Page 34 of Summer Breakdown (Training Seasons #2)

“Hey, monster girl,” Frankie says. Ezra keeps moving, but Jasmine won’t blame him when he sits next to Cam. She takes the wrap from his hands and rolls her eyes. Ezra smiles at her, and she leans closer.

Lani blows out a breath. “Good catch.”

“I’m the best at catching.”

Lani giggles. “‘Kay.”

“‘Kay. Did you get me a cookie?”

Lani shakes her head, and Frankie gasps. “I thought we were best friends?”

“I didn’t have enough hands,” she pouts, and Frankie won’t know she’s sad about it. Her precious, far too empathetic, tiny child.

“Come with me to get one now?”

Lani nods with a smile. They take a single step towards Cam. She unrolls the tape and wipes Ezra’s shoulder down a little too thoroughly for someone that doesn’t have a crush. Jasmine’s not sure she’s allowed to ask.

“Hey, babe,” Frankie says, as Cam rolls Ezra’s shoulder back.

“Hey, girl,” she replies, then looks up at Ezra.

“Here?” How is Cam not aware of how Ezra looks at her?

She pulls the backing off the tape with her teeth, and Ezra moves her hair out of the way.

It feels like she’s looking at a romance scene, with the way his hand lands on her jaw and she smiles at him.

Frankie looks around, her eyes finally landing on Jasmine. Jasmine keeps her face neutral, as if she hasn’t been desperate for Frankie’s gaze since she walked in. Jasmine smiles as she goes to move, but Cam asks Lani a question, and Jasmine barely stops her groan.

“What top did you pick?”

Lani thinks about it. “Mama let me pick two, and only two, so you have to whisper.” Jasmine decided buying the tops when they would be handed them anyway was bad finance.

Cam laughs. “Two is so many! You’re so lucky. But we’ll whisper.”

“Because Zach will be sad if he knows I didn’t get his one,” Lani says, not whispering. Jasmine looks over at where Zach’s hugging Mali, entirely engrossed in this T-shirt conversation. He smiles because Lani is cute. Well, she’s assuming it’s because she’s cute, because she is.

“He’d understand,” Cam whispers back. They’re all bad at it. It makes Jasmine smile.

“I got an Ezra one and a Johnson one,” she says.

Kai cheers from behind them, and Lani looks over at him.

“Oops.” Lani has a baby crush on Kai, and it’s the sweetest thing that has ever happened in Jasmine’s whole life.

Lani pouts, and Jasmine knows she’s feeling bad about Zach.

Had she known she’d look so sad about it, she would have bought her another one.

Even though the price of sports tops is extortionate, and she’ll grow out of it by next year .

Zach walks over to grab a cookie, but he ducks until he’s in Lani’s eyeline. “You could never make me sad.”

Lani looks at him. “Promise?”

He draws a cross over his chest, and Lani laughs, even though she clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.

She holds her arms out, and he steals her right out of Frankie’s arms. It means Frankie has no reason to be near Cam, so Jasmine is hoping she immediately ditches her best friend to come and talk to her.

Mali takes her phone out so fast. Jasmine knows she won’t post them anywhere without asking her. She really thinks she might have the best friends. “Getting a hug is much better than you getting my top,” Zach says.

“Marcel got yours, and I’ll share with him.”

“You did?” Zach asks, with a wide smile, and Marcel ducks down, but it’s too late. The blush is so evident.

“Yeah. And Ezra too.”

Ezra smiles. A true, wide, stupidly hot smile. “Two for two. Score.”

Jasmine smiles, and by the time the interaction has finished, Frankie is sitting next to her. Casually, like she’s pretending she’s been here the entire time.

“Hi.”

Jasmine hums. “Hi.”

“I have your tops in my office,” she says. “I washed them, but now I can only find five.”

“You did?” Jasmine asks, turning to look at her. Frankie taps her foot lightly.

“I know you don’t like factory on clothes, I thought you might want to wear them today, and they only came in last night.”

