“Please. You are nowhere near retirement.”
“You don’t know that!” Once again, Erin struggled to keep her voice low. “I’m not as young as I was. Not as young as her. And we both know what these injuries are like.” Unfortunately, it was all too common in the women’s game. Over the years, they’d watched countless teammates fall foul of an ACL tear. “I might never recover properly. Might never reach the levels I had before.”
“Maybe not.” Alex’s voice was gentle. “But I know you. You’re a fighter. You never give up easily. And I think you’re going to claw your way back to the top by whatever means necessary. But Erin?”
Blinking a few times to clear her fuzzy vision, Erin met Alex’s gaze.
“Tearing Lia down isn’t going to help you get there any quicker. All it’s going to do is alienate you.”
“I like being alienated.”
Alex shook their head. “No, you don’t. Not really.”
“I don’t like her.”
“You don’t have to like her. But you do have to work with her. Or your bad knee isn’t going to be the only thing holding you back.” With that, Alex returned to their booth, leaving Erin to stew on her words.
Maybe she had been too harsh. Maybe she should apologise.
But not tonight.
Lia wouldn’t want to hear it, and Erin wasn’t ready to be as sincere as she should be. Her social quota had well and truly been reached, and she was ready to return to her empty hotel room. No one would begrudge her that.
Hell, they probably wouldn’t notice that she’d gone.
Chapter 5
A voice curbed Lia’s progress toward the practice pitch the next morning.
“Lia, wait. Can I talk to you?”
After how they’d ended their conversation the previous night, Erin was the last person Lia expected to ask her to talk. But the expression on her face gave Lia pause. Against her better judgement, she turned to Cerys. “I’ll meet you there.”
New York Ravens had been kind enough to share their training facilities with Albion for the time they were in the city. They were state-of-the-art, and Lia had been looking forward to challenging herself in another unfamiliar environment. She’d have to wait a few more minutes before going outside.
Cerys shot Erin a curious look before shrugging. “All right. But don’t be too long—Ayla won’t like you being late.”
Maybe that was Erin’s plan.
Still, Lia hung back in the gym with Erin as the rest of their teammates filed past. Both she and Erin were clad in their training kit, but Erin had on the long tracksuit pants, covering her bandaged knee. Lia wore shorts, knowing the heat would be unbearable. Even in September she was used to rain and glacial winds—not blazing sunshine.
Her custom-made Adidas football boots dangled from her left hand; Erin glanced at them with a look of obvious longing, no doubt wondering how long it would be before she could pull her own back on.
“What is it?” Lia said when no words from Erin were forthcoming. “I haven’t got all day.”
Erin’s gaze snapped to Lia’s face. “Right. I wanted to apologise for the way I acted yesterday. I shouldn’t have taken my bad mood out on you.”
“Oh.” Everything about Erin’s posture screamed she was uncomfortable. Lia was willing to bet she rarely said sorry for anything. “It, um, it’s okay. I’m sorry for storming off like I did.” And for changing my karaoke song to be about you. It was probably best she didn’t say that last part out loud.
Though Erin hadn’t been around at the time—Lia had looked for her in the crowd of their teammates—she no doubt had heard what song Lia had chosen.
“Look, I don’t want us to be at each other’s throats for the next few months,” Lia said. Constantly fighting wouldn’t be good for either of them. “I know you’re frustrated I’m here, but it really is down to personal reasons. I have family in the city that I didn’t want to leave abruptly. I’m not out to get you.”
Erin ducked her head. “I suppose it was fairly egotistical of me to imply that you were. After all, apparently, I’m vain.”
Wow. Lia had no idea she could joke. “I’d say I’m sorry about that, too, but I don’t think I’m wrong. Listen, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Do you maybe want to grab a drink one night? Start over?”
Erin’s whole demeanour changed as she shook her head. “No! I didn’t apologise because I want to be friends. Especially not with you.”
