Only once the sun was high in the sky did she tear her gaze away and reach for her phone, but to make a call rather than to take a picture. It was Sunday, meaning Maisie wasn’t at school, and Erin had promised to show her the view.
“Hi, Auntie Erin!” Maisie answered her FaceTime after a single ring, her bright smile filling the screen. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too.” It was rare for Erin to go more than a few days without seeing Maisie, and the pre-season tour would have her across the Atlantic for a full two weeks. “Is Gerrard behaving himself?”
“He always does.” Maisie shifted the camera to show Erin the cat curled in her lap. “Mum’s here, too.”
“Yes, thanks for asking about the cat first, Erin.” Jessica’s face appeared beside Maisie’s, mock disapproval in her eyes. “It’s nice to know where your priorities are.”
“So sorry—Maisie, is your mum behaving herself, too?”
Jessica stuck her tongue out at Erin as Maisie giggled. An answering smile came to her own lips, basking in the joy of hearing from two of her favourite people in the whole world.
Out of the corner of her eye, Erin caught Lia watching her, curiosity in the weight of her gaze. Annoyed—why was Lia gawking at her like that?—Erin turned her back. A private moment with her family wasn’t something anyone else needed to be a part of.
“Do you mind moving your head so we can see the view?” Jessica’s voice brought Erin’s smile back.
With a laugh, Erin switched to the rear camera and tried her best to answer Maisie’s stream of questions about the city.
* * *
“I could sleep for a week.” Cerys’ words were muffled against her hotel bed’s comforter, where she lay face down, her feet dangling off the end still clad in the Nikes she’d been wearing all day. “My feet might be about to fall off.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.” Lia threw herself onto the bed next to Cerys, hearing a grunt when the impact made her bounce.
“Do you have any idea how far we walked today? I’m not built for that. I’m built for ninety minutes of running and then sitting on a coach until I can get myself back home to bed.”
Shuffling to rest her back against the headboard, Lia grinned. “Well, I’ve had a great day.” She’d gotten to see the sunrise from the top of the Empire State Building and be whisked around the city on an open-top bus, disembarking to see as many sights as they could fit in. “And it isn’t over yet. Do you want to waste one of our scarce free evenings lying in bed?”
Their next few days would be busy with team bonding and training as they readied themselves for their first pre-season match in three days’ time. It would be another week before Lia could be a tourist again.
“Yes.”
“Come on.” Lia tugged at Cerys’ shoulder until she rolled onto her back.
Green eyes glared at her. “You are far too chipper considering we’ve been awake for”—she glanced at the blinking red alarm clock on her bedside table—“fourteen hours and counting.”
“Well, I want to go and enjoy the city at night. Maybe see what the view from the Rockefeller Center is like in the dark. Or walk the High Line. Eat at a nice restaurant.”
A spark of interest flashed across Cerys’ face. “Okay, the idea of food might tempt me outside.”
“You’re too easy.”
“I am nothing of the sort—ask any of my exes.” Cerys kicked off her shoes and heaved herself upright so her shoulder was pressed against Lia’s. “Speaking of exes…”
Lia tensed, knowing Cerys would be able to feel it.
“You haven’t talked much about what happened with Hannah.”
“I haven’t wanted to.”
“I figured. But you know I’m here for you, right? No matter what?”
Unbidden, tears sprang to Lia’s eyes. She’d been so busy, purposefully kept her mind filled with other things—training moves, learning about her new teammates, adapting to her new schedule, impressing her new coach—that she hadn’t left much time to think about Hannah at all. “I know. And I’m sorry. I don’t mean to shut you out, it’s just… She cheated on me.”
“That bitch!” The explosion of anger wasn’t unexpected; Cerys had always been fiery. It got her into trouble on the pitch sometimes. “I never liked her.”
“Yes, you did. Everyone liked her. She was magnetic.” The first time Hannah had walked into training the day after signing for Wanderers, her confident swagger had drawn every eye. But it had been Lia she’d gravitated toward, her smile as dazzling as her blue eyes, and Lia had been hooked in an instant.
