Chapter 27
SIENNA
“As your team captains, Leo and I will pick our teams.” Alex stands before us in the grass by the lake, with Leo at his side. “Leo, you know the drill,” Alex says, turning toward Leo, holding his hands in a starting position for a game of rock paper scissors.
“Damn, he is competitive,” I whisper to Theo, and it gets a chuckle out of him. I turn my head to catch a glimpse of his smile. I find myself doing that a lot lately.
“And why do you two get to be team captains?” Beth asks from beside me.
“Team captains are chosen as follows,” Theo says in a surprisingly good announcer voice, which causes a giggle to well up in the back of my throat. “Last year’s winner will lead one team, and the person currently in first place will lead the other.”
“I’d be happy to give up my spot for you, if you think you can handle the responsibility.” Alex winks at Beth, which prompts her to roll her eyes so hard I’m surprised she didn’t hurt herself.
Alex and Leo bang their fists against their palms; Leo picks rock, and Alex picks paper. Alex turns to the rest of us with a huge grin on his face. “As the winner of rock paper scissors, shocker.” He throws a look Leo’s way on the last word.
Leo interrupts Alex. “Might I remind you, I’m still winning the bigger competition here. Don’t get cocky.”
Alex places his hand on Leo’s shoulder. “Too late, buddy. As I was saying, as the winner, I get first pick. Roman, congrats on being the first drafted.”
“What an honor,” Roman responds flatly, grabbing a red belt from the bin set out in front of us.
Leo picks Theo, leaving Beth and me as the last picks. Beth mutters something along the lines of “typical” under her breath, but I focus more on the fact that I’m about to make a complete fool of myself.
If you had told me a couple of weeks ago that I was going to be running around the backyard of a lake house with four giant men playing flag football this summer, I would’ve called you a liar.
“I pick Sienna,” Alex’s words prompt Beth and me to say “huh” at the same time.
“Just thought I’d mix things up a little.” Alex shrugs and claps his hands, sending us to break off into our teams.
While I don’t love the idea of not being on the same team as Theo, I do find a little hope in joining forces with Roman.
It’s been a few days since I emailed him my portfolio, and I haven’t received an update yet.
My patience is wearing thin, and I’m starting to think it wasn’t such a great idea to turn down the other job offer.
Granted, he never said exactly when he’d send it over to Graham, but I was hoping to have gotten an update by now.
I’m hopeful this will be an opportunity to open up communication between Roman and me, giving me a chance to speak with him later about my portfolio.
Theo grabs a red belt for me and a blue belt for himself.
As he moves to help me put my belt on, my heart begins to beat faster as our bodies inch closer together.
His generous, skilled hands at my waist do wonders to distract from the anxiety riling up inside me at the potential of falling on my face in front of everyone.
“And instead of tackling someone, you just pull one of these flags off, like this.” Theo yanks one of the flags off my belt.
The harsh movement throws me off balance, making me fall forward into Theo’s arms. He catches me with ease, and I straighten, turning my face away so he can’t see my embarrassment.
“I might be a little too uncoordinated for this. I’m not sure you really want to put a football in my hands.”
“I’m sure you’ll be great.” He lifts my chin with his knuckle. “It’ll be fun. Trust me.”
An odd feeling rushes over me at his last words. I nod my head the slightest at Theo, trusting him more than I care to acknowledge.
“Hey, no fraternizing with the enemy.” Alex pushes Theo away from me and motions for me to huddle up with him and Roman.
“Okay, Roman and I will focus on getting the touchdowns and grabbing most of the flags. Sienna, I need you to do your best to distract Theo. If you can do that, that brings their team down to just Leo, meaning we got this win in the bag.” Alex barely gets the end of his plan out before he notices I’m holding back a laugh.
“What’s so funny? Do you want the football? I just overheard part of your conversation with Theo earlier and thought…”
“God no, please don’t pass it to me unless you have to. I’ll probably drop it.”
“Then why are you laughing?”
“No reason. I’ll distract Theo. Got it.”
We put our hands in at Alex’s command, raising them to break, getting ready to start the game. I keep quiet since I don’t have the heart to tell Alex there’s no way in hell we’re winning this game, even if I distract Theo as we planned.
The other team has a secret weapon, Beth. She’s the most coordinated person I know. The coordinated Yin to my uncoordinated Yang. She grew up dabbling in basically every sport known to man, so with Alex on the opposing team, I have a feeling she won’t hold back.
