Page 23 of Halftime

He rolled his eyes. “Faith, I know you. Something’s bugging you.”

I shook my head. I saw him stiffen, and he looked away.

“I thought we were going to be friends, but if this isn’t something you want to talk about, okay, I’ll respect that. Didn’t mean to overstep.”

I drew in a breath. My first response with him was anger, and I had to remind myself that I wasn’t angry with him anymore.

“Sorry. I can share. There’s nothing you can do about it though. I got a D, and I’m not playing in our first game, not even as backup. Just a shitty day.”

He watched me, the familiar brown eyes checking my expression, my body language. He used to do that to see if I was hurting after a game but refusing to tell him. I’d never been good at hiding how I felt from him. He relaxed, so he must have decided I was telling the truth. I was.

“Who’s starting the game?”

“Anders. Claire Anderson.”

“She’s a senior, right?”

I nodded. “Vashton’s her backup. I’m not dressing.”

He frowned. “What the hell, Faith? You’re the best goalie on the team. Why aren’t you at least on the bench?”

“Coach Cray hates me.”

“Not possible. Your coaches always love you. You’re the hardest working player on the ice, and you always made them look good.”

I lifted a shoulder. “I still am, or one of them. But Coach has had it out for me since the first day on the ice. The freshman thing. Cooper asked me to stop some shots for your freshmen, and Coach decided I wanted to play on the men’s team and not the women’s team. She’s still pissed about it.”

Seb stretched out his legs on the grass. His nose scrunched up as he ran a hand through his hair, knee jiggling. “Sorry, Faith, that’s my fault.”

“What? You weren’t even there—” I stopped, because he had been there. I hadn’t seen him in the stands, but we’d bumped into each other in the hallway after.

Nope, that was still staying in the box. Seb might not be the cheating scumbag I’d believed he was, but he was still not my Seb. He had a girlfriend, and I’d just leave that whole encounter safely buried.

“I saw you on the ice and said something. Your name, I think. The guys asked how I knew you, and I didn’t want to say you were the girl from last year. So I said you’d stopped shots for the Mav’s. Remember? That was my first day on the team.”

Of course, I remembered. It was how we’d met. The Mav’s had brought me in to show up their new recruits. I’d done it the previous season, and you could learn a lot from how guys responded when they were beaten by a girl. The assholes pitched fits, made up excuses, and got angry. Seb hadn’t. He’d stopped to tell me I’d done well. Smiled at me. Then we’d found out his billet family was in the house next to mine, and that’s how it had all begun. Of course, Seb had told his teammates. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t connected those dots.

“I should have figured that out. I was pretty surprised when Blondie called me over and suggested the rookies shoot on me.”

“Blondie?”

I grinned. “That’s what I called Cooper the first time I saw him.”

Seb laughed. “I like that.”

I felt a full smile slip across my face. Seb had always made me happy. But then I remembered I didn’t have a lot to be happy about.

Seb looked over at me. “Would you like me to talk to Coach Keller, explain what happened, and ask him to talk to Coach Cray?”

My smile vanished. “You’re not serious, are you?”

Seb gave me that wary look, head still, only moving his eyes.

“Seb, there’s a lot of competition between the men’s and women’s teams. Our workout time last week was cancelled because your team needed the space. You guys have the home locker room, right? With your own stalls and names? We have the guest one. So we can’t claim stalls and have to move our gear out after games and practices.

“Coach Cray already thinks I would rather play with the men’s team. Having your coach come to talk to her about me? I might as well quit the team immediately.”

Seb studied my face. “I didn’t know any of that.”

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