Chapter 36 #2
The message swooshed and a little niggle in my mind worried that she might freak over my team wondering about my love life and if that implicated her at all.
Sunshine
Why am I not surprised he’s sticking his nose in your business?
Relief surged through me as I replied.
Connor
He doesn’t know about us, but he’s pissed I’m not available for him all the time now.
Sunshine
You can spend more time with him. It’ll mean less orgasms, though.
Connor
Fuck no, he’s being a whiney bugger.
Sunshine
I don’t know what a bugger is, but I agree.
“Alright then,” Jake clapped his hands gaining my attention. “If you’re not spiraling or secretly dying, we should probably talk rugby.”
Nate straightened a little at that, all joking ease slipping into something more focused. “Snakes in Boston this weekend.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Their pack’s heavier this year. They’ve been running a lot of short ball off nine, trying to draw penalties early.”
Jake grimaced. “And their fly-half’s still a menace. Loves to chirp.”
“He always does,” I said. “Gets sloppy when he’s rattled, though.”
Nate tipped his head, considering. “Weather’s meant to be shit. Cold, wet. Suits them.”
“Only if we let it,” I replied. “We keep it tight early, don’t give them momentum, and we shut them up fast.”
Jake had a far-off look. “God, I love playing them. Nothing like beating a rival on their own turf.”
There really wasn’t. “We’re going to win this one, boys.”
“I fucking want to,” Nate said.
“Next agenda item: you.” Jake stared at me.
“Here we go,” Nate muttered.
“I thought we dropped the me subject?”
Jake pointed around. “You have a house. A yard. A grill.”
“And?”
“And we”—he waved dramatically to himself and Nate—“live in sad little apartments with balconies that don’t allow open flames.”
Nate sighed. “He wants you to host a barbecue.”
I stared at them, eyes narrowed. “For what?”
“For morale,” Jake said immediately. “Team bonding with the Valkyries too. Post–Boston. Also, I’m bored. And I want to invite Nate’s sister.”
“I swear to—” Nate moved in quick, but I placed a hand in front of his chest.
“Easy there, big guy,” I soothed, watching him bare his teeth to Jake.
It didn’t help that Jake was a little shit, grinning at him. “You’re assuming I want thirty sweaty rugby players in my backyard.”
Jake winked at me. “See? You’re already thinking like a host.”
Nate hesitated, then shrugged. “It wouldn’t have to be everyone. Nothing mental.”
Jake scoffed. “That’s quitter talk. It’s a barbecue. It’s meant to be mental.”
“I’ll think about it,” I said finally. “But it can’t be before the away game.”
Jake’s fist punched the air. “That’s a yes.”
“It’s not a yes.”
Nate snorted. “It’s a yes.”
My phone rang again, and this time it was a number I’d been expecting to hear from. Nerves bloomed in my chest as I pointed to the pair of idiots in my house. “It’s not a yes,” I said, answering the call and walking away, when a muttered “it’s a yes” followed me.
***
Sunshine
Thank god, you’re not here. I love star-fishing and having the bed to myself.
Connor
Funny, when I’m in your bed, you curl around me like a koala.
Sunshine
Do you like being a liar?
Connor
I tell no lies.
*image attached*
Sunshine
Should I be concerned you’re taking pictures of me when I’m sleeping, Captain?
Connor
Fuck. What can I do to make you call me that next time I’m with you?
Sunshine
I’ve called you that before.
Connor
Not when you’re on top of me riding my dick, you haven’t.
Sunshine
You really don’t know when to stop, do you?
Connor
I do. I just don’t want to.
Sunshine
Shocking.
Connor
You started it. You put the thought in my head.
Sunshine
I asked if I should be concerned you’re creeping on me in my sleep.
Connor
And I answered honestly.
Sunshine
You answered hornily. That’s not the same.
Connor
They overlap more than you’d like to admit.
Sunshine
You’re weird.
Connor
Is that your way of saying you like me?
Sunshine
I know, I was surprised too.
Connor
This is my favorite conversation I’ve had all week.
Sunshine
You should get out more.
Connor
Boarding now. Try not to star-fish too comfortably without me.
***
Connor
Back at the hotel. That was a rough one.
Sunshine
I saw the score. You played well despite it all.
Connor
Doesn’t matter when the result goes the other way.
You smashed your game against Denver. I saw the highlights on the way here. That conversion kick from Lola in the second half was a thing of beauty.
Sunshine
She’ll lose her mind if I tell her you said that
Connor
You headed home?
Sunshine
Already there.
Connor
Jake wants me to go to the bar with him. Apparently I owe it to him to “cheer up.”
Sunshine
Nothing to stop you.
Connor
Sure there is.
Sunshine
Enlighten me.
Connor
I’d rather FaceTime you from this very boring hotel room than pretend I’m in the mood to flirt with strangers.
Sunshine
Get some sleep, O’Riley. You’re not thinking straight.
Connor
Sleep’s going to be a problem, sunshine.
Sunshine
Sounds like a you issue.
Fuck it. It’s around 7:30 there, she might be home from the game. I press the video call button and wait to see if she’ll pick up. I might’ve embellished the truth a little. I’d already sent Jake downstairs with Nate, Ramirez, and a few other guys over an hour ago, all looking for an easy hookup.
