“I’ll play nice with them,” Jake said, raising his hand. I batted it down.
“Put your hand down, you fool.”
The lads laughed, but my attention snagged on the tunnel where Valkyries appeared from, then a shadow moved just out of the sunlight, a familiar silhouette taking form.
Teddy walked onto the pitch with that steady, composed stride she always had—head high, shoulders square—but something about the set of her mouth, the tightness around her eyes, told me she’d forced herself through those stadium doors this morning. She didn’t look panicked, she wouldn’t allow that, but she looked… braced. I had no doubt she’d spent the weekend building walls again. I figured we wouldn’t be best buds today, given that she’d ignored my texts. Still, that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to make an effort to talk to her.
The sun caught the curve of her cheek, making her skin flush with light, and then she blinked, adjusting to the brightness, and lifted her gaze to scan the pitch.
When her eyes found mine, it was brief, but enough for awareness to pass between us. And I hated that she was in avoidance mode. I wasn’t expecting her to walk right up to me and hash it out, but her walls were so much higher. My jaw locked as I shifted my stance, scuffing my boots against the grass, rolling my shoulders, feeling a need to burn off some energy.
Jake let out a low whistle. “Someone looks like they’d rather be anywhere else.”
For a second, I wondered if he meant me, but when I shot him a glare, he was already rubbing his hands together, looking at the Valkyries, probably thinking up what mischief he could cause. I had bigger problems than him today, though.
Coach Em caught up with Teddy, exchanged a few mumbled words, then nodded toward me. Coach Knox then called my name too. “Captains are running warm-ups. O’Riley, let ’em have it.”
This was the first time the Valkyries and Knights had ever trained side by side, after weeks of insisting the teams should train separately, without distractions. I wondered how she felt being out here with us, with me. She’d pushed hard for separation. I’d understood it. And yet, here we were, stepping into new territory with coaches who apparently thought tossing us all together in a blender was the right move.
The lads jogged into a loose formation, shaking out their shoulders, adjusting grips on water bottles, all trying to look unfazed by the novelty of it. But there was curiosity rippling through everyone.
As Teddy finished speaking with Coach Em, she turned, ready to join me, and there was something imperceptibly rigid in herposture. Some would just see that as her taking the lead. This was her stepping into a situation she hadn’t architected herself. The control wasn’t in her hands, and I knew that would rattle her.
“Teddy,” I greeted her, but as soon as her name left my mouth, my thoughts scattered, snagging on half-formed questions and the flash of her closing the distance first, of her mouth finding mine. My hands twitched at my sides, useless and impatient, and I had to shuffle my feet just to stay where I was.
“Connor,” she returned, voice crisp. I wanted to corner her, ask her why she ran after kissing me. Why she—
She lifted her chin, speaking loud enough for both teams. “We’ll start simple. Dynamic mobility to halfway. High knees out, jog back. Then A-skips, side shuffles, and carioca.”
Teddy and I remained to the side of the pitch. I fell into stride beside her without thinking, muscles warming, breath syncing into an easy cadence.
As we crossed into side shuffles, I edged half a step closer. It wasn’t enough to startle her or enough for anyone watching to notice—if they even were—but just enough to try for a moment she couldn’t immediately outrun.
“So are we really ignoring each other?” I asked.
She didn’t turn her head. Instead, her shuffles sharpened, hips dropping lower, the shift in her tempo subtle but unmistakable, as if she’d rather outwork me than acknowledge me.
The energy between us crackled, and my fingers itched to touch her again. I wondered if she felt it too. I wondered if she’d spent the weekend replaying the kiss like I had. Part of me hoped she had, if only so I wasn’t alone in this strange, restless pull in my chest that refused to settle.
My gaze held fast, unwilling to let her go. Every time she shifted, every line of her strong body was a reminder of my hands on her hips, her breath in my mouth, the way she’dpressed into me like she needed something only I could give. In that moment, she wanted me, and I’d wrestled with that thought all weekend. Amongst other things. My cock twitched, and I discreetly pulled at my boxers so nothing would show how much I was feeling.
I tried again, pulling my focus back to the drill, attempting to keep my voice calm. “Teddy, we—”
She cut me off with a harsh exhale. “Not. Here.”
“So later?” I asked with heavy breaths.
Her reply was a hissed whisper, “Connor, I have to focus and so do you.”
She surged forward into carioca like she’d been waiting for an excuse to accelerate, weaving seamlessly across the line, arms relaxed, legs crossing in that fluid motion that made her look untouchable in all the ways she worked so hard to be.
She didn’t look back, not once.
I hated how badly I wanted her to.
***
Sweat poured down my back and into the waistband of my shorts as air burned in my lungs. Thankfully, a cool costal breeze swept most of the heat away, tempering the sun’s bite, but that salty Southern Californian warmth still curled around me.
