“You’re a goddamned dirty cheater,” I yell, staring at the screen. “No way you hit those moves better than I did.”

“But apparently I did.” Hawk laughs, popping the collar he doesn’t have on. “You apparently suck ass.”

“I swear he didn’t curse as much before y’all met.” Mickey looks up from her sketchbook.

The rest of the week in Switzerland was amazing. We explored Zermatt, got to know everyone, then spent our nights with Mickey. Sometimes alone, sometimes together, sometimes just hanging out then falling asleep.

“Oops.” I grin at her and put the Wii controller down, going around the back of the couch and leaning against it to see over her shoulder. She’s adding pale pink color to a long robe type thing. “Damn, that’s really nice.”

“You think so? You don’t think it’s too extra?”

“As long as you model it for us first, I think it’s perfect.” I kiss her neck and stand, giving Hawk my middle finger as I turn to head to the kitchen.

Trying to hit those dance beats is tiring.

My phone rings as I grab the Brita filter from Mickey’s fridge.

“Baby, will you grab that?”

“Yep,” Mickey calls back, and I hear her answer shortly after. “Liam’s phone.”

I sip my water as I come around the counter, scowling because Hawk’s still grinning about beating my score. Mickey’s eyes fly to mine and I raise my brows in question.

“Uh, I’ll text you the address right now. Okay, can’t wait to meet you either.” She puts the phone down.

“Who was that?”

“Raquel. She’s in New York.”

Ah, hell. She knows about Mickey, but I had no idea she’d be visiting.

“Who’s Raquel?” Hawk asks, dropping into a chair and propping his feet up on a footstool. Mickey and I look at each other, then back at him, but don’t answer. “Is that a hard question?”

“It’s complicated.” I frown, as Mickey’s typing on my phone. “I wonder why she’s in New York and why she didn’t tell me she was coming until now.”

“Maybe she wanted to surprise her friend.”

“Maybe it’s something else.” I murmur, feeling anxious. I rub a hand over my chest and shake my head.

I need some air.

I look around until I see my keys and grab them up.

“I’ll be back.” I head to the door, not really seeing where I’m going, but I stop short when I realize Mickey’s scrambled in front of it. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t run.” She says softly. “Talk. Talk through it.”

I look at the door and gauge how much of a fight she’ll put up if I just pick her up and move her out of the way.

“Might as well get free therapy,” Hawk says from where he’s come up beside me, and I curse because I’ve already fought him once.

“You two are annoying.” I hang my head, exhaling hard, but moving back to the couches.

I try to push back the urge to be alone, but it’s hard. Raquel said she didn’t feel comfortable coming forward, and I told her we’d figure out to way to get Chris Kincaid out without tearing apart her life.

But I haven’t. I’m failing my friend every day that man isn’t behind bars. I drop my head to the back of the couch and close my eyes, trying to think more positively.

“Raquel is a good friend of mine who was in a bad situation. Part of it is what made me leave football last year.”

Hawk whistles. “Whatever happened triggered your depression.”

“Yeah.” I look at him. “I don’t think I could get back to that bad of a place without some serious shit going down, but it still puts a bad taste in my mouth because the problem isn’t resolved.”

My phone beeps on the table and Mickey glances at it.

“She’s on her way up. I gave her the code.” She searches my face. “I bet she doesn’t hold it against you.”

“Doesn’t matter, I wanted to do this for her and I failed.” I look away, my leg bouncing. There’s a knock on the door and I stand because I have extra energy. It’s Mickey’s place so I let her open the door.

“Michaela? Raquel. It’s nice to finally meet you in person.” I hear Raquel’s familiar voice, and I move towards the door as Mickey stands back and gestures for her to come in. “Liam.” She smiles brightly, moving towards me with open arms and I catch her in a bear hug.

“What the heck are you doing here, Raquel? I’m happy to see you, but you could’ve called.” I pull back and look at her face for any signs of stress. She looks good. Glowing, even. Her jet black hair is longer, and her brown eyes look happy.

“I wanted to surprise you, and I wanted to ask you to be Dylan’s god-father in person.” She stands back and that’s when I notice the slight bump she’s sporting.

“Well shit.”

“Where are my manners?” She turns to Hawk and sticks a hand out, “I’m Raquel.”

“Hawk, nice to meet you.”

“I would ask if he’s your brother or something, but uh, you’ve obviously got more melanin than him.” Raquel laughs, turning to Mickey, and she grins.

“Good call. Uh,” She looks at me, and I shrug.

“We haven’t really covered labels.”

“Boyfriends?” Hawk suggests, a thoughtful look on his face.

“With an s?” Raquel asks, whirling to me. “Oh. Okay, well uh, okay.”

“We’re not really used to it either,” Mickey says. “Congratulations on your son, by the way.”

“Thank you. My one boyfriend and I are very excited.” Raquel teases, then she sobers a little. “Which is also another reason I was in New York.” She turns to me and rests her hands on her stomach. “I wanted to put the past completely behind me, and I realized I couldn’t do that if I avoiding the problem. I’ve been in therapy and giving my account of things quietly for the charges to be brought up, and I gave my final testimony in person today on video.”

“There’s a real case?” I breathe.

She nods. “When you told me that you told Coach and he said he was working on something, I didn’t believe you. Or him, for that matter. But that’s all changed these past few weeks, and it’ll finally be over. My name will be kept quiet, but the other women are willing to take the stand.”

Damn. Looks like I owe Coach an apology.

“So that means that you can finally stop beating yourself up about not doing enough, and you can get back to winning championship rings. I have it on good authority that his contract will be terminated tomorrow.” I pull her to me in a gentle hug, because I don’t want to squeeze her too tightly, and she wraps her arms around me.

“I appreciate everything you did for me.” She whispers, pressing a kiss to my cheek as she moves back. “Which is why if anything ever happens to me, I trust that you’ll treat Dylan like your own.”

“I would.” My voice is a little hoarse and I clear my throat, meeting Mickey’s soft eyes over Raquel’s head.

“Good. I’m heading back to Texas in the morning, but I’ll be back in a few weeks to visit family and we can make sure we hang out then.”

“You better.” It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and I can breathe.

Raquel goes to Mickey and hugs her, and they exchange quiet words that I can’t hear. She says her goodbyes and leaves, promising she’ll call me when she lands back home.

Hawk blows out a breath. “I don’t about you two, but I feel like this might be a night for ice cream and Netflix on the couch.”

“Right behind you, man. Right behind you.”