Levi startled the second he walked through his apartment door when he found Haddie literally standing just on the other side of their doormat, hands behind her back.
“Holy shit!” he exclaimed. “How long have you been waiting there like a freaking horror-movie creeper.”
Haddie beamed. “Actually, I was sitting. Then I was pacing. Then I heard your key in the door, and—as you know—I’m a runner and pretty fast, so…”
Levi kicked off his shoes, but he was basically trapped against the door because Haddie still hadn’t moved.
“We won!” she finally blurted. “And I don’t just meanwon. WeownedMiddleton. Three to zero. It was amazing, Levi. I can’t even explain it. I mean, I’ve played the sport. I’ve watched it all my life. But coaching it? Do you know what it’s like to coach a sport that you love with your whole heart and watch your players succeed?”
After a beat of silence, Haddie’s words seemed to catch up with her brain, and her smile faltered.
“Sorry,” she added with a wince. “Of course you know, and I’man asshole. I just… It’s the biggest adrenaline rush I’ve ever had, and I couldn’t wait to share it with…” She hesitated and bit her bottom lip. “I couldn’t wait to tell you.” She rocked back and forth on her heels, then produced two opened bottles of beer from behind her back, offering one up to him. “How did your game go?”
“Holy shit,” he said again, taking the offered beer. “You really are fast.”
Levi’s chest tightened as he took a swig, the cool, hoppy beverage somehow warming him from the inside out. He wasn’t sure if it was because of how he felt about the nighthe’dhad or because Haddie had come straight home after what he knew was her best night in a long time because she wanted to share her win with him.
Had he really not messed it all up?
Levi forced a smile and huffed out a laugh. “We got owned,” he admitted. “But I’m really happy your team won.” He meant it too. There was something about seeing Haddie smile like that, with her whole body, that made the bitter taste in his mouth sweeten.
Haddie finally backed up into the main living area, allowing him to move.
Levi strode to the couch and collapsed into the far corner, leaving room for Haddie on the other side.
She followed his lead and dropped down opposite him, lips pressed together like they were a dam, the words behind them begging to be set free.
He bit back a grin and gave her a single nod. “It’s okay,” he told her, and he meant it. “Tell me everything.”
And she did. The dam burst, and Haddie told him everythingfrom the kickoff to the final goal, to Sarah Ramirez not letting one ball past her goal line. To Middleton’s defense being run ragged as Haddie’s offense kept them running from one fakeout to another, kept them diving toward their own goal in an attempt to stop the unstoppable.
He’d never seen her like this before, and her complete and utter glee was infectious. Levi found his disappointment fading behind the smile taking over his features. Maybe this program wouldn’t mean anything to him a year from now, but it would mean something to Haddie. It meant something to her now.
“We should do that car-wash thing,” he said. The words rushed out of his mouth before he realized they were coming.
Haddie halted mid-sip, her eyes wide. “Are you serious?” she asked. “You… You want to do a fundraiser for the soccer program?”
Levi nodded and drained the rest of his beer. “I don’t know if there’s anything we can do to change Coach Crawford’s mind,” he admitted. “But I guess it doesn’t hurt to try, right?” Plus, he told himself, it would look great on his résumé of look-at-all-the-great-things-I’ve-done-to-make-me-worthy-of-reinstatement, which wouldn’t be such a terrible by-product of helping out the program, right?
Haddie set her beer on the end table and launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he tried not to drop the empty bottle still in his hand.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” she exclaimed, her breath warm on his neck.
He coughed out a response, and she flew back, her cheeks flushed and a nervous smile on her face. “Sorry!” she cried. “I shouldhave given you some warning before crushing your lungs like that.”
“It’s okay,” he told her, his voice strained as he pushed himself further into the corner and willed himself tostopreacting to her warm, soft curves having just been pressed against him.
Aunt Lorna’s hairy mole. Aunt Lorna’s hairy mole,he chanted silently in his head, remembering the great aunt whose upper-lip mole always bristled against his and Matteo’s childhood cheeks when she greeted them with a hug.
Slowly his below-the-belt reaction receded, and Levi let out a relieved breath.
“I swear I’m not a hugger,” she continued. “Though I know recent evidence does not support this assessment.”
He laughed nervously, praying her eyes stayed trained on his and didn’t dip any lower until… Okay. He sighed. Crisis fully averted. “Guess I…uh…just bring it out in you.”
She shrugged, blissfully unaware that Levi had unexpectedly and immediately hardened at her touch. “It’s weird, you know?” she continued. “The only person I’ve ever shown physical affection to in, like, the past decade…is Emma. Guess that means you’re entering the inner circle,” she teased.
“Inner…circle?” he asked, lowering his empty bottle so it casually rested against his zipper just in case anything she said reawakened his…stirrings.
