Page 20 of Forbid It

I shake my head. Dad just wants me in the crowd to look pretty. He doesn’t care if I know what’s going on or not.

“I come bearing gifts,” Pip chirps as she arrives, carrying three plastic cups of beer. “Can you believe they didn’t have anything fizzy? We’ll just have to hold our noses.”

Anya takes a cup from her tray. “Cassie thought I could tell her about football.”

Pip barks a laugh. “You’ve never seen a football game in your life.”

“Do you know anything about football?” I ask.

Pip shoots me a flat look as she slides into the seat on my other side. “What do you think, darling?”

“This is ridiculous.” I throw my hands up. “What’s the point of you both?”

They giggle. “You didn’t say that it was a requirement of our attendance when you sent us an email invite,” Pip says, shooting me a knowing glance.

I don’t think I’ve ever emailed Pip anything other than vacation bookings in my life, but I figured she’d be able to suss me out as soon as I mentioned Robbie King’s name.

Admittedly, maybe being so evasive has accidentally made me more suspicious.

Damn it.

“So…” Pip says, extending the word and nudging my elbow.

I take a sip of my mediocre beer in an attempt to avoid answering, and thankfully Anya points to the players walking out of the tunnel. “It’s starting!”

I fix a smile on my face as I watch Robbie walk out onto the pitch.

Decked out in the blue kit, his presence engulfs the stadium. Not necessarily in height, but in confidence. Robbie swaggers into the stadium as if everyone is here to see him. And let’s be honest, they are.

The crowd roars in approval when the players take their positions, more than making up for the half empty stadium. The whistle blows and Robbie takes possession, immediately flicking the ball towards the Rebel’s half of the field.

He runs with the ball between his feet, expertly kicking it and following until one of the opposing team manages to sweep it out from under him.

When the other players have the ball, I immediately lose interest. I take a sip of my beer and try to hide my wince as it goes down. I can see Pip tilt her head at me out of the corner of her eye, narrow sunglasses pulled down to peer at me over them. I jump and glance back at the field.

It takes me a minute to spot Robbie again. From a distance, he blends in with the rest of the team. With feet like lightning, he steals the ball from his opponent, quickly dribbling it back towards the goal. He runs so fast, his blue jersey is a blur of light as he zips across the grass, his powerful legs carrying him from one side of the pitch to the other. Anticipation swirls in my belly as I hover over my chair, my heart nearly beating out of my chest.

The pink shirts of the opposition suddenly crowd around him, cutting off his path to the goal.

His head snaps up, curls bouncing as he scans the surrounding area for a teammate. The rest of his team are in a loose formation, some walking towards him and others on the other end of the pitch.

We’re way too far away to hear him, but I can see his lips move as a pink shirt manages to curve around his leg and snatch the ball from beneath his feet, tripping him in the process.

He hits the ground, but falls into a roll, immediately jumping to his feet and racing the player dribbling the ball further into the enemy side.

The crowd cheers as the ball hits the back of the net and the players swarm the shooter. Robbie turns back to our side, his hands on his hips as he takes shallow breaths.

“I know I said I don’t know much about football,” Anya says, leaning in, “but I think someone was supposed to be there to get the ball, no?”

I nod, trying to fight the grimace pulling at my lips.

“Well, maybe the other players weren’t aware they needed to?” Pip gestures with her drink, the liquid nearly sloshing off the sides.

“What, they didn’t know they were playing a game?” Anya drawls.

“Good point,” Pip muses. “He is handsome though. Great shoulders.”

I purse my lips. Robbie does have good shoulders. It’s one of the first things I noticed about him when he was kneeling at my feet about to…