Chapter 14
Tessa
I regret the question immediately. His gaze drops and runs the length of my body and then meets my gaze. There’s an intensity to his eyes that unnerves me. “You know what? I don’t want an answer to that.” I blow out a breath. “All right. Let’s get this game over with.”
“We haven’t even started yet,” he says in an amused, quiet voice behind me.
“I know.” I slip my sneakers back on and follow Slater outside. Evie and Zane come out behind us, and Reid and Quint are already getting the game ready. Everybody gathers together in the center of the huge backyard. “I’m on Slater’s team,” I call out before anybody can make teams.
“Wow, a little anxious there to be on our boy’s team, Tessa?” Quint says with a huge grin.
“I’m not stupid, Quint. We’re playing soccer. I want to be on the star soccer player’s team. That way, I can just stand back and let him do his thing.”
The guys laugh, but Quint shakes his head. “You have to actually play, Tessa, or it doesn’t count.”
“Fine. I’ll be goalie.” I look over to Slater. “Keep it away from the net. Deal?”
He smirks. “Got it.”
“I’ll be on their team,” Reid offers.
I beam. “Perfect.”
Quint turns to the others. “Are we going to allow this?”
“Leave her be,” Slater says. He and Reid walk over to where I’m standing. “You really want to be goalie?”
“Do I want to run back and forth a hundred times in this backyard? No. So, yes. I want to be goalie. Just...do your thing. Dazzle us with your soccer brilliance.”
Reid chuckles, and Slater scowls. “I don’t dazzle.”
“You do, Pretty Boy. Now go out there and win for us.”
He stares down at me. “I am not a pretty boy.” His words are almost a growl. I notice Reid hides a grin behind his hand. I shrug. “Well, I’m pretty sure that’s why all those girls attend your games. You dazzle them with all your pretty boy tricks.”
He scowls at me. “You’d better get ready,” he says, nodding at the goal.
I grin at him. “Will do, Pretty Boy.” I swear he growls in his chest, and I laugh as I make my way over to the goal. Evie walks over to where I stand in front of the large soccer net.
“What’d you do to Slater?”
“I called him Pretty Boy.”
Her eyebrows knit together. “Slater is like the opposite of a pretty boy.”
“You know that, and I know that. But guess who isn’t bugging me about playing and is letting me just stay here by the net.”
Evie laughs. “I don’t get you. You love sports, like more than any person I know, especially college sports.”
I agree. “I do; but I love watching sports, not playing them. Big difference.”
“Evie!” Zane shouts, waving her over.
“Have fun losing,” I tell her with a grin.
She narrows her eyes at me. “You just said you don’t care about playing sports.”
“Oh, I don’t, but I care about winning.”
Evie shakes her head with a grin. “All right. See you at half time.” She starts jogging over to the center.
Her words give me pause. “Wait. Half time? How long is this game, anyway?”
Nobody answers my question, and I watch as they start.
It's no surprise when Slater gets the ball right away, dribbles right past Evie and scores on Quint. I laugh out loud. They didn’t even have a chance.
Quint throws the ball in, and Evie gets it.
I notice Slater stays back. We all know he could get it right back from Evie, but he doesn’t.
Then Evie passes it to Zane, who has some soccer skills.
It figures. All these guys are so athletic.
But Reid and Slater get it back and score again in the next minute.
I jump up and down and cheer. I eventually sit down inside the goal.
The ball never even gets down to my end, which is just how I figured it would be.
Zane and Evie aren’t bad together, but they’re up against Reid and Slate.
Reid’s lanky and tall and a runner because of his sport, so he and Slater just keep them running.
They end up scoring another goal, and I cheer loudly.
Quint ends up switching with Evie, and I feel bad for her because there’s no way she’s stopping either Reid or Slater’s shots.
Suddenly, for the first time in this game, the ball comes to my end.
I stand up, feeling like I should at least look like I’m playing.
I watch as Quint slide tackles Slater, taking him out.
Slater shouts at Quint, but Quint ignores him.
And then, it’s Zane and Quint approaching.
Zane gets around Reid, and kicks the ball to Quint.
Quint lines up and powers it into the goal.
I move out of the way, so it doesn’t slam into me.
Zane and Quint hi-five, and Evie runs over to join in the celebration.
Slater jogs over to me and stops in front of me, towering over me. “You do realize that the job of the goalie is to block the ball, right?”
I feign shock. “Really? I had no idea. Seriously, though. I’m so not getting in the way of that ball. I like my nose how it is—unbroken.”
“Want to switch?” Reid asks when he reaches us.
“Are you here to pick on me too?” I ask, but there’s no heat in my words. “Fine. Be the goalie. I’ll go play with hotshot here,” I say, pointing my thumb at Slater. I walk towards the center of the backyard.
“Are you ever going to just call me by my name?” Slater asks from behind me.
“While we’re playing soccer? No.”
When we get to the middle, Quint eyes me with a grin. “Look who’s finally ready to play.”
“You’re going down,” I tell him, and his grin widens. I turn to Slater and find him close.
“Want to make a plan?” he asks in a low voice, so Quint and Zane can’t hear.
