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Looking over at her, I smiled. “Me too.” She was cute – even if she was hiding something from me.

A loud ring came from the car’s speakers. The display on the dashboard read “Call from: Tommy.”

“I can get this later.” Cat swallowed as her finger floated toward the decline button.

“No, no. Take it now, then it’s not hanging over your head.” Waving off her concern, I shrugged.

Not having a way out, Cat clicked “accept”. “Hey, Tom. You’re on speaker, and Cleo’s in the car.”

Tommy laughed. “Cool. Hey, Cleo. Nice to sorta meet you.”

“You too.” I crossed my arms and smiled like she could see me. Peeking over at Cat, her knuckles were turning white as her grip on the wheel tightened.What is she so nervous about?

Not holding off, Tommy pressed on with business. “I’m sending you a couple contracts. Give them a read when you have a second. There’s dates and such for photo shoots and media appearances written in there so just make sure those work for you.”

“Easy enough.” Cat shrugged, stretching out her arm to the hang-up button. “Okay, cool…”

Squeezing in before Cat could hang up, Tommy cleared her throat. “And do you have the dates for the Championship? The team really wants to see you play.”

Cat stammered, looking for the words while avoiding my gaze.

“First weekend in November, likely on Sunday,” I interjected, clenching my jaw as I spoke.

“Thanks, Cleo. We’ll talk soon, Catherine.” Tommy hung up the phone, our awkwardness palpable.

Just as the call ended, the car was rolling into the gravel parking lot of a crowded orchard. I wasn’t entirely sure why Cat had hidden that from me but I knew now wasn’t the time to bring it up. Odds were that she didn’t bring it up because sheknew it would mean leaving town. And what was becoming clear to me was that Cat had no intention of seeing this through.

I should’ve known that it was just some hometown fun.

Shaking my head, I popped open my door and was hit in the face with obnoxiously fresh air.

Cat hesitated in the driver’s seat for a second before climbing out and walking over to me. She offered an awkward smile, testing the waters.

“Ready?” I plastered a smile on my face.

“Yep.” Cat nodded, not trying their luck.

I had no idea how long we could go without mentioning all of this but maybe it was for the best to pretend like our time together was hurtling to a close.

32

CAT

Roaming through the orchard,Cat walked in stride with me while they held the small bag of apples. They’d insisted on carrying it to avoid hurting my shoulder.

Somehow, we’d been walking around the farm for thirty minutes and still had managed not to talk about Tommy’s call. My heart was still racing. Cleo’s silence meant one of two things: either they really didn’t mind that I would be going back to the league soon; or they were fucking fuming and had no desire to blow up on me in public.

If I knew them at all, they were more inclined to the latter.

“We should’ve demanded that dude rent us a pole. These trees are completely stripped.” Cleo shook their head as they looked up at the pristine, ripe apples hiding at the tops of each tree.

Fallen apples littered the ground, making the walk quite precarious.

“Maybe there’s more in the back?” I offered, watching them scan each and every branch as we moved toward the end of the row. With a chuckle, I shrugged. “I could put you on my shoulders and you could grab the taller ones.”

Cleo’s head whipped around as they scowled at me. “With your shoulder?”

Rolling my eyes, I licked my lips. “I have to get stronger, don’t I? Besides, it'll mostly work my legs.”