“Oops,” Elise says with a shrug.
“Was that payback for that water balloon to the tit?” he asks, referencing a mandatory field day earlier in the year. He shakes his leg out and gets back into position.
“Consider us even,” Elise counters.
The ball rebounds, and Jelani taps it to me. I fake a long cross but cut it to Adhira instead. She takes it with a featherlight touch and barrels towards the goal again, her movements jerky as she slows.
Rafa’s ready this time, happy to take advantage of her exhaustion.
“Come on, sweetheart,” he drawls. “Show me what you’ve got.”
Adhira doesn’t flinch, remaining completely unbothered by his taunting. She shoots.
Rafa dives and misses by a breath.
Letty screams from halfway down the pitch. “Hell fuckin’ yeah! Get absolutely wrecked, Rafa!”
Chelsea jogs back, grinning at Nakoa. “You still breathing?”
“I think I forgot how,” he murmurs.
She ruffles his hair, and he practically combusts under her attention. The moment feels so intimate, I look away, my cheeks heating.
We’re one to zero. The game is heating up. Elise starts tackling like she’s in a Viking raid. Letty pulls off two absolutely outrageous saves in a row, yelling, “Blocked by Chaos Queen!” each time, which Adhira makes sure to tell her is cringy and she should stop.
Nakoa manages a pass to Chelsea, who volleys it clean past Letty.
By the time we’re tied four to four, we’re all exhausted, muddy, and yelling too loud to think. The tension is delicious. My heart’s still tight, but not from fear anymore, from watching Adhirashine. She belongs out here. Sheownsthis, looking every bit as beautiful covered in mud and out of breath as she does bundled in my clothes, relaxing beside me on the sofa.
Rafa rolls the ball to Elise. She passes to Nakoa, who shoots me a wink and boots it right into my thigh, throwing his head back in laughter.
I wince but maintain control, tapping to Jelani, who jukes left and flicks it over to Adhira.
She charges down the pitch, stumbling as she approaches Rafa at the goal post. A yelp leaves her throat, and my heart drops to my toes as I sprint after her. Rafael’s eyes grow wide; he takes a step towards her, and she straightens, punting the ball straight into the goal.
I stop dead in my tracks, eyes wide and mouth agape. Silence falls around us.
“Holy shit, did you just fake him out?” Letty hollers behind us, her voice filled with bewilderment.
Chaos and a rush of cheers pour out around us, and I rush towards her, picking her up and swinging her around as I yell back to Letty. “Hell yeah, she did!”
Adhira’s smile is so wide my cheeks ache from matching it, and I can’t help the pull I feel towards her as my hand cups her cheek and I lean down to whisper in her ear, “That’s my girl. Bloodyperfect.”
CHAPTER
FIFTY-FIVE
I smirkinto my club soda and lime, the bubbles dancing on my tongue, no excuse for the lightness blooming in my chest, not with everything going on in my periphery.
I feel better today than I have in a long,longtime, and I owe it all to Elijah, though that’s not a surprise. He has a way of making every day so much better when I actually allow him to.
He and the guys are on the small, elevated stage, singing their hearts out toNo Scrubs.
“It’s nice to see him meshing so well with them,” I remark, mindlessly stirring my drink with the tiny black straw.
“They really love him,” Chelsea says. “I think he was exactly what those men were missing. And hey, he even got Rafael to do karaoke.” She chuckles.
“Rafa sees a lot of himself in Elijah, despite them being polar opposites. Before meeting Nakoa and Jelani, he felt impossiblyalone too. I think he gives a little more of himself when Elijah is around because he wants him to know he’s worth it.” Elise twists her long black hair off her neck, clipping it back before leaning forward to plant her elbows on the smooth wooden table.
