Page 60 of Offside

I left.

I sat in the rideshare to the facility and stared out the window at Scottsdale waking up around me. Sprinklers running on lawns that had no business being green in November, a woman walking a dog the size of a small horse, the mountains already pale gold in the early light.

I wasn’t going to push. I wasn’t going to name what this was or ask her to. She needed to get there on her own timeline, and I’d understood this about her since the first Sunday dinner. The way she deflected every personal question her mother asked while somehow making it seem like a choice instead of armor. Maren Callahan moved toward things carefully, and the worst thing I could do was make her feel crowded.

So I’d be present. Consistent. I’d make coffee in her kitchen and ask about her patients and show up when she texted, and we’d be intimate. In the way I’d wanted since the last time I’d seen her back in college. I’d let her figure out what I already knew.

I was a patient man. I could wait. Maren Callahan was worth it and I wasn’t letting this second chance with her slip away.

Nobody else had not been a negotiation. She’d agreed to it like she’d already decided before I said it, which to me meant she wasn’t as uncertain as she was letting on.

I held onto that the whole drive.

I was on the ice forty minutes later and played the best practice of my life.

Cole noticed immediately because Cole noticed everything.

“You’re smiling,” Cole said, after practice, watching me pack my bag. “At your gear. You’re standing there smiling at your shin guards.”

“I’m not smiling.”

Cole fell into the stall beside me, already showered, towel around his neck, looking deeply pleased with himself. “I’ve been on this team for a month and I’ve never seen it. Not like this. Something happened and you’re happy. I think someone owes me money.”

“You bet on whether I smiled?”

“I bet on when. There’s a difference.” Cole paused. “Also Eli has a theory.”

“Eli doesn’t have theories about people.”

“Eli has exactly one theory and he mentioned it to me twice, which for Eli is practically a TED talk.”

I picked up my bag. “I’ll be sure not to ask him about it.”

Cole watched me go with an expression that said he was deciding whether to push something. He didn’t. Yet.

I texted her at two-fifteen while reviewing game film. She’d been on my mind all day, and most of the guys were planning to go out that evening. I didn’t really want to go, but if I could get her to go…

Ryan: The guys want to go to the Nail tonight. You going?

Maren: Griffin invited me already. I was planning to go. You?

Ryan: Can I pick you up?

Maren: I don’t think that falls under “nobody knowing”

Ryan: I’m just a friend offering you a ride

Maren: Your apartment is in the opposite direction lol

Ryan: Fine. Can I steal a kiss tonight?

Maren: It’s 97% feasible.

Ryan: What do I have to do to close the gap?

Maren: You’re a menace.

Ryan: I think you like it.