She was the only one of my siblings I’d told about the Boston game and how badly I’d played and how I’d let it all get in my head.
“Not yet,” I told her. “But it’ll be interesting to see what happens when we start traveling.” I slowed down for the light.
“What’s that going to look like?”
“Dude, fuck if I know. Torture? Yeah, I’m going with torture.”
“Remind me, do the coaches and staff stay in the same hotel as the players?”
I was getting restless just thinking about it. “Same hotel. My luck, she’ll be on the same floor as me.”
“Your luck, she’ll be in the room next door.”
“Don’t put that out into the universe. I won’t sleep a goddamn second if I know she’s on the other side of my wall.”
“Knowing you and how you work, I give it a few weeks. Maybe less, assuming she’s feeling the same way as you. You can only be strong for so long before the temptation takes over, and you two being around each other that much, I think it’s going to be impossible for her to resist you. Unless she has no feelings—then that’s a completely different situation.”
“She has feelings.”
I was fucking sure of that.
At least ones that were physical. But if she was worried about the way her father would react and the future of her job and if the team was going to respect her, that could certainly affect her emotionally.
And it could put a giant roadblock between us—bigger than the professionalism motto that she’d been chirping about at my house.
Would I ever get her to move past professionalism and officially get her to be mine?
Did she even want that?
“I’m sure she does have feelings,” Eden said, tearing me out of my thoughts. “But still … Beck …”
“What?”
“It’s nice to see this side of you. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see it. You, like all the others in this family—aside from Hart—have been so anti-relationship and?—”
“Wait. Are you really talking to me about being anti-relationship? When I don’t think you’ll ever date?”
She turned quiet.
I wasn’t surprised.
When it came to this topic, Eden could dish it out, but she couldn’t take it.
And I understood why, but I wasn’t making digs at her; I was simply stating the obvious.
Because I knew she wasn’t going to say anything, I added, “You know, there are moments when I agree with you, and I think it’s just a matter of time. And then there are moments when I think she might not choose me.” My thumb was tapping the steering wheel as the honesty poured right out of me.
“And if she doesn’t choose you?”
The cars in front of me had either changed lanes or turned, which put me directly behind Jolie. I could see the outline of her hair and shoulders through her back windshield.
“I don’t know …”
“If she doesn’t, being around her every day during the season would be tough.”
Tough?
No.
