“Is this the blonde you’ve had around?”
I’m not surprised he’s noticed.
Lily has been at every game, sporting my jersey and calling my name.
She’s also been with me to the stadium most days, watching in on our practices and working on her paper.
During the last weeks, she even talked to Fredrick and Ian, who had some questions about pressure and nerves they wanted to discuss with her.
I’ve told them great things about my sessions with her, and the pride swelled when they asked me if it was okay for them to speak with her as well.
“That’s the one,” I confirm.
He gets a thoughtful expression on his face, and I wonder if he has his own family at home.
It’s never crossed my mind to ask.
Coach is a very private man, never sharing too much with us.
Now, though, I’m curious whether he has a family or if football is his sole focus in life.
“I’ll let you go, Bennet. But so help me God, if you don’t manage to bring her back with you, we’ll have a problem. You’ve been shit these past few weeks.”
Leave it to him to be blunt and tell me exactly how it is.
He’s not wrong, though.
I’ve been playing worse.
My sleep is a mess with tossing and turning until I’m exhausted.
Harriet has kept me well-fed as always, but my breakfasts have gotten worse by the day, as I wake up without an appetite most mornings.
“I plan on it. Thank you. I appreciate this a lot.”
I stand and grab his hand in a handshake.
“Go get your girl, Bennet.”
Chapter 32
Lily
I’m lying on the sun bed and pick up my phone for what feels like the millionth time.
Still no messages.
I’ve sent Sebastian several texts, and he usually answers right away, or whenever he’s done with practice.
Today, though, it’s been radio silent.
I’ve tried calling him, but I was sent straight to voicemail, which means his phone must have been off.
I even called Luke to ask if he’s heard anything, but he just told me that sometimes the coach springs a twenty-four-hour challenge on his team, where they won’t have their phones and will be solely focused on football.
Sounds rather extreme if you ask me, but what do I know?
He didn’t have anything like that when I was there, but Luke told me it’s only done once a year to shake things up a bit.
