I’m speechless. Utterly speechless.

Drawing in a deep breath, I can’t believe what he is saying to me and then I remember that this cannot happen. Blinking out of the little lust cloud that he’s created to fog my judgment, I push him away and shake my head.

“Will never happen,” I sneer at him, my eyes sending him to the pits of hell.

“Don’t say never, Baylor,” he says before backing up from me. “And don’t expect me not to stand up for you. I have to.”

“And why is that?” I find myself asking.

“Because I care,” he says before reaching for the door. “About you.”

I want to cry, I am so mad, because he makes no fucking sense. I don’t understand him, and I don’t understand why I want to understand him. He is nothing to me. He can’t be anything.

“Stay away from me!”

Looking over his shoulder at me, he shrugs. “I’ll try, but I can’t say that you’ll stay away from me.”

Before I can answer because, again, he’s left me speechless, he opens the door and slams it shut. When my lip starts to wobble, I sink my teeth into it and bite hard, willing myself to let it go. To not allow him to affect me. But I know I can’t. He’s somehow figured me out, and I don’t know how to handle that.

Cursing myself, I head inside as I mentally kick my ass. I can’t allow this to happen. He can’t have any control over me. Not only will it fuck with my head but it’ll fuck up my game, and I can’t allow him to do that. I have to ignore him.

But when I get inside, I know that’s gonna be one hell of a feat.

The room is still full of all the guys who have showered, but he hasn’t. Looking up at me, he says, “Go take a shower.”

“I can wait for you to get done,” I snap, but he’s shaking his head.

“No, go,” he says before pulling his legs up against this chest. Everyone looks at me, and I want to fight him on it, but I don’t think I can after what just happened outside. I want to shower and go home. I want to sleep. Between him and my dad, I’m done, I quit. But then, of course, I don’t want to let him win.

When he stands and comes toward me, I suck in a deep breath, not wanting to allow him to affect me. But let’s be honest, I’m fighting a losing battle here.

Standing tall, he looms over me as he says, “Go. I want to make sure no one messes with you, and I want to set an example. So go.”

“It’s not your job to make sure,” I snap back and he shrugs.

“You’re right, it’s not, but I am. So either you can go or we can both sit here in our funk, marinating. The choice is yours.”

I can see in his eyes that he isn’t going to move. Turning from him, I grab my shower caddy and my towel before heading to the shower without even a second glance at him.

When I’m about to enter the shower though, I hear someone say, “Jeez, Sinclair, you trying to hit that?”

Jayden scoffs. “Why? Because I respect a girl, I obviously want to fuck her, yeah?”

“Yeah,” someone says. “No one does all this unless they want some ass.”

“For your information, I don’t want to fuck her. I don’t know what you guys think of me, but last I checked, I’m not some douche. I respect people because my momma raised me like that. I would do the same for you bastards. So shut the hell up and get out of here.”

That has some of the guys laughing and others calling him a pussy, but all I can think is that maybe I was wrong about him.

And the thing about that is…I hate being wrong.

“So did you see that goal?”

Nodding my head, I laugh as my brother beams at me. During the game against the Ducks, Jude did an awesome toe drag before shooting top shelf. It not only resulted in a goal, but it was on the NHL highlight reels. It was pretty sick.

“Yeah, dude, badass,” I say, complimenting him.

“Dude, I jumped up when it went in. I was like, mind-blown by it! I’m so practicing it tomorrow after camp,” Jace practically yells beside me. Shaking his head at our overzealous little brother, Jude’s grin only grows.

“Speaking of camp, how’s that going?”

It’s like a light switch. One second I’m grinning, the next I’m grumbling. Camp. Fucking camp. “Baylor is stressing me the hell out” is what it should be called.

“Dude! No shit, you will never guess who is on our team!” Jace yells, and instantly, I punch him in the chest.

Oops.

“What the hell!” he wheezes as Jude laughs, and I wave him off.

“I didn’t even hit you that hard,” I say, and he’s gasping for breath.

“Says the Hulk! Fuck! I’m telling Mom, you big asshole,” he snaps before getting up and actually crying to our mother.

“Are you serious?” I yell at his retreating back. “Be a man!”

“He is such a fucking pussy,” Jude says with a shake of his head. “When’s he gonna realize telling Mom doesn’t scare us?”

Looking at him skeptically, I laugh. “Why you lying?”

He laughs at that and shrugs. “She can’t get me in California.”

“The hell I can’t, Jude Marshall! Don’t care that you’re getting married and play professionally, I’ll knock you into next week!” she yells, and I scoff at Jude’s worried look.

“Told ya,” I say as my door opens and my mom pops her head in, her arms full of laundry.

“Can you not act like ten-year-olds and be adults? Keep your hands to yourself.”

“Can he stop acting like a whiny little brat?” I ask and she shrugs, almost like she’s thinking the same thing, but she’s doing her job as a mom and at she least tried. Before anything else can be said, the door shuts and I roll my eyes.

He’s such a little baby.

Looking back at the screen, I shake my head. “I’m gonna kick his ass.”

“You should. I mean, how is he even making it at camp?”

I shrug. “I have no clue. He’s such a little bitch.”

“For sure,” he says, nodding in agreement. “But no, really, what’s the reason for knocking the air out of him?”

Running my fingers through my hair, I let out a long breath as I hold his gaze. I’ve been waiting for the last two days to talk to Jude. I can’t talk to Jace about it because he just laughs and taunts me, but Jude will know what to do. He can help me get rid of these feelings and fight for what I want. Because the good guy in me wants to say to her, take it. Take everything from me. While the asshole is saying, I will murder you. It’s almost like I have the angel and devil on my shoulders.