Page 159 of Falling Offsides

Court goes back to watchingTitanicon the TV and I go back to watching her. The thing about her is that she wears her thoughts on her face. So when her brows pinch and her lips take on that hurt pout I can’t stomach, I tune into the movie. The scene is a blow up between the mother and daughter, and when I look back at Courtney, there’s heavy tears in her eyes.

I don’t like to pry into the situation with her mom, I know when she’s ready to talk to me about it, she will. Still, I coil my arm tighter around her and squeeze her hand in mine as I roll her on top of my chest.

“What are you doing?” she asks, nuzzling deeper into me.

There’s always a split second where she balks when I show her affection. And I fucking hate that it’s so foreign to her, that her instinct is to shy away from it or make light of it.

Still, I smile and coil my arms tighter around her.

“I’m hugging you. That okay?”

Blue eyes flash to mine. Wet and sad. When she nods her tears bead on her long lashes.

“Have I told you how beautiful you are?”

Courtney shakes her head at me with an exaggerated roll of her blue eyes. Crossing her arms across my chest, she watches me silently for a beat.

Then something shifts in her stare and her body melts into mine. Not an easy surrender, more like weariness. As though there’s too much weight on her shoulders for her to hold it up anymore.

“Can I tell you something?” she asks too quietly.

“You can tell me anything, Court.”

“No, like personal. Like, about my mom… my dad.”

“Yes,” is all I say. The last thing I want is to overwhelm her with too many words.

“I found something out yesterday, and I don’t know what to think about it anymore. All this time I believed that my dad distanced himself from me…” Tear logged eyes meet mine and it takes all my control not to suffocate her with my hold. “Turns out that’s not the truth. Well, not the whole picture.”

That makes sense, because Coach is big into family. Into our team being tight like a family unit. I can’t imagine him not being present for his own daughter when he’s always there for his players.

“He calls my mom every week to check on us… on me… and I didn’t know. She never told me. She never defended him when her husband talked shit about him or when I refused to go out of my way to visit him. I always thought… I always—” Court cuts off with a jagged breath. “I was so angry with him for giving up on us… onme, and now… I… I feel like a terrible person.”

“You can’t help what you don’t know, Princess.”

My thumb rubs slow circles on her nape while she continues staring at my jaw, and I’m too down bad for this girl to control the urge to kissher. First the tip of her nose, so light she whimpers when I lift my lips to her forehead and hold them there. It’s part kiss, part caress, part desperation to ease the hurt dripping from her cheeks onto my jaw. Sluicing down my neck, strangling all that’s left of my cool with the wretchedly contained sob that gurgles from my girl.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” her voice is a mortified snort as she attempts to roll away from me. “This is not what we’re about… I’m sor?—”

“Hey, apologize again and I’ll spank every fucking reason why this is exactly whatweare about into you.”

“Auguste—”

“Shut up, Courtney.” I roll her onto her back, caging her in with my arms as I tell her, “This,right here, is your safe space. Me.”

Her frown fixes on my hand, flattened to my chest. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Neither do I.” Her eyes flash up to mine. “What? I’m twenty-three and I’ve spent my whole life so far focused on my career. Relationships and girls weren’t on my to-do list before.”

“Before?”

“You.”

“Me?” The question is a mousy whisper. “Why me?”

“Honestly? Because you felt like home.”

That’s the truth. The only truth of everything I’ve done, of everything I feel, and everything we are.