He made it back two days before the conference finals, exhausted from combine testing but glowing with a specific quiet confidence Rae hadn't seen on him before — the particular satisfaction of a man who'd just proven, definitively, exactly what he was capable of on a stage that mattered.
"How'd it go?" she asked, meeting him at the airport despite his insistence that she didn't need to make the drive.
"Better than I hoped, honestly. Fastest sprint time of any forward at the combine. Interview panels seemed genuinely interested in more than just my stats — asked a lot about this season specifically, about leadership under pressure." He pulled her into a tight hug, exhaustion and relief mingling in his expression. "One scout told me, off the record, that I'm looking at a realistic shot at