I nod. “Sure. Here’s the plan. You get the ball, dribble down the field, and score.”
“I have a better plan,” he says, stepping closer.
I’m already shaking my head. “No. No. Slater Thorne, we have a good plan already.”
He continues anyway. “I’ll get the ball down the field. You line up, and I’ll kick it to you so you can score on Evie.”
He walks away from me over to where Zane and Quint are waiting. Evie’s back in the net. “Hotshot,” I hiss, but he ignores me.
“Ready?” he asks, looking at me.
“No.” He smirks, and then he’s off. With no other option, I race after him.
I remember at the last minute to get to the other side of the field.
I also remember why I hate running. He effortlessly gets around Quint.
Zane almost gets it, but Slater is faster.
Then the ball is coming towards me. It stops almost perfectly at my feet.
I stare down at it a moment. “Kick it!” Slater shouts.
And so I do. I kick it as hard as I can.
I hear a whoop behind me, and I open my eyes.
Evie is bending over, and it takes me a moment to realize why.
She's laughing. Then Slater is there. “You scored.” He high fives me and then aks, “Did you close your eyes and kick?”
I realize that’s exactly what I did, and I don’t regret a moment of it. I lift my chin. “Yep, but it went in.” He shakes his head, and Evie joins us next.
“Oh, Tessa, that was the funniest thing I've ever seen.” She’s still laughing
“Hey, now. It went in,” I defend myself.
Evie grins. “It did. Good job.” I high-five her.
I turn to face Slater. “My job here is done. You’re welcome.” I start to walk to the sidelines, but he snags my wrist.
“Where are you going?”
I point to the house. “I’m done. I came, I played, I scored...I’m done.”
He grins down at me. “Come on; you’re not done. We’re on defense now.”
I groan when I realize he’s really not going to let me get out of this. “You’re a horrible person, Slater Thorne.”
“Ooo, first and last name,” Quint says, joining us. “Somebody’s in trouble.”
I walk back to the middle. “Let’s go, Hotshot,” I call out to Slater. He jogs over to the middle, where I’m waiting.
“I’m ready. Are you?”
I nod. “Let’s do this thing.” And then we start. I race after Quint, who has the ball. “Block it!” I yell to Reid when Quint kicks. The ball is just out of Reid’s reach, and they score. Quint does some sort of weird victory dance, and I turn to Slater. “Can you answer that, please?”
He gives me that sexy smirk of his. “Gladly.”
We start in the middle once again, and then we’re off.
Slater gets it to our goal in a matter of seconds, scoring on Evie right away.
I notice he doesn’t kick it the way he does when he’s playing against the guys.
He keeps it easy, and I appreciate that he doesn’t try to take out my best friend.
“Yes! Score!” I run over to him and high-five him.
“That’s how you do it, Hotshot!” He just shakes his head, and then we’re on defense again.
We each score another point and do a whole lot more running around.
When they finally call a break, I drop right to the ground where I’m standing and lay down.
A shadow looms over me, blocking the sun; but I don’t open my eyes.
“You good?” I hear Slater ask.
“I’m just going to die right here. Can I please?”
His low chuckle fills my ears, warming my insides. “How about before you die, you drink this bottle of water?”
I moan. “Can’t I just die in peace?”
“After you drink the water.”
I finally crack an eye open. “Fine.” I sit up, and he hands me the water bottle. I drain it in a matter of seconds. “Huh. I guess I was thirsty.” I hand him the empty bottle. “Okay, now I die.”
“You’re not dying. Come on. We need to get ready for the second half.”
My eyes pop open. “The second half?” I sit up. “That wasn’t the whole game?”
“Nope,” Quint says, standing right behind Slater. “That was just the first half.” He grins down at me, and I scowl up at him.
“I hate you. All of you.”
Quint lets out a full belly laugh. “We love you, Tessa.” Slater turns to Quint, and Quint lifts his arms and takes a step back. “Okay, I’ll give you two a moment.”
“We don’t need a moment,” I call out after him, but he jogs over to his teammates.
“Ready to keep going?” Slater asks.
“No.”
“How about you be goalie for a little bit?” he suggests.
“Oh,” I sigh. “That will work. Just keep the ball out of my end, would you?”
His lips tug up. “I’ll see what I can do.”
He stands and puts out a hand. I put mine in his, and he pulls me to my feet. “Ready?” Zane calls out.
“Hold your horses, QB,” I call out to him.
I hear laughter, but I don’t look over. I make my way to our net on shaky legs. “She gets a little testy when she’s hungry,” I hear Evie say.
“That’s not—” I pause and think about it. “That’s totally true. I also get testy when people make me run for miles on end.” I hear laughter, but I don’t turn around. I finally make it to the net and then turn around.
“Everybody ready?” Quint asks. He and Evie are standing in the middle; I guess it’s Zane’s turn to be goalie.
“Let’s go!” And we start once again. I make two mental notes on this particular Sunday.
One, never come over to the House of Stars on a Sunday again, and never ever take your eye off the ball.
One minute, I’m thinking about my exhaustion.
The next, there’s a ball in my face. Literally.