Chapter 17 #2
“She came over last night, huh?” Jessica had a brow raised so high, it threatened to disappear into her hairline. “After the game? You watched footage here, alone, instead of with the rest of the team?”
Fighting off a blush—she could feel her cheeks growing warm—Erin gritted her teeth. “Yes.”
“With the woman you couldn’t stand a few months ago?”
“She’s growing on me.” Erin forced herself to meet Jessica’s gaze head-on, not daring to show the faintest whiff of weakness. “And we need to learn how to play well together.”
“Oh, I’m not questioning that part.” Enjoying Erin’s discomfort far too much, Jessica’s mouth stretched into a shit-eating grin. “It’s the timing of it. And the location.”
Erin tried not to squirm. For the last thirteen years since her ill-fated relationship as an eighteen-year-old, Erin had kept her private life private, even from her sister.
Jessica did not need to know what Erin got up to in the bedroom—or who with—just as Erin didn’t need to know what went on in hers. “She lives upstairs.”
“Does she?” Jessica set aside the knife she’d been using to butter thick slices of wholemeal bread. “Well, in that case, don’t you think we should go and return her jacket to her? Wouldn’t want her to turn up to training tomorrow without it.”
Fuck. Erin had walked right into that one, hadn’t she?
“That’s a great idea!” Maisie bounded to her feet, Lia’s jacket held tightly in her hands. “Let’s go now!”
“I don’t know about that.” Erin had lost control of the situation so quickly, her head spun. “She might be busy.”
“We can try, though, can’t we? The picnic can wait.” Jessica strode toward the door, Maisie by her side.
Swearing under her breath, Erin trailed after them.
On the stairs, she hurried past, needing to be the first one to knock on Lia’s door.
When it opened, Lia looked surprised to see her—expression morphing into a confused smile when she saw Maisie hovering at her elbow, Jessica’s hand resting on Maisie’s shoulder.
“Hi.” Lia’s gaze moved between the three of them—her eyes widened when she clearly recognised what Maisie was holding.
Before Lia could say anything to contradict her story, Erin opened her mouth. “Maisie wanted to return your jacket. You must have left it at mine last night when we were analysing those videos.”
If Lia noticed the panic in Erin’s voice, she didn’t react. “Sorry about that. I must’ve forgotten to pick it up.”
How Lia left the hoodie behind, Erin didn’t know. She’d certainly enjoyed peeling it off her. Although, after the amount of orgasms Lia had had last night—Lia had quickly discovered how much Erin loved winning games—Erin could forgive her forgetfulness.
She just wished she’d spied the damn hoodie first.
Because Jessica’s knowing gaze was locked onto Lia’s face, drinking in her and Erin’s every interaction, and Erin wanted to curl into a tight ball of denial. Jessica would make a bigger deal out of this than necessary.
And it wasn’t a big deal.
It wasn’t any kind of deal.
Oblivious to Erin’s inner turmoil, Lia reached out to take the offending item of clothing. “Thanks, Maisie.”
“What happened to your hand?” Maisie caught Lia’s left hand in her own, frowning at the purple bruise that had bloomed on her knuckle. “Did you get hurt in the game yesterday?”
Scarlet flooded Lia’s cheeks as she snatched her hand back. “No! I just…knocked it. On the table. Last night.”
Do not look at me, Erin willed, knowing exactly how Lia had gotten that bruise—by trying to stifle her moans as Erin knelt between her thighs. Do not look at—
Lia’s gaze darted to hers before skittering away.
Erin swallowed, knowing Jessica would have noticed.
“Is it sore?” Thankfully, everything so far had sailed straight over Maisie’s head. “It looks sore. Have you iced it? I had to do that last week when I bruised my knee after I fell over at football practice.”
“It’s fine, Maisie.” Lia’s smile was tight, but her gaze was soft as it held Maisie’s. “Honest. You hurt your knee?”
Maisie shrugged. “It only hurt for a day. It’s all better now.”
“Come on, Maisie.” Gently, Erin pulled Maisie away from Lia’s door. “Lia’s got her hoodie back. Let’s leave her to it. She looks like she’s on her way out.”
Much like Erin’s, Lia’s preferred choice of pants when inside her apartment were faded joggers, not the black skinny jeans currently hugging her hips, a different pair to the ones Erin had yanked off her last night.
“Just got back. I got kicked out of my grandmother’s retirement home so they could eat lunch.”
Erin closed her eyes, wishing Lia hadn’t said that. Because she knew, as Jessica straightened beside her in excitement, what her sister was about to say.
Jessica sprung the trap she’d been waiting to unleash ever since suggesting the three of them go upstairs. “So you haven’t eaten? Because we’re about to go for a picnic together. Erin—as usual—bought way too much food, so if you want to join us, you’re more than welcome.”
