Chapter 25
brOOKLYN
“I can’t believe you and Vincent kissed last night and you’re only telling me now. It’s been almost twenty-four hours!” Carina crossed her arms. “That has to be a violation of girl code.”
“False. Forty-eight hours is the limit for adhering to girl code. Besides, I didn’t have the chance to tell you earlier. We were with Scarlett, and she doesn’t know yet.”
I looked around, paranoid Scarlett could hear us even though she and Asher had left for the airport an hour ago.
It was Sunday night, aka our last night in Budapest. It was a short trip since the guys wanted time to recover before the Blackcastle gala in a few days. Everyone had booked different return flights to London, and besides Vincent and Noah, Carina and I were the last to leave.
We were currently waiting for our cab in the villa’s foyer, but I was starting to regret telling her about the kiss without other distractions around. When she was bored, Carina hyperfixated on anything in her vicinity. Right now, that was me and my confession.
“I doubt anyone will be shocked, including Scar. You and Vincent have had…vibes for a while,” she said delicately.
My cheeks heated. “We have not.”
“Um, yes, you have. You wouldn’t have run out of a nightclub to eat pizza and kiss in the rain if there hadn’t been anything building up to that.”
She had a point.
I glanced at the staircase. The last time I’d seen him, Vincent was packing in his room. Carina had been with me, so we hadn’t exchanged more than a “goodbye” and “see you back in London.”
Last night’s kiss had ended there. When we returned to the villa, we’d been shocked to find half our friends had beat us there. Apparently, they’d tired of the club and, since they couldn’t find Vincent or get ahold of him, they’d come back early.
They made it impossible for us to sneak off together, and when I woke up that morning, the guys had already “kidnapped” Vincent and taken him out for a boys’ day in town.
Scarlett, Tamara, Carina, and I spent most of the afternoon hanging out at the indoor pool and watching movies, but that meant I couldn’t confide in Carina until now.
The information had threatened to spill out all day.
“Does this mean you guys are dating now? Do I need to resign myself to being the fifth wheel for the foreseeable future?” she joked.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “We didn’t have ‘the talk’ yet.”
Part of me was afraid to go there. The kiss had been so perfect. What if we ruined it by making things serious? What if he’d woken up that morning and regretted it? Unlikely, but possible.
I loathed myself for even thinking that way. I normally wasn’t so insecure, but it was so much scarier to open up to someone when I actually cared about them.
“What about you?” I pivoted the conversation to Carina. “What happened with the guy you were dancing with?”
She shrugged. “Nothing. We danced. I left. That’s it.”
I arched an eyebrow at her unusual terseness before I caught a flash of movement from the corner of my eye. A second later, Noah walked into the foyer, dressed in black sweats with a duffel slung over his shoulder. His dark blond hair was damp from the shower.
“Hey,” I said brightly. “Are you headed for the airport?”
He nodded, his expression wary. We hadn’t talked since Vincent interrupted us at the club, and I wondered whether they’d discussed what happened during their boys’ day.
“Do you want to come with us? Our cab’s already on the way, and we have room,” I offered. “It’s taking forever to get a car tonight.”
Noah flicked a quick glance at Carina, whose eyes were glued to her phone like it was the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen.
“Sure. If you don’t mind,” he said quietly.
“Not at all.”
I liked Noah a lot. He was reserved, but he had a solid, self-assured presence that I found comforting. He was the type of guy I’d trust to lead us to safety if we were ever caught in a zombie apocalypse or something.
However, his arrival meant my conversation with Carina had to be put on pause. Our cab arrived a few minutes later, and the ride was silent until I attempted to make conversation.
“Are you going home for the rest of the break?” I asked.
Noah gave a curt nod. “My mother took Evie back to North Carolina already. I have to stay in London until after the gala, but I’m flying home straight after.”
“I can’t believe they’re making you participate in the auction. People are going to go wild.”
He grimaced, discomfort scrawled all over his face.
Noah wasn’t as flashy or press friendly as some of the other players, but he had a solid fan base in the UK. It didn’t hurt that he was also gorgeous. With his green eyes, sexy stubble, and thick, wavy hair, he could be an Armani model.
Silence fell again.
My other attempts at conversation gradually petered out, and the three of us rode to the airport like strangers forced to squeeze into a car together.
Noah stared straight ahead the entire time, his expression impassive, while Carina was fixated on the scenery outside the window.
