Nate shrugged, unbothered. “Worked, though, didn’t it? She was lit up.”
“She’s always lit up,” I muttered, remembering the wrath she wields so easily. “And now I’m the one who’s gonna hear about it. Again.”
They exchanged a look like two brothers who knew exactly how much shit they could stir without getting grounded. I’d have to run them into the dirt at practice later. That, or feed them to Teddy and let her do it for me. Yeah, maybe that’d be the easier option… Only she’d probably make me suffer too.
Jake bumped his shoulder into mine. “Don’t act like you don’t love it. You went full white knight back there.”
“Shut up,” I said, but it came out more tired than annoyed. Truth was, I’d never been anyone’s white knight. And Teddy didn’t seem the type to have people swooping in to fix things either. I didn’t know much about her upbringing, but she carried herself like someone who’d learned early on not to expect help, which is probably why her guard was always so high. Relying on people wasn’t a safe bet for her. Still, it wouldn’t stop me from showing her we were a good team to be on board with. It would take time, though, that much I knew.
We came out of the tunnel toward the pitch. A thin veil of marine haze drifted across the far side of the green, where the sun hadn’t quite reached yet, leaving a cool tickle on the back of my neck. Moisture clung to the blades of grass, already lifting in faint curls of steam drifting up to the sky, hinting at the warmer afternoon we were due. No sinkholes or roped-off hazards in sight, thank Jesus. The rest of the team who had the app and didn’t actually want to piss everyone off were waiting for us.
“I thought you lot would’ve had new assholes ripped for messing up so early in our ‘united front’,” Bobby said, laughing.
“I managed to save their asses and their holes, but barely. Teddy was some shade of red at seeing these idiots in her space.”
“She looked like she wanted to staple my face to a weight rack,” Nate muttered.
“Probably still does,” I said. “So maybe let’s not poke the bear for at least a full twenty-four hours. Yeah?”
Bobby smirked. “That’ll be the day.”
I rolled my eyes and clapped my hands to get their attention. “Alright, enough. Form up. Pitch’s ours for the next hour and a half—let’s not make anyone regret that.”
The lads shuffled into position. Some with more enthusiasm than others. But we moved, got bodies warmed, drills lined up. It was familiar, muscle memory. Controlled chaos I could live with.
Still, I kept glancing toward the edge of the gym, even though I knew she was inside.
I didn’t know why I kept looking back or what to expect next. She’d definitely bring up this morning later, and maybe a part of me wanted her to. Just to know what she’d say. Just to hear her voice, even if it was telling me I was an idiot. Being back with her again didn’t feel so alien to me because we’d established this fight in college, except this time, things felt different. Heated, maybe, but then that was probably just me.
But I was doing my best. Keeping this thing balanced. One wrong move and we’d be headline fodder for the entire league.
“Ramirez, that’s not the spacing we worked on. Shift five meters left. Yeah, there.”
The guys warmed up, and then once formation was solid, I joined in. I needed the distraction. The adrenaline had to go somewhere, better here than somewhere not welcome. Maybe later, I should try to work some of this out in another way… Haven’t fucking done that in a while now. Jake would be so disappointed if he knew.
A while later, we were all sweating and packing up equipment.
The guys started peeling off toward the locker room, boot studs clacking against the concrete path. Nate called dibs on the ice bath. Jake claimed he needed a minute alone with his reflection and a protein bar. Bobby was still chirping about some new play he wanted to pitch. Chaos, as usual.
I let them go.
Only stayed long enough to drag the crate of cones and bibs back toward the storage unit. It wasn’t about doing the heavy lifting—it was about the pause. Five minutes of quiet outside in the coastal air before the next thing got shoved onto my plate.
Before the messages came through from Coach. Before another call with PR. Before someone inevitably said something dumb and I had to smooth it over.
Being captain was kind of like being the dad of the group, and some days, the responsibility pressed in, reminding me how much I was figuring out. I was hungry for it, but it didn’t stop the doubt from creeping in. Would I be good enough to keep the title? Could I live up to expectations? I wasn’t sure yet. I was supposed to lead them, all of them. Be steady. Be sharp. Be the guy who held it all together.
But I was twenty-six and still figuring out how to pay bills on time and separate whites in the laundry. The fact that people looked to me as a voice of reason in team meetings was, frankly, hilarious.
Still. I wouldn’t trade it.
I just had to keep proving it. Week in, week out. While also not completely tanking this PR campaign, avoiding an actual feud with the Valkyries, and making sure Jake didn’t end up in another viral TikTok dance-off with Nate that made us look like idiots. Or maybe that would be good press, and learning not to control every little thing would also be something I’d have to master too. Fuck, this was heavy, and I had places to be. The reminder buzzed in my brain, that damn calendar app tattooed there, telling me the girls would be out any minute and my guys were due inside.
I wiped a hand across the back of my neck, grabbed the last stray ball, and kicked it toward the storage bin. Straight in.
At least something was still going right today.
9
