“Sorry, just decompressing,” I replied, beginning to walk down the hall. Micah fell into step beside me as we headed toward the locker room.
“So? Did Captain Chaos hold it together? You’re in one piece so that’s a plus.”
I gave a noncommittal grunt. “He flirted through half the meeting after you left and looked personally offended by our training system. But yeah. Held it together. You and Coach have the final calendar in your inboxes.”
Micah smirked. “Bobby says he’s always been like that—works hard, plays harder, doesn’t take much seriously.”
She was right. She and Bobby had been together since senior year of college, and he was the free spirit of the two of them. “I don’t expect much keeping to my rules, so my plan is to come down hard on them.”
“Such a military kid, aren’t you?”
I hummed a nonanswer at that.I’m also a definite type A.
There was no way I was going to let Connor and his team derail our inaugural season. This was too important, a shot at something that was like history being written. The first professional women’s rugby season was absolutely not about to be thwarted by six-foot-giant rugby players. No, ma’am, that wasnotgoing to happen.
This stadium breathed life into me every time I walked in here. It had only been open to us for the last four weeks, but that was long enough to stake my claim and feel at home. We were lucky enough to be outside the quake zone. Luckier still, we were one of two teams out of the six competing in the legacy cup with our own stadium. Coach Emery had connections, and that meantinvestors who believed in her abilities to bring us that trophy. They’d seen our success without the backing of professional standings, but now they were about to see all of us level up.
No man would change that.
We turned the corner, and the low vibration of voices hit me before we even pushed open the locker room door. This was our training locker room, one of three locker rooms in the building. One for away teams, our game day one, but this one was my favorite. It felt warm and inviting. Inside, most of the squad was sprawled across the shining wooden benches that framed the light green walls. Our names were printed above each of our spaces, foam rollers littered the dark flooring, chatter filled the silence as my team swapped protein bars and gossip. But as soon as we walked in, everything went quiet.
“Oh my god, Teddy, washethere?”
My nose scrunched. “He?”
“Connor O’Riley in the flesh?” Delany asked, eyes wide with barely concealed glee. It surprised me because she was our eldest and supposedly wisest of the team… Apparently not when it came to the opposite sex. I refused to believe it was solely for Connor.
“He’s so hot,” Lola muttered dreamily.
“Don’t you have a girlfriend at home?” one of the other girls asked her.
“I do, and she also has the hots for him. Love is love, baby, don’t you know? Besides, that hasn’t stopped Evie either. She’s in love and shit.”
“Connor said my name once at a charity event,” Evie said, with her whole chest puffing out. “I nearly died. He smells insanely good too.”
Micah raised an eyebrow at me, like,here we go.
I stared at them all, deadpan. But not even that made them pause as the squad continued fan-girling. It was a catastrophe.Yeah, okay, he does smell masculine and kind of like he stepped out of a commercial or something. But I’d rather swallow glass than contribute to this chaos.
“I heard he benches, like… triple his bodyweight,” someone said, and I had to suppress a snort. “And he’s got that wholerugged and sexything going on. You know?”
“Yeah,” I muttered, turning and opening my locker. “Because nothing says elite athlete like tiny shorts and an overactive jawline.”
Micah snorted, echoing my earlier sentiment.
I grabbed my water bottle and shut the locker a little harder than necessary. “We’re sharing a stadium, not auditioning forThe Bachelor, so if you could all just listen for a second and try not to swoon when I mention his name—”
“You mean Connor O’Riley?” Evie knew repeating his name would make my eye twitch, but it didn’t stop her.
The collective group swooned, and I turned to leave. The only reason I didn’t get far was because my assistant coach halted my exit. “Come on now, Captain,” Micah said as a reminder, nodding back to the squad.
I stopped with a sigh and turned back to face the pack of rugby-playing hormone-fueled women possessed by thirst demons. “Right,” I muttered.
They straightened slightly, probably sensing I was about one millisecond away from making them run sprints until lunchtime.
“We’ll be running shared training facilities from now with the Knights until… who knows when. Gym and pitch rotations are alternating, so check the updated schedule on the team calendar app before anyone comes at me about equipment access.”
Evie raised a hand. “Do we get to see them train?”
