Page 35 of Scoring Lessons

Working at the same organization as my brother wasn’t the issue I thought it would be. Women in sports already had enough working against them, but the Strikers’ staff made it easy. For the first time in a while, I was at a place where I felt like I belonged.

That was all my heart needed to latch on to something hopeful, like moving to Chicago had been the answer to all of my problems. When I knew, deep down, it wasn’t.

It was almost midnight, but my body was still buzzing from the day, so I pulled on some workout clothes and headed down to the hotel gym.

I stepped in with my headphones on, bopping to the classic rock that had shuffled on. As I reached the weights area, I was startled when I caught Wesley through the mirror.

My throat turned dry as I drank him in.

His dirty blond strands clung to his sweaty forehead, and droplets of sweat ran down every hard cut of his abdomen as he finished his set of pull-ups.

I lingered a beat too long before I caught myself and yanked out an earbud when he dropped from the bar. “Didn’t you just play a full sixty minutes?”

He startled at the sound of my voice, took his headphones off, and then reached for his water bottle. “Didn’t you just work one?”

“I’m not the one who took three hits in the third period.”

Something flickered behind his expression that, for some reason, annoyed me. “You were watching?”

“It’s kind of my job, if you hadn’t noticed.” I kept my voice flat as I dropped my bottle of water on a bench and started adjusting the cable machine.

The corner of his mouth lifted as he reached for the free weights. “Yeah, but we both know you love to watch me.”

I rolled my eyes. “I watch everyone.”

“Sure,” he replied, his voice filled with overconfidence.

“I do.” I added a plate to the cable stack with more force than necessary. “Parker’s shoulder rotation has been off since training camp. Kendall still hasn’t fixed his landing mechanics, and it’s going to catch up with him by February. And you dropped your left shoulder about three seconds before every hit tonight. Which is why you took three of them.” I looked over. “Want me to keep going?”

He reared back in surprise. “Okay, then. Point proven.”

“Shocked that I’m actually good at my job?” I scoffed, then I turned back to the cable machine and started a warm-up set.

“No.”

“Sure looks like it,” I retorted.

The silence stretched for a few minutes before he spoke again, quieter this time. “For what it’s worth—” He stopped then looked at me sideways as he grabbed a small towel and ran it across his forehead. The muscles in his arms shifted with it, and my throat went dry for the second time that night. “You’re incredible at your job. There’s no question about that.” A small shrug, like the words had cost him to say out loud.

I scrunched my nose in disgust while my heart simultaneously fluttered in my chest at the compliment. “Now you’re making things weird.”

His quiet laugh was warm; it sent goosebumps across my arms. “I’m not the one making it weird, Olivia.”

“You literally complimented me unprompted. That’s weird. That’s objectively weird behavior from you,” I deadpanned.

Pretending I hated the way he casually complimented me on something I put so much hard work and dedication into was easier than facing the truth. The truth was muddy and gray. It was one I didn’t want to face—or understand, for that matter.

“Is it?” He leaned back against the dumbbell rack, arms crossed, watching me with a look that felt less like teasing and more like he was actually trying to figure something out. “Can’t I just mean it?”

“You can.” I shrugged. “It’s not what you do,” I commented then quickly added, “This is not how we work.”

“Maybe you don’t know what I do as well as you think.”

“Wesley.” I turned to face him fully. “I have known you since you used to call me Henry’s annoying sister every time you came over.” I settled him with a dry look. “You probably still think that’s all I am.”

“I don’t.” His voice dropped slightly. The teasing edge went with it, and so did my heartbeat. “I haven’t thought of you like that in a very long time.”

I hated these moments where the ground shifted without any warning and suddenly I was standing on something I hadn’t agreed to stand on, only because he decided to throw out a casual comment that we both knew had been anything but.