My chest throbs with empathy. “Yeah, it was like that for me too, and it started to ruin the thing I loved most. I thought excelling at rugby would fix everything else, but turning the game from an escape into the only thing that mattered just made it worse.”
Though he furrows his brow, like he’s still not sure he can believe me, he takes a slow breath, then quietly asks, “How’d you fix it?”
I gesture for him to throw me the ball. He does without hesitating, and the pass is solid. “Stopped trying to be perfect,” I tell him and toss the ball back, smiling when he catches it again with ease. “Started playing again and left the noise off the pitch where it belonged. It’ll be there when you’re ready to face it, but here?” I chuckle. “Mate, if the game’s not fun, why play?” Leaving him gawking at me, I jog to where the rest of the guys are forming up for a new drill.
Whether that conversation helped Bean, I can’t stop imagining what Savannah would say if she’d listened in on it. I reckon she’d be proud of me for admitting my faults and using humility instead of arrogance to get my point across. She’d be grinning at me with that stomach-clenching smile of hers and looking at me like I’m her favorite snack.
And for the rest of practice, I can’t stop smiling.
“Where’s Sav?”
I’ve lost track of how many blokes have asked me that tonight, which normally would put me in a bad mood as I hand out the steak and rice meals-in-a-jar Savannah dropped off for the team. But the team istalkingto me. They started talking to me even before practice ended.
It started after I tripped on a ball between drills—thinking about the way Sav looked at me before I left her flat—and Bean made a joke about me almost getting cut in Australia. The jab seemed to surprise him, and several of the backs looked ready to start planning his funeral. But when I laughed and continued on my way, something changed. Someone else took a pass at me when I accidentally collided with a teammate, and from that point on, I was human. And an easy target, distracted as I am.
Weirdly, I don’t care if they go after me. None of the ribbing has been cruel, which likely means it’s a way to put me on even footing with them. For them to see me as a teammate instead of an unwanted hero.
It’s nice. “Sav had another client delivery tonight,” I tell French Roast, answering his question, “but I’ll be sure to tell her you’re pining after her.”
His eyes go wide. “No, I’m not—that isn’t—it’s not like—”
“Relax, mate.” I chuckle and toss a jar to him. “If anyone is going to pine over Savannah, it’s me.”
He lifts an eyebrow, almost smiling at me. “Does this mean you’re out of the bet, Callahan?”
“Not on your life. I don’t play to lose.” Honestly, the bet has been the last thing on my mind lately. It’s hardly my biggest obstacle keeping me from admitting that I’m flat-out gone forthe woman, but I can’t think like that. If I can’t keep her, I can’t let myself have her in the first place. “I’m thinking once Moxie cracks, the rest of you will follow.”
French chuckles and looks to where Moxie is listening to the head athletic trainer, Mel, with a moony-eyed expression on his face. “He’s been in love with Mel for years. It’s never going to happen.”
“So why bet against him?”
He shuffles his weight nervously. “Money? I didn’t want to join at first, but it’s for the best that I did.”
Interesting. “You didn’t want to join?”
“You’re preventing us from eating, French,” Bean says, nudging his friend out of the way so he can take his own meal-in-a-jar. “No, he didn’t want to join, because he’s pretending to date my sister,” he tells me and rolls his eyes.
I pause halfway to handing the next guy his food. “Er, what?”
“I’m just helping her out!” French explains quickly. “It’s a whole thing with her ex, andBeanknows it’s not real. I’m still in the bet.”
“You’d better be,” Bean grumbles, and the pair of them wander off, arguing as they go. I only catch pieces, like Bean warning French to keep his hands to himself unless strictly necessary and French throwing back something about Bean’s client being a temptation. With Moxie’s obvious feelings for Mel, and Tink’s female roommate driving him up the wall, the bet feels like the only thing keeping the lads’ heads on straight.
Or is it the problem?
It’ll be interesting to see how things shake out. Interesting to see how long I’ll be able to last before I forfeit my share to one of them and give in to my feelings to Savannah.
Put my heart—my whole way of life—at risk.
Once everyone’s been fed, there’s no real reason for me to hang around, and any other day I would have been gone long before now. But my team doesn’t seem to hate me anymore. What if I come back tomorrow and it was all a fluke? If I leave too early, will they see that as me being a snob?
Logan of a month ago wouldn’t have cared. Now I’m almost desperate for them to like me. Who am I?
Savannah should be done with her delivery by now, so I grab my phone to send her a text and get her opinion. She’s heaps better with the whole people thing than I am and won’t give me some crap answer she thinks I want to hear.
Before I can open my texts, my eyes catch on an email notification from the DNA company. I get these all the time and usually send them straight to a folder, but why? I’m not going to open them. Might as well unsubscribe and move on. I click the notification, hoping there’s an easy unsubscribe link inside, but when I see the content of the email, my stomach twists into a knot.
Likely match: Parent
