Rumor Has It

Chapter 31

CHAPTER

THIRTY-ONE

WREN

It was surreal, sliding into an In-N-Out bench next to Rebecca, squishing her into the booth so deeply that Barbara could fit on the other side, successfully sandwiching Wren into the middle.

Molly pulled up a chair and sat at the end.

Wren’s dad and Linda sat across from them sipping on their milkshakes like this was the most normal thing in the world.

To Wren, it was a dream come true.

There wasn’t even an awkward questioning session or an attempt to make all of Wren and Rebecca’s history less awkward.

Wren’s family just behaved exactly as they usually would.

Barbara was busy telling Linda and her dad about Griffith Observatory, Rebecca was fiddling with Wren’s hand under the table, and Wren just got to feel insanely happy.

Tomorrow was going to happen. Their spots on the National Team might be forfeited.

It might be years before they got another shot on the roster.

And yeah, it would be devastating to not get to be a part of this World Cup, but Wren couldn’t do anything about that now.

And honestly, she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to have to hide the fact that she was in love with Rebecca Rothschild.

Because she was, truly, fully, and devastatingly in love with her.

It would always burn that people might not believe their side of the story, but all that really mattered was that after six long years, they were finally together.

When Barbs finished telling her story, Wren pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Hey, Molly, do you think you could take a selfie with enough reach to get us all in the frame?”

Molly nodded. “Of course.” She took Wren’s phone and snapped a few photos of them all scrunched into the booth together.

Without thinking or worrying about it, Wren quickly set one of the photos as her lock screen. Rebecca squeezed her leg under the table. “Send that to me?”

“Oh, me too,” Linda said.

“Can we just start an extended family group chat?” Barbara asked.

Molly was already in the Eames family group chat. She’d been an honorary member for years. Her kids called Wren’s dad Uncle Willie and everything. But Rebecca didn’t know that. Wren noticed Rebecca’s eyes water just for a second before she melted into the happiest smile.

They hadn’t talked much about her family after she’d been forced out of the closet, but Wren knew her own family’s warm, welcome embrace probably meant the world to her.

Rebecca nodded, her movements a little jerky and unsure.

Wren leaned into her a little more fully, hoping to provide some subtle comfort.

“Yeah,” Rebecca said, clearing her throat. “I would love to join.”

“It could have been worse,” Wren said, turning her head to press a kiss to Rebecca’s cheek.

The barrage of photos that had been taken of them the day before had officially hit the internet.

They’d been clipped with some screen caps of their live and some photos of them from their soccer game—notably when they exchanged jerseys after the match.

Rebecca’s arms tightened around Wren’s waist. “You’re right,” she said softly, reading the article over Wren’s shoulder.

“It absolutely could have been.” She kissed down Wren’s bare shoulder.

After their trip to In-N-Out, the rest of the Eames family headed to a hotel, while Wren and Rebecca headed back to Wren’s place.

Now, in the quiet of the following morning, Wren and Rebecca had their first opportunity to lay in bed with nowhere to go and nothing to do.

Technically, Wren had a cooldown practice at noon and Rebecca had a flight back to North Carolina later in the day, but for a happy, blissful moment, they could just stay tangled in each other’s arms and hope that everything else would turn out okay.

“We should do this more,” Wren whispered, putting her phone down on her bedside table and rolling over to face her girlfriend.

“Which thing, Wrensandra?”

Wren snorted. “That one made no sense.”

Rebecca shrugged, a lazy smile pulling up the edges of her lips. “It made you laugh though.” She tucked a strand of Wren’s hair back behind her ear, and Wren’s breath caught in throat.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” Wren said, leaning in for a kiss. “When do I get to see you again?” She asked when they broke apart.

“Hmmm,” Rebecca hummed while she thought. “If we don’t get kicked off the National Team via email later today…in a week?” She paused, thinking. “Yeah, for our match against Portugal in Atlanta.”

“I don’t want to even think about that,” Wren groaned. “A week is too far away.” She huffed. “I already miss you.”

Rebecca chuckled. “Courtney teased me for how fast us lesbians seem to move, and here we are, proving her right.”

