Chapter 5
A voice curbed Lia’s progress toward the practice pitch the next morning.
“Lia, wait. Can I talk to you?”
After how they’d ended their conversation the previous night, Erin was the last person Lia expected to ask her to talk. But the expression on her face gave Lia pause. Against her better judgement, she turned to Cerys. “I’ll meet you there.”
New York Ravens had been kind enough to share their training facilities with Albion for the time they were in the city. They were state-of-the-art, and Lia had been looking forward to challenging herself in another unfamiliar environment. She’d have to wait a few more minutes before going outside.
Cerys shot Erin a curious look before shrugging. “All right. But don’t be too long—Ayla won’t like you being late.”
Maybe that was Erin’s plan.
Still, Lia hung back in the gym with Erin as the rest of their teammates filed past. Both she and Erin were clad in their training kit, but Erin had on the long tracksuit pants, covering her bandaged knee.
Lia wore shorts, knowing the heat would be unbearable.
Even in September she was used to rain and glacial winds—not blazing sunshine.
Her custom-made Adidas football boots dangled from her left hand; Erin glanced at them with a look of obvious longing, no doubt wondering how long it would be before she could pull her own back on.
“What is it?” Lia said when no words from Erin were forthcoming. “I haven’t got all day.”
Erin’s gaze snapped to Lia’s face. “Right. I wanted to apologise for the way I acted yesterday. I shouldn’t have taken my bad mood out on you.”
“Oh.” Everything about Erin’s posture screamed she was uncomfortable. Lia was willing to bet she rarely said sorry for anything. “It, um, it’s okay. I’m sorry for storming off like I did.” And for changing my karaoke song to be about you. It was probably best she didn’t say that last part out loud.
Though Erin hadn’t been around at the time—Lia had looked for her in the crowd of their teammates—she no doubt had heard what song Lia had chosen.
“Look, I don’t want us to be at each other’s throats for the next few months,” Lia said.
Constantly fighting wouldn’t be good for either of them.
“I know you’re frustrated I’m here, but it really is down to personal reasons.
I have family in the city that I didn’t want to leave abruptly. I’m not out to get you.”
Erin ducked her head. “I suppose it was fairly egotistical of me to imply that you were. After all, apparently, I’m vain.”
Wow. Lia had no idea she could joke. “I’d say I’m sorry about that, too, but I don’t think I’m wrong. Listen, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Do you maybe want to grab a drink one night? Start over?”
Erin’s whole demeanour changed as she shook her head. “No! I didn’t apologise because I want to be friends. Especially not with you.”
“Ouch.”
“You’re my competition.” Erin said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “But don’t take it personally—I don’t do friends.”
Just when Lia thought they were getting somewhere—that Erin might not be a robot—she went and said something like that. “You don’t do friends? You do know that this is a team sport, right?”
“And?” A blonde eyebrow rose. “This is my job. You’re my work colleague.”
“Wow.” In her seven-year career, Lia had never once been called a colleague. “Have you always had this attitude?”
“Yes.” Erin sniffed, jutting out her jaw. “And it’s never done me wrong. I don’t get attached. Players join and leave all the time—it’s better that way. No messy friendships to strain things on the field. Or…relationships.”
Lia stiffened. “Is that a dig at me? For leaving Wanderers because of Hannah?”
“Merely an observation.”
“Well, I’d rather do it my way than be a stuck-up loner who thinks she’s above everyone else.” Lia had never met a more frustrating person in her life. “Don’t bother talking to me again. We are only colleagues, after all.”
Without looking back, Lia stomped to the training pitches. Everyone else was already there warming up.
“Lia.” Ayla pursed her lips in disapproval. “You’re late. You can do an extra five laps.”
“Yes, Coach.” Lia didn’t complain as she swapped her trainers for her football boots and stepped onto the grass.
It grounded her, feeling her studs sinking into the turf. With the sun warming her skin, Lia broke into a gentle jog and let her worries flee her mind. When she was on the pitch—for real or at training—the only thing that mattered was her, her teammates, and the ball.
And nothing was ever going to get in the way of that.
* * *
“Who thought this was a good idea?” Erin covered a yawn with the back of her hand as she leaned against the viewing platform railing at the top of the Empire State Building. “Did they not realise that being here for sunrise would involve getting up at five thirty in the morning?”
Clutching a to-go espresso from Starbucks like it was a lifeline, Alex chuckled. “I don’t know. Hey, look at it this way—you wanted more time to see the city. Now you’ve got the whole day ahead of you.”
