Evie clocked me from across the table and raised her eyebrows. “Teddy. Sweetheart. Are you… loitering?”
Delany tapped the bench beside her, even though there wasn’t really any room there. “Come sit before someone else steals it, and then you get all weirdly territorial about team seating arrangements.”
“I don’t get territorial,” I said automatically.
Three of them answered at the same time.
“Yes, you do.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I do not.”
Evie laughed into her drink. “You once threatened to reorganize the entire locker room because someone sat in your spot.”
“That was one time,” I muttered.
“Hmm,” Lola said, nodding thoughtfully. “And last week.”
“And the week before,” her girlfriend added helpfully.
I blinked at her. “You don’t evengoto our practices.”
She sipped her drink, entirely unbothered. “Lola talks.”
Micah leaned over the table, chin propped on her hand, watching me with that knowing expression she pulled out specifically for my nonsense. “Teddy, babe. Sit.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but movement at my side snagged my attention. Connor shifted in his seat, leaning back, half-listening to Bobby, and something hot and inconvenient curled under my skin. I refused to give that feeling any more airtime than I already had tonight.
I opened my mouth to respond, telling them I’m fine as I am, when Micah apparently decided she’d given me long enough. “Nope,” she said, without warning. “She’s two seconds away from overthinking herself into a coma. Emergency intervention.”
Before I processed what that meant, Evie was already sliding out of the booth on the other side.
“Oh yeah,” Evie said, grabbing my hand. “Dance floor. Come on, Captain. You need it.”
“I don’t—Evie, wait—Micah, seriously—”
But they weren’t listening. They never listened when they thought I needed rescuing from myself.
Micah tugged, Evie pushed from behind, Lola cheered, and within moments, I was being herded through the crowd toward the small dance floor in the corner. The lights were low, the music was loud, and the air smelled like sweat and spilled beer, which was somehow comforting in its own chaotic way.
“This is a terrible idea,” I said, even as my body automatically started moving, mirroring theirs.
“Great,” Micah said, raising her arms. “Those are our favorite kind.”
Evie swayed into me, laughing. “You work too hard. You think too hard. You need to shake something loose.”
The girls echoed Natalie’s words to me from our call the other day, and I knew I had to give in.
The beat dropped, and they yelled like it was an anthem. I just let it happen. The noise, the movement, the warmth of my teammates pressed around me like a shield. My muscles loosened, inch by inch. And when I finally let my head tip back and laughed, it felt like a valve unclogged somewhere under my ribs. My legs fell into rhythm before my brain approved of the decision. Muscle memory from a hundred warm-up songs kicked in, my body recognizing release long before I did. Eviewhooped and threw an arm around my shoulders, shaking us both until I couldn’t fight the smile tugging at my mouth.
Micah caught my hand and spun me. Lola bumped my hip. Someone shouted lyrics off-key. And I let myself be part of it instead of standing outside it.
Laughing until my ribs ached, letting Micah spin me like we were eighteen and stupid, it felt foreign and familiar all at once. Maybe I’d forgotten I was allowed to have nights that didn’t end in planning sessions or leadership notes. I’d forgotten that life still needed to be lived in to be worth it all. Work was important but play was just as important to these women too.
There was something comforting in knowing that despite the strict routine I kept, these women could still see when I needed a little extra help to let things go. On the pitch, in a bar, I had this deep-seated knowledge that they had my back and that was enough.
I didn’t look for Connor for the next hour. Not looking for him didn’t stop me from feeling him, though. A pull at the edge of my attention, subtle as static. But it was there under my skin, buzzing all the same.
When I eventually turned toward the bar, pretending to look for Evie, who’d just left us, instinct tugged my eyes to where he sat.
