Chapter 4 #2
“I don’t make the rules.” Oliver sounded unmoved, and Alex suppressed a smile at how Jeff’s drama had completely missed its mark. “Take it up with Kieran.”
“You’re our captain,” Jeff said. “It’s your duty to represent the team’s interests towards the coach.”
“One person craving a pint does not constitute a legitimate team interest.”
“It should.”
“To be fair,” Alex put in, “there is a case to be made for how the entire team is better off if Jeff is in a good mood.”
“Yes,” Jeff said, triumphant. “Listen to the man, Oliver, for he speaketh the truth.”
Lee, who’d been doing his own set of squats, laughed softly. “You know how there’s this thing called non-alcoholic beer? Because we happen to advertise it.”
“All the taste,” Alex started.
“And none of the buzz,” Lee and Oliver finished together.
“I don’t drink for the taste.”
Jeff would have undoubtedly continued if Kieran hadn’t called them over to introduce a series of drills.
They took turns weaving through cones that had been set up in a zigzag pattern, keeping the ball at their feet as they raced against the clock, the evening sun casting long shadows on the field.
Lee won, to no one’s surprise, and a couple of weeks ago, Alex might have quietly resented him for it even though Lee wasn’t the bragging type.
Now, he gave Lee a subtle nod that earned him an equally subtle nod in return.
Not friends, no. But teammates who got along just fine.
It seemed like Kieran had yet to trust their newfound equilibrium, though, because he kept pairing them up—not for every single exercise, but more often than not.
Set-piece practice, ball interception, passing drills…
Today, it was Lee trying to score while Alex played the defensive bulwark.
It felt just a tad reminiscent of their last face-off in the Premier League, and in what Alex considered an admirable show of restraint, he didn’t comment on Lee’s history of tripping over his own two legs when it suited him.
“Good work,” Kieran commented as he paused to watch for a moment. “Both of you.”
Lee stopped the ball with a tap and threw Kieran a grin. “You know you don’t have to keep supervising us like a bunch of naughty children, right? We figured our crap out, so if you want to occasionally pair us with others…”
“Nah, I know,” Kieran said. “Proud of you lads for putting the team first, by the way—but I really think there could be something special here.”
“Special,” Alex echoed slowly, after exchanging a quick, skeptical glance with Lee.
“See, here’s the thing.” Kieran took a step closer, waving his hand at nothing in particular. “Alex, you’re a midfielder, not a full-time defender—still, no one here is more effective against Lee than you. You understand how he moves, and more often than not, you can anticipate it.”
“Bloody frustrating, is what it is,” Lee grumbled.
The corners of Kieran’s mouth quirked. “Fair enough. But imagine how useful it could be when you’re actually on the same team.”
Lee appeared to give the idea some serious consideration, his dark eyebrows pulling together, and Alex realized that he might have been staring for a beat too long when their eyes met. “I guess that could come in handy,” Lee said.
Alex wiped a hand across his forehead before he lifted a shoulder. “Yeah, I guess. If we can make that work? Yeah. That really could come in handy.”
Eloquent. If Alex’s father had witnessed the scene, he would have ordered Alex to harness that runaway train of thought, to tell the conductor to apply the brakes or steer the conversation onto a coherent track.
Alex had heard it early and often enough that he could recite the reprimand by heart, and he rarely fell into that trap anymore.
Kieran, on the other hand, nodded as though Alex had made a worthwhile contribution to the conversation. “Couldn’t agree more. So make it happen, boys.”
Right, because it was just that easy. Funny how it hadn’t already occurred to them.
“Working on it,” Lee said lightly. “It’s just that miracles take a minute, you see?”
“Lose the attitude.” The amused spark in Kieran’s eyes ran counter to his words. “Oh, and Lee—since you asked about meditation apps, I just saw that the one I use lets me give you a free thirty-day trial. Come find me before dinner and we’ll set it up.”
A meditation app? Lee was just full of surprises.
“Great,” Lee said, and Alex waited until Kieran had moved on before he let his lips twist into a lopsided smile.
“You know you make enough to pay full price for some app, right?”
“Okay, one”—Lee toed the ball up from the grass and bounced it on his knee—“I never say no to free stuff. And two, remember that thing about bankruptcy and pro athletes? Not planning to be one of them.”
