at a time, a ripple moving through both groups until the whole offence had stopped to stare and the squad on the track had also stopped practicing. The only sound left was my footsteps on the grass and the distant noise of the wind moving across the open end of the stadium.I kept my pace steady. I was not rushing, neither was I dragging it out. I had made the decision and I was walking toward executing it and there was nothing left to think about. The time for thinking was gone.Tate called out from behind me. "Harrington."I did not stop.Colton heard the silence before he saw me. He turned when I was about five feet away and I watched him put together what was happening in real time, watched him read the situation and land on a decision about how to handle it. The smile he settled on was the same easy,
Liam's POVI stood at the edge of the field and watched Colton walk back to his side like he owned every inch of ground he had ever stepped on.Tate jogged over and stopped beside me, still catching his breath from the last drill. The drill had been cut short because of Colton's drama. He followed my gaze across the field, took one look at my face, and let out a slow breath."Tell me you are not about to do what I think you are about to do," he said."I am thinking," I said."You are not thinking. You look like a man who already decided something and is just waiting for his legs to catch up."I did not answer him. Down on the track, Avery had already pulled her squad back into formation like nothing had happened. Her voice carried over the noise of both practices, steady and sharp, calling out her counts. Her coach was beside her with her clipboard tucked under her arm. Her back was straight and she had the look of someone who had swallowed something bitter and was absolutely not goin