Erin barely refrained from burying her head in her hands. “I’m sure Lia has better things to do on her one day off than spend it with us.”
“But it would be so much fun!” Reaching for Lia’s uninjured hand, Maisie bounced on the balls of her feet. “And I haven’t seen Lia in ages!”
“You saw her yesterday after the match.”
“Not properly. There were too many other people there.” Turning her gaze to Lia, Maisie adopted her best pleading expression. “Come on, it’ll be fun! We have sandwiches and sausage rolls and salad and crisps and—”
“I’m not sure Lia needs the full list, Maisie.” Jessica squeezed Maisie’s shoulder. “But join us.” She held Lia’s gaze, her tone no longer phrasing it as a suggestion. “Please.”
“Um.” Lia’s eyes flicked to Erin.
She shrugged, not seeing a way out of it. Jessica was as stubborn as Erin when it came to getting what she wanted. “There is a lot of food.”
“Okay. Let me freshen up.”
“Maisie, do you want to wait here and show Lia down once she’s ready?” Jessica offered, an innocent smile on her mouth.
“Lia’s more than capable of finding her own way. She knows where I live.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that.” Jessica lowered her voice, her words for Erin’s ears only. “Watching videos my ass.”
“It’s fine.” Lia looked uneasily between the two sisters. “Come on in, Maisie.” She waved Maisie over the threshold of her apartment. “We’ll be there soon.”
Lia closed the door, leaving Erin—unfortunately—alone with Jessica.
Erin’s steps were heavy as she traipsed back downstairs. “Can we not do this?”
“Do what? Talk about the fact that you’re fucking one of your teammates? You expect me to ignore that?”
“I’d like you to.”
“Well, at least you’re not denying it.”
Arriving back at her own apartment, Erin opened the door, bending to scratch Gerrard’s head when he trotted over to her. “Why would I? You wouldn’t believe me if I did.”
Jessica returned to the kitchen and her abandoned butter knife. “How long?”
Erin sighed, knowing she wouldn’t be able to avoid the topic—at least until Lia and Maisie joined them. “The first time was in Spain—”
“This has been going on for nearly three months?!”
“Will you let me finish?” Erin snapped, not even Gerrard winding around her ankles cooling her anger. “The first time was in Spain, but it was supposed to be a one-time thing. It happened again last week, and then again last night.”
As if the sum of their encounters thus far could be counted on Erin’s hand. It didn’t seem enough to encompass how much of a cataclysmic shift Lia had brought about in her life.
“So is it a three-time thing?”
“It’s a however many times we want it to be thing.”
“Hm.” Jessica didn’t sound convinced. “And you’re okay with that?”
“You really think I’d be doing this if I wasn’t?”
“No.” Jessica’s gaze settled on Erin’s face, her lips pursed. “But this isn’t like you at all.”
As if Erin wasn’t already well aware of that fact.
“What’s so special about her?”
Erin hesitated. It wasn’t that simple. There wasn’t one thing about Lia that Erin could confidently pinpoint as the reason Erin had broken all her rules. There wasn’t one moment, even. It was a collection of moments, of conversations, of glances and touches, of each of them laying the other bare.
It had been a slow tumble off the edge of higher reason, until Erin was too far gone to haul herself back over her carefully drawn line in the sand.
And she didn’t regret a single second.
A knock on her front door. “Saved by the bell.”
“Don’t think this conversation is over.” Jessica brandished the butter knife at her.
If Erin got her way, they’d never speak about Lia again. If only the woman herself weren’t going to be joining them for a picnic.
With a sigh, Erin opened the door to let Lia and Maisie inside.
* * *
“So, how long have you been sleeping with my sister?”
Lia froze, a sausage roll halfway to her mouth. She refrained from glancing over her shoulder. Maisie had tugged Erin away to play kick-about, and Lia assumed Jessica wouldn’t have asked if they were still in earshot.
But then, she wouldn’t have expected Jessica to ask that, full stop.
Clearly, Erin’s hissed warning for Jessica to be nice hadn’t been enough to deter her from an interrogation the second Erin’s back was turned.
For the first time, Lia regretted going along on the Finch family picnic.
It was a pleasant Sunday afternoon—for March, at least—the sun sitting low in a cloudless sky.
Around them, children laughed and squealed, and ducks at the nearby pond quacked and splashed in the water.
They’d managed to snag a picnic bench, and Lia leaned back as Jessica leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table.
“What makes you think I’m sleeping with your sister?” If Jessica thought Lia was going to roll over easily, she had another thing coming. Lia had dealt with Erin’s iciness for months—she could handle her sister.
She hoped.
Jessica’s lips quirked into a smile. “Would you like me to lay out the evidence?”