Page 57 of Yours, For Now

Lina: it will be fine. Don't worry

about it :)

Chapter 18

Theshortlistresultswerejust a week away. Gabe and I spent our shared time working on our own stuff, and waiting. When my mom told me to go support my boyfriend's soccer game, it seemed like a nice change.

Rodrigo wasn't playing that night, so Lucía didn't join me. I walked into the field area alone, travel mugs in hand, one for Gabe and one for me, plus some food stuffed in my purse. If I didn't feel like my mother's daughter before, this would have done it. I'd brought a snack for my fake boyfriend.

Instead of going up to the bleachers with the other game watchers and WAGs, I leaned against the metal fencing around the soccer field, elbows on the rounded edge. Gabe ran past me without noticing, and I smiled. He looked cute when he focused. A frown stood out on his face, eyes shifting from the ball to the players, strategizing an attack. He sprinted, pushed the guy with the ball, and stole it from him. Two players came running to him and, after a quick glance across the field, he punted the ball to a team member far on the other side of the field.

"Show them how it's done, Gabe!" I yelled.

He turned to me with a bright smile and I waved. I hadn't told him I was showing up to the game.

The next time he ran past me, I whooped. He shook his head, but grinned again. When he approached me once more, I planned to yell something in Spanish, but he didn't give me a chance.

"We're having words at the end of the period!" he warned, and I laughed. At least half of that response tried to hide the sprinkle of awareness that his tone— half stern, half scolding— woke up in me.

When the referee blew the whistle at the end of the first forty-five minutes, Gabe ran to the edge of the field far from me; he grabbed a bag, a water bottle, and a towel he'd left there, then came to me.

"Hi." I nearly batted my eyelashes at him. Okay, well. I did. "I brought you coffee."

He put everything on the floor next to me, except for his water. He chuckled and stared at the travel mug I held to him, his fingers opening the latch on his bottle. Sweat shone on his skin, some of it condensing and streaking down his temple. A single drop fell from his chin.

He took a long swig of water. His shirt stuck to his chest, his lungs still in overdrive, expanding his already wide chest.

When I gazed back up at him, he stared right back.

He didn't say anything, but reached for the mug I held between us. He took a sip from it. "This is perfect, thank you."

I'd paid attention to how he liked coffee, so I was confident he'd like it. Still, his words spread warmth through my chest. I smiled, but it seemed the heat had made me lose my eloquence. That, or how hot he looked, all sweaty.

"So. Words." I cleared my throat. "You said we needed to have words."

"It's okay if you want to just… I don't know. Applaud. Say ‘go Gabe!’." He grinned and had more coffee. "I know you're helping me in this competitive thing between all the guys here, but it'll hurt too much when we break up if you're too good at it."

I seemed to need a deep breath after that. "What if I want to bring a sign?"

He laughed and passed me his drinks, then used the towel to dry the sweat off his face and neck. "Please don't," he groaned into the towel.

"How about a compromise? I won't make a sign for everyone to see, but I'll yell words for everyone to hear. Whatever words I want."

The referee whistled again. Gabe leaned to me and kissed the corner of my lips. I searched his face to know how on purpose that had been, but I couldn't decipher it.

"They do say compromise is key in long-lasting love."

He winked and went back to the game, leaving me confused and more than a bit turned on.

The team we played that night was known for playing rough. I was mostly okay with that; I got to release a lot of tension pushing a guy extra hard. And I couldn't lie, I also liked the primal feeling of showing off for my girlfriend.

Fake girlfriend. I shouldn't forget that.

And I wasn't proud of it, but I figured, if I played soccer to get my heart pumping and do something other than work, then it was okay if showing off for Lina achieved the same results.

I may have been stretching my morals there, but I couldn't resist. It felt great to have her show up for me at the games. And as long as we both remembered how things would end, a little flirting couldn't hurt.

The captain on the other team ran to me at high speed. I glanced around me; I didn't have the ball, so I had to be in someone's way— and I saw him; another guy running right behind him with the ball.