“Zac?” I murmur.
“Yeah?”
“Can we keep this between us?”
Silence stretches, wrapping around me thick and strong. But then his voice cuts through the darkness. “I won’t say anything.”
“Thank you.”
I lie on my back, listening as his breathing eventually evens out, and he drifts off to sleep.
ZacKincaid is now in possession of one of my biggest secrets, even if he doesn’t know. I should be terrified, but for some reason, I’m not.
I can’t run from my past forever. At some point, I have to face it.
Chapter 14
Zac
My thoughts are consumed with one thing: Noah Bentley.
I expect him to shut down and avoid me again after his meltdown in the motel room, but to my surprise, he does the exact opposite.
When I wake the next morning, he hands me a decent coffee he got from the coffee shop down the road. He keeps the conversation light, sticking to the Premier League highlights and school, and keeping my word, I don’t bring up what happened the night before.
At training on Monday afternoon, I expect him to avoid or ignore me. Instead, he asks me how the rest of my weekend was and even drags me into a debate with his housemates over whether pineapple belongs on pizza—hard no.
I run into him at the library on Tuesday, and he invites me to study with him and Hannah. I’m so stunned, I can’t even come up with an excuse, so I plonk my arse down across the table from them and try to focus on my research project. It’s almost impossible to concentrate when all I can think about is how broken he looked, shivering his arse offafter that shower. Whatever happened to his friend has really affected him.
None of the other guys who have roomed with him on away games have mentioned any weird behaviour from our captain, which leaves me assuming his freak-out had something to do with me.
My psychology degree is working against me here, because all I want to do is help him, even though he doesn’t deserve it after the way he treated me. The worst part is that my growing attraction to him is getting harder to ignore. I can’t help casting glances at him while he studies across from me, until I realise Hannah is watching, curiosity gleaming in her crystal-blue eyes.
Noah blinks at me as I mutter an excuse, gather my things, and leave.
He’s in my head. I need a distraction.
Thankfully, I’m meeting my masked man at Euphoria this weekend. With all this stuff going on with Noah, I’d almost forgotten. A night with the mysterious shadow in a private room will surely make me forget about my captain.
I just have to make it through one more training session and an away game without doing anything stupid, like falling for my straight, unavailable teammate.
By the timeRitter drops me home Saturday afternoon after we get back from Blue Haven, I’m tired, grumpy, and ready to chill on the couch. Between Dane’s snoring and my mind constantly drifting to Noah, I barely slept a wink last night. I’d hoped for a nap on the three-hour bus trip home, but the guys were whooping and shouting as they played road trip games.
I need a good few hours of peace, so after dropping mybag by the door, I head straight for the lounge room and stop in my tracks when my eyes land on Amelia making out with Jonathon Crawley.
“Christ, Milly,” I grumble, causing Jonathon to jump a mile. “Where are Mum and Dad?” I sign when my sister looks over at me, red tinging her cheeks.
“Saturday market,” she says.
“So, you thought you’d take advantage by mauling your boyfriend on the couch while they’re gone?” I talk as I sign so Jonathon can follow our conversation.
“Sorry,” he says, signing the word. I’m impressed he’s learnt the basics of sign language, and Amelia looks at him like he hung the moon.
“Whatever,” I say, signing as I speak. “I guess I should be glad you’re on the couch and not in her room.”
My sister shoots me a dirty look, but I’m too tired to care.
“How was the game?” Jonathon asks.