“And getting thirty free days out of an app is going to prevent that.”
“It all adds up.”
They were both smirking now, watching each other while Lee kept the ball in motion. Alex couldn’t have said what it was that tipped him off, but when Lee suddenly feigned to the left and darted right, Alex was ready.
“Bloody frustrating,” Lee repeated, one corner of his mouth twitching upwards as Alex danced away with the ball.
“Just remember how it could come in handy,” Alex told him with no small measure of glee, and Lee huffed out a half-laugh, gesturing for Alex to return the ball so they could start another maneuver.
Just to be a dick, Alex aimed his pass too far to the left—turned out that Lee could read him too because he was moving in the correct direction before the ball even left Alex’s foot.
“Cute,” Lee commented idly.
“Cute, pretty—you sure know the way to a boy’s heart.” A second too late, Alex remembered that this wasn’t Jeff. While he and Lee might be getting more comfortable around each other, jokes of the suggestive persuasion were a far cry from where their comfort zones overlapped.
Lee raised an eyebrow, sunlight brightening the deep brown of his eyes to a lighter shade. Humor colored his tone. “I consider myself somewhat of a specialist, yeah.”
Now that was the kind of response Jeff might have given, except he would have underlined it with lewd hand gestures to illustrate just what kind of specialist he considered himself to be.
“Thank you,” Alex said.
Lee blinked. “What for?”
“Keeping it appropriate for general audiences.”
It took a moment, then Lee smiled. “Jeff?”
“Let’s just say I know far more about his sex life than I’d like.
” Given Alex’s extensive awareness of Lee’s…
well, everything, this was starting to feel like a risky conversation.
What if Lee decided to take his cue from Jeff?
Alex didn’t care to know what lube Lee favored and whether his last girlfriend had enjoyed a bit of bondage now and then. Just… no. Thanks.
Blessedly, Kieran picked that moment to call everyone over and split them up for a practice game. Alex wasn’t surprised when he ended up on the same team as Lee. Blue jerseys it was, for both of them.
Even though it was past eight in the evening, the day’s heat lingered—good training for their upcoming matches that would all kick off around this time of day.
While Alex didn’t love playing in temperatures like this, he didn’t mind it as much as some of the others did, just needed to make sure he stayed hydrated.
Lee, on the other hand, seemed impervious to the heat, likely used to it from his time in Italy before Ben Jimmer had lured him back to the UK.
Alex needed to reduce the amount of space Lee took up in his head. They spent a fair bit of time together these days, and Lee was both intriguing and objectively hot—it was natural for Alex to get a little fixated, but that way lay slumbering dragons. Best not to wake them.
He was here to play soccer. That was it.
There was something inherently beautiful about the rhythm of the game under the glow of the setting sun—the ball zipping across the grass, the harsh echo of cleats biting into the turf, Kieran shouting instructions as both teams tried to outsmart each other.
More than two weeks into their training, Alex had come to know the other players and their styles, the way they moved across the field, their top speed and whether they threw their whole body and weight into a challenge or preferred to sneak up from behind.
Maybe it was because Kieran’s words hung fresh in Alex’s mind, but there was this moment, a split-second decision—two red players pressing in on Alex as he moved the ball across the halfway line, most of the blue team behind him with the exception of Jeff and Lee.
Jeff was in a better position, yes, but a red midfielder was hovering just behind him, and Alex knew how Lee moved.
So he slid the ball between two red defenders and right into the path Lee had chosen, having started his run half a second before the ball had left Alex’s foot. No offside.
Oliver loomed in the red goal as Alex darted to the left and Jeff veered right, Lee in the center, defenders already beaten. Upper left corner. The ball sliced through the air in a beautiful arch, sailing past the tips of Oliver’s fingers.
Goal!
Lee whooped, face shining with delight, and then Jeff pounced on his back with a triumphant yell. Alex hesitated for half a step, just long enough for Declan to catch up and join the celebratory huddle, then Alex reached them too, patting Lee’s shoulder. For a second, their eyes caught.
“Great pass,” Lee told him, grinning, flushed and breathing hard from his sprint.
“Great goal,” Alex returned, grinning back.
Lee chuckled. “Ready for Kieran’s ‘I told you so’?”