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I keep hearing Courtney’s words playing over and over in my head, telling me not to back away from something I want, and to ‘make my own luck’. That’s all easier said than done, though…
I’m moving through a circuit in the weights room when I hear Vinnie growling my name. “Whitford! What the bloody hell are you doing in here?”
“Training?”
“Get out on the fucking pitch—Milly’s been out there for twenty minutes.”
Bollocks.
“I just need to finish this rep,” I tell him, as though me choosing the weights room over the pitch wasn’t my attempt to avoid an awkward encounter with the guy I shared the hottest kiss of my life with yesterday afternoon.
“Well hurry the fuck up about it,” he grumbles before heading back into his office.
I finish up and then make my way slowly to the pitch. When I get there, I find Archie playing a bit of keepie uppie, but he stops when he sees me approach.
“Sorry, I got mixed up and started in the weights room.”
He arches a sceptical brow at me. “Uh huh.”
“Let’s just do this,” I grumble, tackling the ball from between his feet and heading for goal.
“Fucking hell,” I hear Archie mutter as he chases after me.
We drill for a little while, neither of us talking, until Archie comes to a halt and turns on me. “Okay, what the fuck?”
I stare at him, placing my hands on my hips as I draw in a heavy breath. “Huh?”
“You’re being weird.”
“I’m not being weird.”
He nods adamantly. “Yeah, you are. You’re being all…intense.”
“I’m always intense.”
“No. You can be a moody bastard, and you sometimes bite people’s heads off for no apparent reason. But you’re not like this. You’re treating me like I’m an opposition player,” he points out. “We’re supposed to be teammates.”
I glance away, my jaw tight as I refuse to acknowledge the truth of his words.
“This is about yesterday,” he states flatly, sounding almost resigned.
I manage to shift my gaze back to him, figuring it’s about time to show some maturity here. “Look, I’m not—”
“I’m sorry,” he says, his hazel eyes full of regret. “I shouldn’t have…” He glances around, and then lowers his voice even though there’s no one around. “Kissedyou. It was really inappropriate, and I’m sorry. I guess I just misread some signals or whatever, but still that’s not an excuse. And I really hate that I’ve made you uncomfortable because I really value our friendship and I don’t want to lose it.”
“I don’t either,” I say honestly.
He nods. “Okay. So…are we good?”
Not really knowing what else to say, I nod in return. “Yeah.”
Archie’s smile looks more like a wince and it’s beyond obvious that we arenotgood, but I don’t really know what to say to fix it. The matter is taken out of my hands when Archie starts casually dribbling the ball to himself, his eyes determinedly fixed on his feet. “I think I’m going to stay out here for a bit.”
“Right. Okay.” Feeling thoroughly dismissed, all I can do is trudge back to the locker room and shower down.
The rest of the lads must have finished up their weights training while I was out on the pitch with Archie, because I have the locker room and showers to myself. But not even the rare opportunity of showering in private can relieve the tension from my body, and as I trudge to my car, all I can think about is the expression on Archie’s face when he apologised. The vulnerability. The self-doubt. I hate that he’s doubting himself because of me. Because I freaked out and don’t even have the guts to explain why.?
Bloody hell.
