After a minute, Dempsey hisses under his breath. “Fuck…”

“What?” I peer over his shoulder at the screen, then yelp as he grabs my legs and pulls them across his lap.

“Your ankle,” he murmurs as he pushes up my left pant leg and massages the tender spot. “This one shows you stumbling before you even bust into the circle.”

I sigh at his touch, leaning back on my elbows and sinking into the ministrations of his big, strong hands. He keeps circling and pressing into the muscle as he watches. I’m so relaxed, I let myself close my eyes and lie back completely, my legs draped over his lap. When he starts up another video without my help, I smile. He’s figured it out on his own.

We lie like that for five or six more videos, the repetitive sound of my voice and the crowd’s reaction easy to tune out as the scene plays out over and over again. When the room goes quiet, I exhale, relieved that we’re done playing last night’s trauma on a loop.

I don’t need to be reminded of what it felt like to stand on trembling legs and fight like hell to make it out of that circle unharmed. I lived it.

Dempsey sets the phone down by my side. “Will the videos cause problems for you?” he asks, using both hands to massage my feet now.

I sigh in response to his touch, desperate to keep my eyes closed and live in this moment for as long as he’ll let me. He’s quiet for nearly a minute before he pushes.

“Maddie… answer me.”

I open my eyes and curl up to sit, straightening my legs out on his lap in the process. “No. I’ll be fine,” I answer honestly. “Some of the stuff I threatened them with isn’t entirely true, and any lawyer worth their snuff would know that. But I always assumed I’d have to delete my social media accounts once I graduate from college. More than anything, it’ll just be annoying to keep getting tagged in posts until this blows over. But it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

He nods, that adorable wrinkle between his brows deeper than I’ve ever seen it. Wordlessly, he continues to rub my feet and ankles, so I lean back again and let him work through it on his own.

“Adley,” he says softly, freezing when I stiffen in his grasp. “What did Andrew Adley say to you before he called everyone off? I could see your reaction in some of the videos. But I couldn’t hear what he said.”