Rae found him still sitting in the stands twenty minutes later, having come looking after practice ended and he hadn't returned to the locker room.
"Hey." She sat down beside him, close enough that their shoulders touched. "Bear said your dad showed up."
"Yeah."
"That bad?"
"He wants me to end things with you before the draft process gets any further." Beckett said it flatly, watching her face carefully for a reaction he half-expected to be relief — an easy exit from a relationship that had already cost her enough danger for one season.
Instead, her expression hardened, something fierce and protective flashing across it. "What did you tell him?"
"I told him I love you and I'm not ending anything for a draft narrative."
The words landed between them with a weight neither of them had