Roman and Leo are opposite each other on the right side of the yard, farthest from me.
I take up a position on the left side of the yard, in front of Theo, smiling sweetly at him in an effort to make Alex’s plan work.
I figure that at least trying to win the game might get me some brownie points with Roman.
Alex takes up a position in the center of the yard, his eyes locked on Beth, who, by no surprise, has convinced Theo and Leo to let her start with the ball.
Beth smirks at me as she’s getting in position for her play. I mouth the words, “Be nice.” Theo scrunches his eyebrows, looking back at Beth as I do.
When Leo blows his whistle, Beth takes off down the yard, heading directly toward Alex, who looks determined not to let her pass.
Theo tries to make his way toward me, and I take off in a jog with him.
I raise my arms slightly as I do, as though I’m trying to block Theo from getting a pass.
In actuality, I’m trying to make sure my blue crop top rides up the slightest bit, exposing a sliver of skin between my shirt and shorts.
I know it’s working when Theo’s eyes dart to my stomach, losing focus on the game.
It doesn’t matter because Beth wasn’t going to pass him the ball anyway.
As she takes off toward Alex, he charges her.
His hands are out and ready to grab one of the flags on her belt.
They are only inches apart from each other when she fakes going left, then turns sharply to go around Alex on his right.
Alex’s momentum is thrown off, sending him forward, face-first into the grass as he just barely misses grabbing one of her flags.
Beth laughs as she continues to run, shouting Leo’s name from across the yard.
Leo is already three-quarters of the way toward the end zone markers, Roman lagging behind.
I guess that’s one downside to being as big as Roman is, you can’t move as fast as someone like Leo.
Beth’s speed stalls as she throws the perfect spiral toward Leo.
He catches the ball, then takes off, scoring the first touchdown.
I run to Beth, as we both bend over with laughter, holding on to each other for balance. When we catch our breath and look at the men, a second wave of laughter rolls through us at their reactions to what just happened. They stand there shocked, presumably at Beth’s evident athleticism.
After a few moments, Theo and Leo begin whooping and hollering, approaching Beth for high fives. Alex comes rushing toward Roman and me with a giant smile and a little dirt on his face. “Now it’s a game!” he says excitedly.
I glance at Theo, who I find is already looking at me from the other side of the field. When our eyes meet, a fleeting thought crosses my mind. This is the most fun I’ve had in a while. This is something I could get used to.
Roman catches me looking at Theo, and almost to his own surprise, he asks, “You really like him, don’t you?” His eyebrows are scrunched together when I pull my attention away from Theo.
“Of course I do.” The words roll off my tongue easier than I expected them to. With one nod, and a clap from Alex, we’re back into football mode before I have a moment to contemplate the implications of Roman’s question.
After completing a few rounds, each team is tied at a score of four to four. I haven’t touched the football once, but I’ve successfully distracted Theo a few times. I’m feeling a sense of pride in the way I’ve been helping until Alex decides to change the strategy on Roman and me.
“First team to score five points wins. I know we can win this.” Alex tries his best to motivate Roman and me, but to be fair, most of our touchdowns have been pure luck. The other team is playing better than us, and Alex knows it.
“Instead of throwing the ball to me,” Alex says to Roman, “throw it to Sienna.”
“What?” Roman and I say at the same time.
“They won’t expect it. Theo and Leo have been covering my ass like a motherfucker. If you throw it to her, she’ll be wide open.”
“Yeah, but that means she has to actually catch it,” Roman responds. “No offense,” he says to me with a grimace.
“None taken. I’m with you on this one.”
“Just trust me, it’s the only way we’ll win. High risk, high reward.”
Roman and I exchange a glance, both clearly unsure about this plan, “I can adjust my throw, and if you stay close, you won’t have to catch it from a far distance. All you’d have to do is run.”
Taking a second to contemplate that, I worry my lack of coordination could cost Alex his win.
I’ve never been a competitive person, but I think Alex is rubbing off on me.
For some reason, I want to win this. Not just to help Alex, because apparently that’s something I care about now, but I can’t imagine the look on Theo’s face if I scored the final touchdown.
Seeing his smile would surely be a high reward.
“Okay, let’s do it,” I say in the most confident voice I can muster up.