Okay, Lia had definitely said the wrong thing. “I—”
“Do you think it’s fun watching everyone fawn over you? I know you’re good. I know you’re great for the team. I know I’m supposed to be a professional and act like I’m overjoyed that you’re here. But every time I look at you, Lia, I’m reminded of all the things I can’t do. So, yes, I have been avoiding you. But I’ve been far from hostile. Because believe me, if I wanted to be hostile, you’d know about it.”
Erin breathed heavily, a look of surprise on her face like she couldn’t believe what had come out of her mouth.
“I’m sorry.” Though Lia didn’t know what she was apologising for. “I didn’t mean to—”
“Can we not do this?” Erin waved a hand between the two of them. “Let’s just continue to ignore one another until we’re forced to interact.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“You’re incapable of playing nice?”
Erin’s gaze trailed from Lia’s head to her feet. “With you? Right now? Yes, I think I am.”
Shaking her head, Lia bit her tongue so she didn’t say something she’d later regret. Maybe it was a good thing Erin had avoided her. She hadn’t expected the warmest of welcomes, but this? Lia couldn’t believe it. Well, they did say you should never meet your heroes.
Lia should have heeded that advice.
A black town car rounded the corner, and Lia breathed a sigh of relief when it pulled to a stop in front of them.
“Sorry I’m late,” the driver said as he hurried to grab their bags. “I’ll be sure to get you to the airport in time.”
Lia glanced at her watch. They still had over three hours before their plane was due to depart—plenty of time. “Do you mind if I sit in the front?” The thought of sitting next to Erin in stilted, weighty silence for forty minutes filled her with dread.
The driver looked surprised. “Of course. Give me a moment to clear the seat—most people prefer to sit in the back.”
As Erin slid into the back seat and slammed the car door closed behind her, Lia sighed. “Yeah, well, I’m not like most people.”
Chapter 4
Erin hated team bonding.
In theory, she knew the benefits. It was good for morale and building a rapport, and people who got along off the pitch were more likely to click together on it. But whoever had decided that the time for a team dinner was after they’d all spent seven hours on a plane together needed to re-evaluate their priorities.
It was supposed to be a move to ensure they beat the jetlag by staying awake until nightfall, but Erin wanted to sleep, not be huddled around a table in a Japanese restaurant in downtown Manhattan. At least most of the group activities planned over the next two weeks gave her something to do. Something other than sitting and being forced to communicate with people who were, for all intents and purposes, her colleagues. Certainly not her friends. Well, other than Alex.
Erin’s one saving grace was that most of the attention was firmly fixed elsewhere that evening—on the new arrivals. Because if one more person asked Erin how her recovery was going, she was going to scream.
They all saw her in the gym each day, struggling to do the simplest of exercises. She had thought that the first few days of recovery after her surgery—when she’d been barely able to move without crying for help, relying on Jessica or Maisie to grab her a glass of water—would be the worst. But she was wrong. The worst part was watching the rest of her teammates skip onto the grass where they could work a ball at their feet while Gregor celebrated her being able to bend her knee ninety degrees.
Ugh.
Erin wished she could have a drink to lessen her disgust at the whole table fawning over Lia, but alcohol was on her prohibited list from Gregor. While Lia wasn’t the only new player they’d signed, she was by far the most exciting one. Everyone had seen Lia’s meteoric rise from obscurity to the top of the game.
And everyone couldn’t wait to see what she could do for the team. To Erin’s annoyance, Lia had slotted right in. From what she’d heard of their training sessions, Lia had taken everything thrown at her in her stride, like she’d been at Albion all along. Seamlessly taking Erin’s place. And, judging by the adoring looks on half the faces at the table, she was doing it by being much friendlier than Erin had ever been.
Lia, for her part, didn’t look Erin’s way once. After Erin’s frosty reception earlier, that was to be expected.
“Okay, okay, I have to ask,” Adrianna said. “We’ve been skirting around it for days now, but the people need to know. Why did you leave Wanderers, Lia?”
Trust Adrianna to ask. Erin had never known a bigger gossip than the Albion defender.
When the smile dropped from Lia’s mouth, Erin’s interest was piqued, and for the first time, she tuned into the conversation. Alex hadn’t been able to shed any light on Lia’s move, but Adrianna might be able to give Erin the answer she’d been searching for.
“So, you don’t buy that I fancied a change of pace?” Lia’s chuckle was nervous, and she tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear.