“Did you stay in the office late?”

Frankie shrugs. “No big deal.”

Jasmine’s chest blooms. Frankie didn’t need to do that. Lani won’t get sick, but Jasmine would have done it anyway .

“That’s really kind,” Jasmine replies. “Next time, you can call me. I’d stay with you.”

“You would?” Frankie asks.

“Well, I have two children, so I’d convince you to come over, but I would make you tea.”

Frankie laughs a little. “You should invite me, even though I lost one of the tops somehow.”

“We just got five,” she replies, and Frankie frowns, muttering to herself and counting on her fingers.

“Did you only get one?”

“Mm-hmm,” Jasmine replies. “Just yours.”

Frankie blushes, like Jasmine thought she would, and it makes her entire day better.

“I wanted to come and say hi,” Frankie says, “and I really was going to hug you. I thought about it the entire way from my office. And maybe all this morning too, but everyone is staring.”

Jasmine smiles, looking at her. “Why?”

Frankie sighs, crossing her arms over her chest and then letting them dangle instead. “They’re the worst. I don’t leave the office before a game.”

“Mali said,” Jasmine replies, uncrossing and then crossing her legs again in the hope it gets her closer to Frankie. It does. “Why not?”

Frankie shrugs. “Everyone has a game-day tradition, and I don’t, so I usually float around like a loser. My tradition became ‘don’t speak to me’ so no one knew I didn’t have one.”

“Oh, my girl,” Jasmine says, her voice low, because she’s right.

Everyone is staring. Well, Ezra is looking at Cam, and Cam is running her thumb over his pec for the tenth time.

Mali and Zach are talking to Lani. Kai and Marcel are play-fighting.

Everyone else is staring. Jasmine doesn’t really care about everyone else.

Frankie laughs lightly. “You’re supposed to tell me I’m not a loser. That I’m super cool and hilarious.”

“Tell me the last time I laughed,” Jasmine replies, and Frankie throws her head back with laughter. She’s ethereal. It’s like she’s part of a world that’s just out of reach, but Jasmine’s always liked reaching for the stars.

“I bought flowers for you,” Jasmine says, “but you don’t have to take them right now if you don’t want the attention.”

Frankie smiles widely, looking behind her. “They’re Titans colours. You’re so cute. I’ve never gotten flowers before. How many times does something need to happen before it’s a tradition?”

Jasmine hums, ignoring the way her face warmed with Frankie’s compliment. Cute isn’t really a compliment anyway. Lots of things are cute. Animals, pens, random fonts.

“Once.”

Frankie laughs, her shoulders shaking with the force of it, and Jasmine smiles brightly. She likes her so much. “That’s not remotely true.”

“It’s a well-known fact. It’s not my fault your ex-girlfriends were awful,” Jasmine says, then panics a little because she just meant that girlfriends give flowers, not that she thinks she is Frankie’s girlfriend.

She’s giving flowers because they’re friendly, and she thought about her enough to think she might want some and because— ugh . “I just mean—“

“I know what you meant,” Frankie says, and Jasmine lets out a slow breath. “I’ve never had a girlfriend either,” Frankie says. Then she takes a deep breath, and it brings her closer, her shoulder brushing against Jasmine’s. “I’m not sure I’d be very good at it. But I do want to try.”

Jasmine smiles at her feet. She feels like a teenager on a first date, if a first date had twenty people not-so-slyly looking at them. Kai might have taken a photo.

“So,” Jasmine starts, “if your tradition is being in the office, why are you here now?”

Frankie swallows, tapping her feet as she whispers, “You know why. ”

“I do,” Jasmine replies, smiling at the ground. “But I wouldn’t hate it if you told me.”

Frankie groans, running her hand over her jaw. “I saw you.” Jasmine smiles, but it’s at Frankie this time. “I was hoping to see you. I am always hoping to be where you are.”

“When do you have to go on the pitch?” she asks, with all the confidence in the world. With all the certainty she’s always craved to have because Frankie makes her feel beautiful, and wanted, and good.

