I could see him unraveling.
Not all at once – Rhys didn't unravel like that. He came apart in increments. A harder check at practice. A longer silence at dinner. The way his hands gripped the steering wheel like he was choking something when he drove me home. The way he'd started sleeping with his jaw clenched, grinding his teeth through dreams he wouldn't tell me about. Elena's letter on the counter. Richard's calls going to voicemail. Miles not texting back. Caleb's name in my brother's phone like a splinter I couldn't reach. The championship two weeks out and the pressure building behind his eyes like something with a timer.
He was losing control. Every area, every direction. The ice, his family, his anger, the invisible war being waged against us by a man patient enough to use a thir
