Page 71 of Well Aware

He threaded his fingers through my hair when he said, “So don’t let him have it. We’ll figure this out, Magnolia.”

I relaxed into him.

He was right. With him, I could definitely figure this out. Cain would never know that he had a kid. We’d hidden it well.

Only, maybe I shouldn’t have been so confident.

It only took pissing off my ex the next day to realize that I was wrong.

SEVENTEEN

Finding out your man is a bitch is the worst gender reveal ever.

—Beau to Denver

BEAU

My nerves were shot.

This game was brutal.

There was pushing. Shoving. Hair pulling.

“It looks like the WWE out there.” Court shook his head. “The refs aren’t calling anything.”

“They’re too afraid to fuck it up,” Boone mused.

“I don’t think that’s it,” I admitted. “We aren’t trying to get away with dirty hits. We’re playing good soccer. The other team is playing like brawlers, and the refs are turning a blind eye to every single foul they witness against us. Then they’re forced to call the retaliation calls when we get tired of getting elbows to our kidneys.”

“How exactly are you going to allow this to happen and not call it? This is the game that decides whether y’all make it to the finals or not,” Boone grumbled. “Someone is going to get hurt.”

I agreed.

“That center ref is a fucking joke,” Court growled.

“Isn’t that the ref that Magnolia used to date?” Charleigh asked.

I narrowed my eyes at the man. “Is it?”

“One would think that’d be a conflict of interest,” Court grumbled. “He should’ve recused himself from this game knowing that someone that he used to date would be playing in it.”

“Agreed,” I muttered.

Now that Charleigh had mentioned the connection, I saw the way he watched her, as if he couldn’t help himself.

He watched more of Magnolia than he did the game.

It was more than obvious that he still felt something for her.

Which only proved that he really shouldn’t be reffing this game.

The opposing team’s goalie caught a crossed ball that went a little wide and booted it to the opposite side of the field.

Magnolia received the ball and was just getting ready to distribute the ball to her midfield when a player came running at her like a linebacker.

She passed the ball and relaxed, thinking that was the end of the interaction.

Only, the player on the other team had other ideas, slamming into Magnolia so hard that you could hear the impact of their two bodies all the way up in our seats.