She was normally a chatterbox around me, so it was very weird.
If I didn’t know better, I could’ve sworn they were actively avoiding each other, but that didn’t make sense. They barely knew each other, and they didn’t have any bad blood as far as I could tell. Yet the tension in the car was so thick, I could slice it in half with a butter knife.
Thankfully, it didn’t take us long to arrive at the airport. It turned out Noah was on the same flight as us, which he didn’t look thrilled about. Then again, he never looked thrilled about anything, so I tried not to take offense.
After we cleared security, I left him and Carina at the food court so I could run to the restroom. I bought a pack of gum from a convenience store on my way back and was about to leave when I spotted a familiar head of dark hair near the refrigerated drinks.
Seth stared at a display of water, looking a little green.
“Partied a little too hard yesterday, huh?” I teased, coming up beside him.
He jumped, but his expression cleared when he saw it was me. “It’s Samson,” he croaked. “He parties too hard, and he took me along with him. I think I’m still hungover.”
“That can happen. Did you have fun, at least?”
“Well, yes.” His face flushed tomato red. He looked around furtively before he leaned in and whispered, “I kissed someone. She was really pretty.”
I grinned. Say what you will about Samson, but he was an excellent wingman. “I’m glad. Everyone needs a vacation fling at least once in their life.”
“I guess.” Seth finally grabbed the largest water bottle from the fridge. “Speaking of which, what’s going on with you and Vincent?”
My smile froze. “What do you mean?”
“I heard you came back to the villa together last night.” He gave me a knowing look. Maybe he wasn’t as naive as he appeared. “You both just disappeared.”
I let out an awkward laugh. “Well, um, everyone did. I couldn’t find anyone else at the club except for Vincent, so we got food and went back together.”
I wasn’t going to say a word to the team about what happened until Vincent and I talked.
“I see.” Seth sounded a little skeptical, but he didn’t press the issue. “He must be sad you’re leaving Blackcastle though.”
“Not any more or less than the other players.”
“We’re all going to miss you. Jones isn’t nearly as fun during the presentations.” I was gratified by the validation until Seth added, “I guess we should’ve known you would say no when Coach asked for an extension.”
I froze. “What?”
Seth’s eyes rounded with the horror of someone who’d just realized they’d shoved their foot in their mouth. “N-nothing. I’m going to pay for this water then head off. My flight—”
“Seth.” I crossed my arms, my pulse hammering. “Tell me the truth.”
The kit manager looked around frantically as though searching for someone to save him.
When no one did, he swallowed hard. “I overheard Coach asking Lizzie to extend your decision period to a month instead of the usual one or two days. I guess Jones told him he wasn’t sure whether you’d take the offer?
I don’t know— I’m just guessing,” he said quickly.
“I shouldn’t have mentioned it. I was eavesdropping and—oh my God, Coach is going to kill me. I’m—”
“Stop. It’s okay,” I said. “I’m not going to tell him you told me. Don’t worry.”
Seth’s shoulders slumped with relief. “So you’re not upset?”
“Not at you.”
My heart thundered with rising anger, but I kept a smile on my face until Seth and I parted ways. Once we did, I let it vanish.
“Hands-off,” my ass. How could my dad ask HR for special treatment for me when he knew people would talk? I’d insisted on being treated like every other employee since day one, but he’d undermined me with one request.
I guess it didn’t matter now since I wasn’t staying at Blackcastle, but it was the fact he went back on his word and behind my back that bothered me. If he wanted me to stay, or he wanted me to make a quicker decision, he could’ve told me himself instead of trying to manipulate the situation.
I forced myself to relax my shoulders and take a deep breath before I returned to the food court, but when Carina, Noah, and I boarded our flight an hour later, I was still fuming.
I didn’t see my dad until four days later, at Blackcastle’s holiday gala. We exchanged brief hellos at the start of the event, and I had to will myself not to bring up what he did. This wasn’t the right time or venue for it.
The gala was the club’s most anticipated celebration of the year.
Two hundred attendees mingled at a fancy hotel ballroom in central London.
There was a red carpet, a press line, and enough champagne to drown a small town in France.
It was a big enough deal for the players to swap out their tracksuits for actual suits, though they remained firmly committed to their trainers.
Trying to convince a footballer to wear dress shoes was like trying to stuff a lion into a bikini.