Frankie looks at her watch. “Six minutes until we go to the locker room.”

Jasmine stretches her legs in front of her, just a few steps away.

She remains seated on the table, but now she’s a little shorter.

She slides her hand down Frankie’s forearm, across her palm, and against her fingers.

There’s enough time for Frankie to move away if she wants, but she links their fingers as Jasmine rests her head against her shoulder.

“I think you’re going to win,” Jasmine mutters.

Frankie presses her lips to her temple. “Sweetheart, I’m already winning.”

“Ref!” Marcel shouts, and Lani looks at him, then shouts, “Ref!” but the moment is gone. Jasmine likes watching sports from the stands. There’s something weirdly magical about the atmosphere. Everyone screams when their team have the ball, but you can hear a pin drop a moment later.

Jasmine’s heart is in her throat as she watches Ezra throw someone to the ground. She never understood why people said he’s scary, but she gets it now. It’s thrilling and kind of weird to know they are her friends. The people that are being cheered for by thousands of fans are her friends.

Jasmine knows the laws of rugby, even if she hasn’t played in a while, but still, every time a call is made, she looks for Frankie.

Is she happy? Does she think the ref is a plonker?

Frankie’s mainly stoic, her hands in her pockets, but occasionally, she’ll cheer.

Sometimes, she jumps up to see something, or she’ll wave her hands in a specific direction, and Jasmine thinks she’s the cutest thing alive.

“Mama, I think Frankie would let me go on her back,” Lani says.

“Not while she’s real coaching, baby. Maybe for training, but not if she’s busy.”

Lani hums. “‘Kay. Is it almost the end?”

“Yeah. We have like two minutes.”

“Lan,” Marcel says, and she tilts her head back to see him. “Kai is on. Do you want to go on my shoulders for a bit?”

“Yay!”

Marcel takes her from the seats, and Jasmine immediately takes a photo of the two of them in their semi-matching tops.

“Okay,” he says. “You see Johnson?”

“Uh-huh.”

“We want him to get the ball to Azan so he can score over that line,” Marcel says, manoeuvring her until she can see.

“Where’s Zach? I can’t see him.”

“Zach’s there,” Mali says, pointing to him.

“That’s so far!”

“Zach’s super-fast,” Marcel says, “so Kai will need to be quick.”

“Okay. And where is Ezra?”

The game has started again, but Marcel points him out for her. He’s the best. Jasmine pulls her lip between her teeth as Kai runs. It’s not the end of the world if they don’t win this game, but it will be three losses in a row. County are good, but Marcel is right—the Titans are better .

Jasmine wants them to win so Marcel is happy. She wants them to win so they’re closer to their goal of the premiership. She wants them to win so she can see Frankie smile.

“Go!” Marcel shouts, and a few seconds later, Lani copies him. Mali reaches for her hand, and she gives it to her. Cam’s hand touches her shoulder as she reaches her arm across to Mali.

It’s close. The whistle blows, and they’ve only got a few seconds to get it over the line.

They could go for a goal kick, but it would get them the draw.

They want to win. Ezra takes a hit, but it brings down their player.

Cam’s fingers tighten against her shoulder when he hits the floor, but he gets right back up.

Kai tosses the ball to Zach, and Marcel’s right—he’s so fast.

Fast enough to get it over the line before it gets thrown out. Fast enough that the Titans win without the conversion that Jasmine knows Zach will make.

“Yeah!” Marcel screams, and Jasmine would hear him over anyone.

Lani giggles, cheering like she has any idea what’s going on.

Jasmine smiles, jumping up and down with Mali and Cam, and she lets herself look over, just once, to see if Frankie is happy too.

She’s smiling, hugging players, and Jasmine wants her to hug her like that.

She looks at her for a moment longer, and Frankie looks right back, like she knew exactly where they were in the stands. Her smile is bright, and real, and so fucking pretty. Jasmine wants to look at it for a really long time.