The screen rang twice before it connected.
She appeared a second later, bare faced and hair still damp, curling around her temples. The lamp beside her, that I recognized as the one in her bedroom, was casting a glow on her face. Damn, she looked beautiful.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey, sunshine.”
We stared at each other like two awkward teenagers, and I had no idea how to stop. What I did know is that the knot in my chest seemed to disappear as soon as I saw her face.
“I managed to also escape the bar invites.” She smiled, and it brought out my own.
“Looks like we’re just a pair of losers who’d rather be cozy than social,” I said.
“Speak for yourself. I’ve never been a loser.” She poked her tongue out and, it was that exact moment I wished I was right there with her, feeling her skin on mine, kissing her, falling asleep with her in my arms.
Seeing her like this made everything else I’d been carrying tonight feel irrelevant: the loss, the noise from press, the expectation to be somewhere else, doing something else, with people who didn’t matter in this moment.
It was effortless how my focus narrowed to her, how natural it felt to imagine a version of the night that ended with this instead of a hotel room.
That wasn’t a line I crossed lightly. And yet, here I was, standing right up against it. And I think I wanted to jump over it.
“I, uh, wanted to ask you something,” I said, clearing my throat.
“You’re not gonna ask me to prom, are you?” she teased.
“You’d say no,” I huffed.
She chuckled. “I’d absolutely say no. Prom wasn’t my thing.”
“Shame, you’d have looked good on my arm.”
“Oh my god,” she said immediately. “You were prom king. I know it.”
“Maybe,” I said, my smile loosening as memories invaded me.
“Or maybe I was the kid who spoke funny and finally found friends when a local rugby team opened up in my hometown. Maybe I was the kid with braces and gangly arms and legs who towered over everyone else and didn’t know what to do with any of it. ”
She shifted, pulling one knee up onto the bed, chin resting on it as she looked at me through the screen.
She was quiet for a beat, eyes searching my face like she was piecing together something new.
“Then maybe I was the girl that had no friends, no boyfriends, no one who even noticed that I wasn’t at my senior prom because I was the loner kid. ”
I knew what she was doing, and I wouldn’t look away. Was Teddy finally opening up to me? The inner college boy inside me was reeling at getting his rival to be vulnerable.
I didn’t want to spook her, so I stayed silent.
“I wasn’t sad about it at the time,” she added, soothing the back of her neck. “I told myself I didn’t care. I had training the next morning anyway.” Her mouth tilted downward.
I didn’t interrupt.
“But sometimes,” she went on, quieter now, “I wondered what it would’ve been like to have friends who showed up for me. I had my team back then, but none of them went to my school. Younger me couldn’t fathom being somewhere just because someone wanted me there.”
My throat tightened to swallow the words that didn’t come out. But my heart understood everything she’d said.
“You ever miss him?” she asked. “That younger version of you?”
I thought about it.
“No,” I said finally. “But I think about him sometimes. Mostly when I’m about to make changes. Or when I lose. I wonder if he’d believe how far we’d come.”
“I get that,” she sighed. “I sometimes wonder if that girl would recognize me now. Or if she’d be proud.”
“She would be,” I said immediately. “No doubt about it.”
Her lips parted like she might argue, then she didn’t.
Instead, she let out a slow breath, shoulders dropping as if the weight she carried all day had finally eased.
She had no idea how I saw her, how much she was shaping parts of me that had been untouched for years.
Teddy Sloane had awakened something deep withing me, and I couldn’t switch it off.
I didn’t want to. She was one of the most inspiring people in my life.
“Connor?”
“Yeah, sunshine?”
She hesitated, then shook her head lightly, like she was clearing it. “Nothing. Just—” A breath. “You still owe me the thing you were going to ask.”
A corner of my mouth tipped up. “Right. That.”
I shifted on the bed, the hotel sheets rustling beneath me. “I was wondering if you’d be around when I get back. I’m hosting a barbecue for both teams, and I wanted to invite you before everyone got a blanket message.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “A barbecue?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Low pressure. Food, beers, just a bit of mid-season fun.”
She tipped her head, considering it. “A both-teams thing, really?”
“Unfortunately,” I said, teasing. “There will be heckling. Probably swearing. I’m hoping nothing gets broken, but Jake is there, so…”
Her smile returned. “You’re really selling it.”
“I know.” I chuckled. “But I thought you might want to come. You can stay ten minutes or the whole afternoon.”
Her gaze flicked down, then back up to the screen. “You asking me as captain, or…?”
“As Connor,” I said without hesitation.
The flicker of relief in her eyes was enough to knock the wind out of me. I wanted to kiss her so badly.
“Okay.” She nodded once. “I’ll come.”
Relief settled into me, and I relished the feeling. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she repeated, still smiling.
We lingered for a second longer, neither of us moving to end the call.
“Get some rest,” she said, her voice softer than normal.
“I’ll try.” But I’d sleep better next to you.
Her smile was the last thing I saw before the screen went dark. And for the first time all night, the hotel room didn’t feel quite so empty.