“Isn’t she a lesbian?” Wren asked.

“That’s what I said,” Rebecca responded, almost yelling. “And yes, for the record she is.”

“Fine,” Wren sighed. “One week.”

Rebecca pressed three reassuring kisses to Wren’s lips. “We can do it. I believe in us.”

Before Wren could whine even a little bit more, Rebecca’s phone rang. Immediately, all the color drained from Rebecca’s face.

“Are you okay?” Wren asked, trying to sit up from underneath Rebecca.

“It’s my dad,” Rebecca groaned. “This is gonna be brutal.”

“Hey, I’m right here, okay. You can do this. And I love you,” Wren added, quickly pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth.

With a very heavy sigh, Rebecca answered the phone and put it on speaker. Wren’s arms tightened around Rebecca’s middle, just in case. “Hey,” Rebecca offered when her father didn’t say anything by way of greeting.

“Becky, you told us specifically that you weren’t in a relationship with this Wren Eames girl, and now your face is all over the internet with her in another scandal.”

If Wren could have ducked back under the covers, she would have. She’d never met Richard Rothschild, and after that one sentence, she never wanted to. For all the reasons she loved Rebecca’s twang, she hated his.

“And at the time, that was the truth. If you’ll recall, I said that I wasn’t currently involved with Wren,” Rebecca countered.

“Do not for a second think that you can semantics your way out of this, young lady,” Mr. Rothschild barked back.

“Out of what?” Rebecca scoffed. “I’m an adult. You know what, I’m sorry for trying to soften the blow of my sexuality last time. I didn’t think you’d want the lesbian bomb dropped and the story of how I lost my virginity all in one phone call, but if you want, I’d be happy to overshare this time.”

“Rebecca Diane Rothschild, you better watch your mouth.” The man was nearly shouting into the phone.

A silence rang out between the lines, heavier and more pressing than words could ever be. “Why did you call me?” Rebecca asked, her voice suddenly tragically sad.

“Do you have any idea what this does to your mother? To me?” He demanded.

“No. What does it do to you, Dad?” Rebecca asked, her voice ninety percent sarcasm. “Please, enlighten me with how my relationship status impacts you. I’m very happy by the way, thanks for asking.”

“We have to answer for it. To everyone in Pine Rock,” her dad screamed into the phone, cutting off her sarcastic comment.

“Okay? And? Just tell them the truth. Tell them that I’m just a trophy for you.

Maybe I’ll win something tomorrow and give you something to show off.

In the meantime, you have a kid who’s happy and in love and who is absolutely not going to let you ruin my morning ever again.

Have a good weekend,” Rebecca said before hanging up her phone.

Wren let out a shaky breath. “Holy fuck, that was intense. Are you okay?” She asked, knowing that there was no way that Rebecca could possibly be okay after that.

“No,” Rebecca said, honestly. “But I will be.” She smiled despite having watery eyes, and pulled Wren in for an impossibly tight hug.

“Coaches want to talk to you,” Courtney said, after Wren set her bag down in her locker.

Wren’s pulse spiked. She knew she’d let herself get too hopeful when they’d sent her travel information a few days ago. All week, she’d oscillated between panicking about this moment and being unnaturally calm about the whole thing. Her fight-or-flight response immediately kicked into overdrive.

“Okay,” she said, nodding once. A quick glance around the locker room told her Rebecca had already been called in. Her bags were tucked neatly into her locker, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Wren swallowed nervously as she pushed through the doors to the coaches’ office. Rebecca was already seated across from Coach T and Coach Jameson. Her posture was rigid, but she looked okay otherwise.

“Good morning,” Wren offered, shutting the door behind her.

Rebecca smiled at her despite the concern about the situation they were in.

“Ms. Eames,” Coach Jameson started. “Why don’t you have a seat.”

Wren sat down in the chair next to Rebecca and did her best to hold in a long heavy sigh. There were several magazines face-up on their coach’s desk. All of the ones that Wren had seen so far with more rumors about her relationship with Rebecca.

