Page 8 of Out of Bounds

“What do I mean? Well, for starters, let’s not tell our head coach to keep it in his pants.”

“That is not what I said.”

“Flick, I know you. And I know deep down in there is a good person. But I also know that you don’t let her out very often. I suggest you work on that.”

“I’ll get right on that,” she snapped, turning to go.

“Things like helping Talia this afternoon go a long way. Just sayin’,” he called after her.

“Whatever, Tripp.”

* * *

"You weren’t kidding when you said you didn’t have a lot,” Gunnar said, looking at the two black duffle bags and the dark blue backpack Talia had set just inside the door of their new flat.

“I wasn’t really sure what I’d find here, so it didn’t make sense to bring a whole lot,” she replied, watching the movers carrying in the couch from his previous unit a couple of floors down.

True to his word, Dalton had arranged not only for a two-bedroom flat in the same building, but for movers to do all the heavy lifting. Gunnar had arrived back at the building and been handed his new set of keys by the doorman, who also let him know that Talia was already in there and that the movers would be there shortly. Within thirty minutes, a three-man crew had arrived and was ready to work.

“Do we need to have stuff brought out from Arizona?”

“No, it’s fine,” she said, looking as awkward as he felt.

He opened his mouth to respond, but he wasn’t sure what to say. How did one start a conversation with the daughter they never had any idea existed? He knew he couldn’t just be like “so, I have zero recollection of your mother,” but he could ask questions about her, right? Starting with, what was she doing in France during the World Cup?

“Uh, Coach?” Liam’s thick Irish accent interrupted his thoughts. Gunnar turned to the open door of the flat to see the Irishman’s hulking figure looming there.

“Hey, lad. Were we doing dinner tonight and I forgot?” Wracking his brain, he tried to remember if they’d made plans. Liam had been the backup goalkeeper for the first team in Dundalk, before deciding to follow Gunnar to Atlanta. It was a big risk for the young man, leaving his entire family behind to move to a place he’d never heard of, but Gunnar was proud of him for taking the chance. The two had developed a bond back in Ireland, and until a couple of weeks ago, Gunnar had thought that his relationship with Liam would be the closest he would ever get to having a kid of his own. At least once a week since Liam’s arrival, they’d had dinner, talking about their transition to life in America and what they hoped for in the upcoming season. It’d been nice to have him, but Gunnar also hoped that now that more of the team had arrived that the shy young man would start to make some friends.

“No, I just wanted to apologize again for being late this morning. Won’t happen again.”

“It’s fine, shit happens,” he told him, clapping a hand down on Liam’s shoulder. “Let me introduce you to Talia, my…uh…daughter.”

“Hi,” she responded, giving him a curt wave of her hand. “I take it you’re one of his players?”

“Yeah, goalie.”

“Oh, I know that one!” she laughed.

“Are y’all the Gracins?” a young man with a thick southern accent asked.

“Uh, yeah, that’s us, I guess,” Gunnar answered. Talia wasn’t actually a Gracin, right? Or was she? He really had no idea how any of this worked.

“Cool, where’s the bedroom set go?”

“Oh, um,” he said, looking back and forth between the two bedrooms. “You want the master?”

“No, I'll take the other one. You can have the master.”

“You sure, cause I don’t mind…”

“Yeah, I like the view better. You can see the park,” she answered, a small smile starting to form. “You guys can put it in the bedroom on the left.”

The mover nodded and turned to his partner before maneuvering the dresser through the door. The two teams made quick work of getting everything in place, at least as much as they could. Talia and Liam sat on the couch, swapping stories about being new to the city as the movers worked around them. His heart squeezed a little to see the two of them hitting it off so quick. Gunnar couldn’t remember the last time that Liam had taken to anyone that fast, and it was refreshing. When the new bedroom set was finally set up, Talia excused herself to go get settled. Looking around the flat, Gunnar couldn’t help but laugh at the chaos that surrounded them. There was so much that needed to be put away, but at least the big stuff was handled.

“You staying for dinner?” he asked Liam.

“Sure, if that’s cool.”