Reaching up a hand, Erin traced the crease with her thumb. “What is it?”
“Nothing. I just… Hiding it is hard, sometimes.”
“So, let’s stop.” Erin made it sound so easy, so simple. “Let’s arrive tonight not just together, but together. Hand in hand. If that’s something you want.”
It was something Lia did want. Deeply. She didn’t want to have to second-guess herself whenever she sought Erin out in training. Or, worse, not talk to her at all. Lie about her summer plans to her teammates when they asked how she was spending the off-season, because if she mentioned a trip to Marbella, they’d ask her why. “Is it something you want?”
“I told you—I don’t care. I wanted to keep it quiet because I didn’t want everyone in my business, but maybe they should know that you’re my business.” Stepping closer, Erin tucked a strand of Lia’s hair behind her ear. “So Adrianna thinks twice the next time she asks you out for a drink.”
Lia laughed. The last time Adrianna had tried, Erin’s dark eyes had glowered at her from across the room. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Wary of her lipstick, Erin lifted one of Lia’s hands to her lips and kissed the back of it. “I am sure of you. And I never want you to doubt that. I’m sorry if I have.”
“You haven’t.” Erin had been clear in the way she felt—every lingering glance, every soft touch, every whisper into Lia’s ear that she couldn’t wait to see her after training was done. “They’re going to lose their minds.”
Unconcerned, Erin lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “Let them. Shall we? We’re going to be late.”
She let Erin pull her out to the waiting car, excited for the night ahead.
The ceremony was being held in the Hilton hotel in the city centre, one of the tallest buildings around and made almost entirely of floor-to-ceiling windows. Lia had never been inside, and as she and Erin walked into the grand lobby, with its white marble floors and prominent spiral staircase leading to the floors above, she felt out of place.
By the desk, one of the Albion representatives was waiting, smiling when they approached.
“Erin, Lia. Welcome. We’re in meeting room four—take the stairs to the first floor, and the signs will direct you from there.”
“This place is beautiful,” Lia said as she followed the instructions, her heels clicking across the floor. “Are the awards always in here? It must be expensive.”
“They have been the last couple of years. Only the best for the league champions.”
When they reached the first floor, the open meeting room door beckoning at the other end of the hallway, Erin slipped her fingers through Lia’s.
“Are you sure?” Before they stepped inside, Lia needed to check one more time. If they did this, there was no going back.
“I’m sure. Come on.”
They walked in together, hand in hand.
Inside, a dozen tables of players and staff alike were dotted around the room. The tables were covered with white tablecloths and held copious bottles of wine—Ayla giving them one last chance to blow off steam before preparing them for their final game.
After that, they would be free for the summer. With no international tournaments that year, Lia would have a precious ten weeks off, a precious ten weeks to spend time with Erin and her family.
She couldn’t wait.
So far, no one was reacting. Was this going to be an anticlimax? Imagine if no one noticed they were together! She didn’t know how she’d deal with that.
But slowly, as she and Erin looked for their seats with clasped hands, whispers rippled across the room. Everyone seemed to be deciding who would be the first person to ask them about it.
A duty that fell, of course, to Shanice. She cornered them after they’d checked the first two tables, hands settled on her hips as she glanced between them. “What’s this, then? You two are together?”
Erin ran a thumb over the back of Lia’s knuckles. “Yes.”
“Since when?”
“A few weeks.”
“When, specifically?”
Lia glanced at the side of Erin’s face, her eyebrows creased into a frown.