“Yes, with a bunch of cranky, overtired footballers. I can hardly contain my excitement.”
Alex snickered, taking a long sip of their coffee. Erin tried not to look at it too longingly. She’d never been able to drink the stuff, unable to stand the taste, despite her teammates’ insistence that it was their lifeblood.
But a caffeine hit would be welcome right about now.
Around them, the rest of Albion’s pre-season squad were spread around the deck, mixed in with a few overeager tourists.
“Come on.” Behind Alex, Lia tugged a half-asleep Cerys toward a free spot at the railing. “The view will be worth it.” Lia was far too peppy for the time of morning, one of the few players up here with a spring in their step.
Erin couldn’t hide the curl of her lip as Lia brushed past without sparing her a glance.
Trust Alex to notice. “You were supposed to apologise to her. Offer an olive branch.”
“I did.”
“Then why do you still look like you want to push her off the side of the building?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. There’s no gap for her to fit through.”
With a snort, Alex knocked their shoulder against Erin’s. “Play nice, will you? I’m going to catch up with some of the others.”
Happy to stay where she was and soak in the solitude, Erin turned her gaze back toward the cityscape below. On the horizon, the sun inched its way higher in the sky, washing the buildings in hues of yellow, orange, and gold.
People clamoured for their phones to capture the moment, but Erin was content to stand and watch, losing herself in the beauty of the moment. Maybe it was worth the early wake-up call.
Only once the sun was high in the sky did she tear her gaze away and reach for her phone, but to make a call rather than to take a picture. It was Sunday, meaning Maisie wasn’t at school, and Erin had promised to show her the view.
“Hi, Auntie Erin!” Maisie answered her FaceTime after a single ring, her bright smile filling the screen. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too.” It was rare for Erin to go more than a few days without seeing Maisie, and the pre-season tour would have her across the Atlantic for a full two weeks. “Is Gerrard behaving himself?”
“He always does.” Maisie shifted the camera to show Erin the cat curled in her lap. “Mum’s here, too.”
“Yes, thanks for asking about the cat first, Erin.” Jessica’s face appeared beside Maisie’s, mock disapproval in her eyes. “It’s nice to know where your priorities are.”
“So sorry—Maisie, is your mum behaving herself, too?”
Jessica stuck her tongue out at Erin as Maisie giggled. An answering smile came to her own lips, basking in the joy of hearing from two of her favourite people in the whole world.
Out of the corner of her eye, Erin caught Lia watching her, curiosity in the weight of her gaze. Annoyed—why was Lia gawking at her like that?—Erin turned her back. A private moment with her family wasn’t something anyone else needed to be a part of.
“Do you mind moving your head so we can see the view?” Jessica’s voice brought Erin’s smile back.
With a laugh, Erin switched to the rear camera and tried her best to answer Maisie’s stream of questions about the city.
* * *
“I could sleep for a week.” Cerys’ words were muffled against her hotel bed’s comforter, where she lay face down, her feet dangling off the end still clad in the Nikes she’d been wearing all day. “My feet might be about to fall off.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.” Lia threw herself onto the bed next to Cerys, hearing a grunt when the impact made her bounce.
“Do you have any idea how far we walked today? I’m not built for that. I’m built for ninety minutes of running and then sitting on a coach until I can get myself back home to bed.”
Shuffling to rest her back against the headboard, Lia grinned.
“Well, I’ve had a great day.” She’d gotten to see the sunrise from the top of the Empire State Building and be whisked around the city on an open-top bus, disembarking to see as many sights as they could fit in.
“And it isn’t over yet. Do you want to waste one of our scarce free evenings lying in bed? ”
Their next few days would be busy with team bonding and training as they readied themselves for their first pre-season match in three days’ time. It would be another week before Lia could be a tourist again.
“Yes.”
“Come on.” Lia tugged at Cerys’ shoulder until she rolled onto her back.
Green eyes glared at her. “You are far too chipper considering we’ve been awake for”—she glanced at the blinking red alarm clock on her bedside table—“fourteen hours and counting.”
“Well, I want to go and enjoy the city at night. Maybe see what the view from the Rockefeller Center is like in the dark. Or walk the High Line. Eat at a nice restaurant.”
A spark of interest flashed across Cerys’ face. “Okay, the idea of food might tempt me outside.”
“You’re too easy.”