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“Hmm, I won’t go more than a couple feet away from you.” It probably wasn’t the best handicap for this challenge, but I didn’t exactly want her to win.

“I think.” She paused to kick the ball to me. “You’re taking advantage of the fact that I have no idea what you do in this sport.”

“I’m part of the defense,” I said, dribbling in place.

“And does that mean you’re good at keeping the ball?” She watched my feet for a few seconds before making an attempt to steal it from me by carelessly kicking forward. I kicked the ball up over her foot then dribbled around her.

“My job is more to steal it from folks trying to make goals,” I told her and she groaned, turning to make another attempt, this time kicking through my legs. I knocked the ball forward and out of her reach before pulling it back under my control. Leah grabbed my shirt, tugging as I circled around with her at my back.

“That’s a yellow card at the very least,” I said through a laugh. I’ve gotten my fair share of fouls and cards, though not as many as Brooker, and if I had clung to a player like this, I’d be in trouble. But this kind of play was fun. It brought me back to playing as a kid, when rules didn’t matter, just keeping possession of the ball.

“If you don’t want me to grab you, stay still,” she grumbled, kicking again, but hitting my shin.

“That’d kind of defeat the purpose of this game.”

“When I agreed,” she said through heavy pants, “to this, I thought you’d at least let me steal it once.”

“Mmm, if I had thought of this beforehand, I might’ve considered that. But this was a spur of the moment thing.” As I spoke, I let my guard down and she was able to tap the ball with her toe, not hard enough to knock it away, but it was closer than I thought she’d get.

“Niall,” she shouted. “Why’re you suddenly so difficult?”

“Difficult? I’m just … having fun.” I kicked the ball up to juggle it on my knees, doing the fancy moves I was so excited to learn as a kid. And I realized I really was having more fun than I had in a long while. “Are you?”

“Having fun getting my ass beat?” she huffed, finally letting go of my shirt to actually look at me. She rolled her eyes, then smiled. “Yeah, it’s fun. But I feel pathetically out of breath already and I barely touched the ball.”

“So do you concede?”

Leah narrowed her eyes at the ball, watching as I bounced it knee to knee.

“Fine,” she sighed. “Pay my bills. What do I care?” She let herself fall to the ground with a small oof, before lying on her back. I kicked the ball over to the side and lay next to her.

“Thank you,” I said once I settled down beside her, letting our arms brush.

“Don’t say that just yet. I’m debating if I want to punish you for your audacity to be a good guy by making you foot as many bills as possible or give you very strict limits on what you’re allowed to pay for.”

“I assume you’re leaning toward the latter?” I asked and she immediately lifted an arm and let it thunk onto my chest. “Don’t even have the energy to smack me?”

“The first trimester is rough, all right. I’m nauseous, like, 80 percent of the day and I wanna nap all the time. I’m so excited for this phase to pass.”

I bit my tongue to keep from asking what I could do for her and instead asked, “When does the next trimester start?”

“December. I should have more energy and less nausea then. Also when I’ll start showing.”

“Have you felt any kicks yet?” I asked, lifting my hand before I thought better of it. Leah huffed and grabbed my wrist to rest my hand on her lower stomach.

“I think they’re around there,” she said, shuffling my hand around. “They’re the size of a Barbie shoe though, so they haven’t rearranged my organs yet.”

“You don’t sound excited.” I let my hand relax on her stomach. “If you’ve changed your mind, I’ll help—”

Leah rested her hand on mine and shook her head. When she stilled I could see a soft smile lighting her face. “I just like to complain. I’m really excited. I’ve been looking at baby shoes and crying a lot.”

“Shoes made you cry?”

“Yeah. I mean …” She started laughing and lifted her hand off mine to gesture wildly. “They don’t even need shoes when they’re that small. But they’re so cute.”

“We’ll have to go shopping for some once the baby comes.”

Leah chuckled and I turned to stare at her, an eyebrow raised in question. Without turning to look at me, she answered, “I was just thinking that you like to help people. You’re captain of this team because of it, right? They look to you for help. Fuck, you even get off on being helpful.”