“Lia?” Ayla turned toward her. “Anything you want to add?”
“No. Things between us are fine.”
Another hysterical laugh threatened, and Erin bit hard on her bottom lip. The first words she’d heard Lia say in six weeks and they were a gigantic lie.
From the look on her face, Ayla knew that, too. “Very well. You don’t have to talk to me about it, but you do have to figure it out. Starting tomorrow, you two are training together. Alone. I need you in perfect harmony on that pitch.”
Well, wasn’t that fantastic?
* * *
Lia trudged onto the training pitch without a modicum of her usual enthusiasm. Her feet dragged, and it was all because of the person who walked alongside her.
“Look, I know this isn’t ideal, but we were going to have to figure out how to play together eventually.” Erin broke the heavy silence that had settled between them. “Can we just be civil about it?”
Turning to look at her, Lia shook her head. “This is me being civil.”
“Ignoring me?”
“That’s what you did to me for the first few weeks I was here. What’s the matter—you can give it, but you can’t take it?”
“I think we both know that’s not true.”
Closing her eyes, Lia forced the memories of Marbella away. She’d had enough practice by now because they crept into her mind at the most inopportune moments. Distance had done nothing, and now Lia was going to be forced to spend a few hours a day with her? How was she supposed to handle that?
How was it that even now, weeks later, even after the way Erin had treated her the morning after, Lia still wanted her?
She didn’t know how people had casual sex. Lia sure wasn’t built for it, couldn’t look Erin in the eye without thinking about her naked.
“Hey, you two.” Perry, Albion’s head striking coach, waited for the two of them on one of the training pitches. “I’ll be working with you for the next few days. We’ll start out with our usual warm-ups and then move on to some simple drills.”
It was a relief to get started. To—temporarily, at least—push all thoughts of Erin away, focus on the ball at her feet, on the angle of her shots, on making the back of the net bulge.
“You need to be aware of one another,” Perry said, watching them both from the sidelines. “You need to be in sync. Need to know exactly where the other will be at all times, so much so that it becomes second nature. If one falls back, the other needs to press forward.”
Be aware of Erin? Lia was always aware of Erin.
They’d never worked closely together on the pitch, but it didn’t take her long to adapt. Erin had too much presence for Lia not to notice her, to be hyperaware of where she was standing, like her body was fine-tuned to Erin’s frequency.
Erin moved with an easy grace and a fluidity that Lia envied—had always envied, had always tried to emulate in her own play—and being able to play with her, and not against her, was a privilege despite their history.
“All right, ladies, that’s enough for today.” Perry called them to a halt after a set of passing drills, Erin finding Lia with ease every time. “That was a longer session than usual, but you were doing so well, I didn’t want to call it earlier.”
Glancing at the other training pitches, Lia was startled to realise that they were alone. The rest of the team must have already finished.
“Get yourselves into recovery, and I’ll see you at the same time tomorrow.”
Breathing heavily, sweat sticking her shirt to her skin, Lia trudged to the gym to do her usual warm-down stretches. Inside, it was quiet. They must have been out on the field for a long time. Not that she minded. In spite of everything, she’d had fun out there.
As Erin walked into the gym after her and began a set of stretches, some of Lia’s good mood faded.
Erin’s shirt rode up as she leaned forward to stretch her hamstring, revealing the notches of her spine and the smooth, toned muscles of her back.
Hastily, Lia turned her gaze away, chastising herself. Do not check her out, do not check her out, do not—
“We worked well out there today,” Erin said, her voice soft in the otherwise quiet. “Looks like we make a good team. Who would’ve thought?”
“I don’t know, Erin. Everyone other than you?”
