Page 22 of Made Better Together

Just be cool. It’ll be a nice change of pace to hang with the Tolliver crew no matter what.

The door swings open, and it’s Bree who greets me.

“Princeton boy. Back again, with a shirt on. Excellent.” She cranes her head back over her shoulder. “Eden, your guest is here.”

A shiver runs up my neck at the words “your guest,” but I ignore it.

Bree widens the opening of the door for me to enter, and as I walk in, Eden approaches.

She’s wearing a teal cotton shirt with big white stars over a denim skirt, and those pretty turquoise eyes light up as soon as she sees me.

“You came.”

I step up to her. “I did.”

We spend a few seconds looking at each other for the first time in a year. Her eyes glimmer with excitement.

That’s promising.

No expectations, yells another part of my brain.

The moment is interrupted by Bree. “You two catch up. I’m going to head back to the kitchen.” If I’m not wrong, I see her give a thumbs-up to Eden. Interesting.

Ignoring that, Eden gestures to the living room, where a few others are hanging. She hands me a beer from a cooler, and we stand there as I take my first sip.

“Have you had a good summer?”

A vanilla question, and I give a vanilla answer. “It’s been alright. Seen your dad some.”

“So he said. How’s it been going?”

Like the past two summers, Del had invited me out to kick a few times, this time on the practice field he uses with the Waves. Obviously, I wasn’t going to reject an offer from one of the greats of all time.

“Your dad—well, you know this, I’m sure. He’s a really good mentor.”

She smiles at the compliment to Del. “He mentioned you played football at college last year, instead of soccer.” Her voice rises in pitch as she finishes the sentence, like there’s an unspoken question there…

“Yeah, my first year not playing on a soccer team…since I was four years old, actually.” The shift still feels a little wild, and my voice carries a hint of disbelief.

Her brows go up. My siblings were surprised too.

But the coaches had been clear this year. It was one thing to sub in for a single football game sophomore year when the team was in a pinch. With the whole fall season in view my junior year, they needed me to pick a sport.

To the shock of everyone, I opted for football. I find myself spilling to Eden why, in a way that I hadn’t with anyone else yet.

“You know what it’s like growing up in the soccer world, right? Always chasing those top-level spots for your age group.”

Her eyes flash with recognition as she gives a little nod. We haven’t had a chance to talk soccer previously, so I’m not sure she knew how deep in the US Youth program I’d been.

“When I wasn’t…” I hesitate, suddenly reluctant to show a weak side to Eden. But then I look up at those bright blue eyes, softly holding my gaze, and I push the rest out.

“When I wasn’t invited to a U19 team training camp, it was like a balloon popped for me. Year after year of being all in on whatever the coaches needed, whatever it took to be the best—all that energy, motivation, was gone. It was the first time I’d failed to be selected, and a lot of my friends from prior teams were chosen.”

She purses her lips, eyes full of sympathy. “That must have been so hard.”

My voice goes low and soft. “It hurt like a motherfucker.”

She frowns, clearly upset on my behalf—yet, I don’t like that frown.