“Well, ladies,” Jameson said. “Care to comment?”

“No, thank you,” Rebecca said, easily.

Wren snorted out a laugh of disbelief. She couldn’t hold it back. This felt so dramatic and ridiculous.

“Look,” Coach Jameson sighed. “I spoke with Sinclair about all this, and she made a fair point. You two are joining the team at a different time. It’s something none of us are used to.

There’s no such thing as privacy anymore.

And if you’re famous but too private, you get labeled something unkind anyway.

” He shook his head. “What I’m trying to say is, it's lose-lose out there for you and I get that.”

“We also know, thanks to your little public announcement, that everything going on between you started a hell of a lot longer ago than this season, right?” Coach Jameson asked, with a very pointed agree with me lift of his eyebrows.

Wren swallowed audibly. “I mean, yeah. Yes, it did.”

Rebecca nodded at breakneck speed. “Yes sir, absolutely. Like six years ago, in fact.”

“Good,” Coach T said, clapping her hands together. “All we wanted to call you in for was to get confirmation of your relationship. We really don’t need or want specifics, but there are some HR videos you have to watch and papers you have to sign saying you won’t make this a toxic workplace.”

There was a heavy silence in the room as Wren and Rebecca fully processed what their coaches were telling them. Most importantly that they weren’t being kicked off the team.

Coach Jameson cleared his throat. “We need you to officially declare your relationship.”

“Oh,” Rebecca said, startled. “Yes, officially. Since like, Sweden?”

“Well, no. Officially since L.A,” Wren said, unable to stop the smile from spreading across her face.

Coach Jameson sighed heavily, interrupting them. “What part of “we don’t need or want specifics” did you not understand? If you’re going to be hounded by media, can you at least get better at not handing them information on a silver platter?”

“Don’t mind him, ladies. He’s just mad he owes me forty bucks,” Coach T said.

Wren frowned. “Why does he owe you forty bucks?”

Coach T laughed. “Because I bet him after tryouts that if we carried out my travel buddy punishment idea, the two of you would fall in love.”

“I thought the two of you getting into a fistfight with each other was more likely,” Coach Jameson shrugged.

Rebecca bit back a laugh. “You know what. I would have put my money on your theory, too.”

“I actually thought it might happen at one point,” Coach Jameson said. “Especially after your first PWSL game against each other.”

Wren bit her bottom lip. She was not going to laugh, and she was not going to have to awkwardly explain herself. “It was a close call,” she managed.

“Right,” Coach T said. “So, you’ll spend the first part of practice filling out paperwork and watching videos on how not to make the workplace toxic. And then you’ll spend the second part of practice running laps for being late.” She smiled a sadistic little smile.

Wren sighed. At least they didn’t have to run the bleachers this time.

“Anything else we should know before it lands on my desk?” Coach Jameson asked.

Wren shook her head. “No, sir. I think you’re all caught up.”

“Great. Congratulations. Don’t break up until the end of the season. I’m not reassigning you roommates for this,” he said, already turning his attention to the next thing.

“Got it,” Wren said.

“I don’t think we have anything to worry about on that front, sir,” Rebecca added.

When they were all set up in a side office that probably belonged to one of the trainers, Rebecca finally cracked up. “That could have been so much worse.”

Wren breathed a sigh of relief. “Seriously. I think I’m in shock.”

“I can’t believe they know.”

“Right?” Wren asked. “It feels like… I don’t even know. Like we’re finally free?” She let out a little laugh.

“Well, Wrendy, what do you want to do with your new-found freedom?” Rebecca teased.

Wren shrugged. “I don’t know. I think maybe see if my girlfriend wants to go on a date tonight and just not worry about what rumors it might spark.”

Rebecca grinned at her. “I think she’d say yes if you asked.”

“Hang on,” Wren said, pointing at the paperwork. “I have to read these before I know if I’m allowed to kiss you here or not.”

“Fine,” Rebecca said, rolling her eyes.

“Are you busy later, though?” Wren asked, grinning at her. “Rumor has it, you’ve got a girlfriend who wants to take you on a date.”