The Striker's Forbidden Love

them, and the click of the latch so

y half joking now, dropping her ba

t sa

eamble, no easing into it. "From Monday's pra

ropped clean th

her own phone like it might somehow prove something. "Gra

ows went up. "

message on her screen, turning it toward him without letting herself think too hard about what

adn't seen from him before, not the controlled irritation of

ed, handing the phone back li

ere." Mia said. "I thought it was nothing. A weird coincidence

cidence." Daniel

's internal staff directory to f

access to things a rand

ght before a bad tackle, that half-second of knowin

ges have you go

el said, pulling out his own phone and turning the screen toward her. "Same ha

he mess of blocked and reappeared usernames on her own phone, feeling faintly sick at how o

" She asked. "Or s

" Daniel said. "I

ow

use if I go asking the wrong questions to the wrong people, all I do is confirm there's something worth asking about.

rms crossed now, unable to sit sti

'm already thinking about who had access to that practice footage angle, who

ly unwilling to hold her up throu

at do

she watched Daniel notice it too a small flicker crossing his face,

istance between them that felt, for the first time, deliberate rather than natural. "No more late film sessions, j

r to me." Mia said, to

her a look

p her neck. "But that's because I need more correctio

h himself, like the words had gotten out ahead of the rest of

e went ve

st every ounce of self-preservation she used to have, apparently she ne

hat Mia's pulse climbed somewhere it had no business climbing, long enough that th

it cost him something. "And I find myself paying more attention to you than that a

omewhere in her chest

h was, admittedly, n

said, dry, almo

sation was teetering on the edge of something neither of them could afford, and one of t

ous problem."

oing to be smart about it. No

distance, s

ed, and hated how much she

rmer, like saying it twice might make

more second felt like standing too close to a ledge she genuinely didn't trust he

rre

rned.

they think they saw. You didn't do anything wrong." He said, and it landed somewher

either of them could say anything else that made profession

the parking lot before

ssage. This one didn

not the only

e sense. Not the only one watching. Meaning what meaning someone else knew. Meaning someone els

her, streetlight flickering overhead the way it always did like it couldn't decide wheth

ght about the other players she'd shared a locker room with for two years, running through each of them in her head like a line

ould finish the thought, and this message c

vi