“A meaningful one,” Frida said.
Miriam nodded. “An intense one.”
“A sensu—ow.” Frida rubbed her arm, the arm that Em had punched. “I was just going to say—”
“I know what you were going to say, and I didn’t come to watch the game tonight only to have you two team up against me.”
“No, you came to watch Grant.” Frida’s voice was sing-songy as she said the midfielder’s name.
Em’s cheeks burned, and she wanted to sink down into her seat and hide from them both. She also knew that she’d be adding fuel to the fire if she did, so she straightened her back and turned her attention to the field.
The players from both teams waited for the referee to blow his whistle and start the game. They bounced on their toes to keep their muscles warm. Finn was lifting his knees and arms to keep everything loose.
When the whistle sounded, there was a flurry of movement in front of her. The Orcas had possession and drove the ball down the field toward the Storm’s goal. Finn yelled at Vinny and Bastian to clear the ball out of there.
It was difficult to hear the words, even from her front-row seat, but his tone made it obvious that he wasn’t happy that the ball was so close to him so early in the game.
The striker for Washington’s team took a shot on goal. Finn jumped to the left to block the ball, barely getting up in time for the visiting team to take another shot. When the ball went flying at goal, Finn cleared it out to midfield.
The rest of the Storm players ran toward the other goal, and Cardosa got possession. He ran it upfield toward the Orca’s keeper. He took the shot. Blocked.
“I forgot how fun these games are,” Frida said. Her gaze was on the field, and she was leaning against the boards as the players ran by right in front of them.
So had Em before attending the previous week’s game. She hated that she’d missed so many this season, and had already promised her brother that she’d make every effort to come to the rest of the home games to watch him play.
If that meant she got to watch Grant at the same time, there was no harm in that, was there?
Em had always been able to appreciate the way the guys played—Silas’ shot record, Bastian’s ability to stop the other team’s forwards.
Now, she was impressed by Grant’s energy. As the midfielder, he easily moved between the offensive and defensive roles. He knew when to shift the way he played and wasn’t afraid of passing the ball to his teammates.
Em leaned against the boards as the players fought to get possession. Even though he didn’t have the ball, her gaze went back to Grant. To her surprise, he was looking back at her. Even more surprising, Em liked that he was looking at her.
Yeah, she might be in trouble when it came to that boy, but at least she was going to enjoy it.
Grant
Grant missedthe ball that Silas passed to him.
He’d been too busy looking over at Em—who looked absolutely gorgeous in her Storm jersey—and hadn’t realized that the forward was kicking it back to him. A player from the other team got to the ball first and drove it down toward Finn.
Grant ran with the rest of the players behind the opposing team’s player, but they weren’t fast enough. When the forward took a shot, it went past Finn and into the net.
“Goal for Washington.” The announcer’s voice boomed through the arena, though it lacked enthusiasm and fell flat. The Storm was now losing to the other team by one point.
Grant wanted to kick himself for not paying attention. He let his team down, and even though Finn was the one who let the ball slip past, they’d made it difficult for their keeper by not being there to help guard the goal.
A strong hand slapped his back. Grant turned his head to see Silas standing there with a frown on his face. “Get your head in the game.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
Silas’ eyes flicked to the box seats next to the home bench—the seats where Em sat. “I think I do. And listen, I get it. I’ve gotten distracted by a pretty girl in the stands, but there are a lot of reasons why you don’t want to go down that road.”
Grant didn’t ask Silas to elaborate. He knew the reasons he needed to keep his distance from Em. He’d been warned to keep away from Finn’s sister by Bastian, and to keep away from fans in general from Finn.
He was already mad at himself for missing the ball, and he didn’t want yet another lecture—not even from Silas, his mentor. It seemed like every guy on the team had an opinion about what Grant should and shouldn’t be doing. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was the rookie or if he had a sign on his back saying, “Please boss me around.”
Regardless, he was pissed. “Noted,” he said more gruffly than he intended before finding his spot on the field. The game was about to restart, and the ref had the ball in his hands at midfield.
