Page 60 of Resilient Love

“So, your plans are to join the Olympic team?” he asks, and the question seems strange, out of place.

“Uh, yeah, why?”

“I’m just wondering. I want to know everything there is to know about you, Elise.”

I relax into his leather seats. “That’s always been my goal, with a World Cup under my belt first, obviously. I know I’m good, good enough to win, not just good enough to be there. But it’s a team sport, so I also want to be on a team that’s the best.”

“You will be,” he says, his voice oozing with a refined confidence that makes me believe it even more than I already had.

“Thanks,” I say, pressing a kiss to his shoulder. “What about you? Do you have plans for after you retire from the league?”

He quirks a brow at me and gives me a lopsided smirk. “You trying to get rid of me already?” he jokes.

“Not yet,” I say, laughing loudly when he purses his lips, clearly unhappy with the suggestion.

“I want your dad’s job. That’s how this all started. He asked me to take over for Coach Lyon and said he already planned for me to take over for him as head coach when he retires in two years, but this would be a big help to him.”

“Hmm, never one for an ultimatum, but he somehow knows just the right thing to say to endear you to him,” I remark, laughing.

“He sure does,” Rafael grumbles. “But I’m glad he did it.” He peers over to me, his soft eyes meeting mine for just a beat before returning to the winding road ahead. “He seems to know what’s best for most people, even if we don’t ourselves. I thought coaching football would break me, but it hasn’t. It’s brought back some of the joy I’d lost.”

He rests his hand on my thigh and squeezes gently, goosebumps erupting over my skin, partly from the cool air pumping into the car from the air-con.

A few minutes later, we pull up to a little red barn surrounded by wooden fences containing cattle, a hillside boasting bright wildflowers, and a massive wooden cutout sign of a white cow covered in rainbow sprinkles. He parks in the dirt-lined driveway and shuts the engine off.

“Where the hell are we?” I ask, unable to put the pieces together now that we’rehere. Wherever “here” is.

He doesn’t bother answering me, climbing out of the car and jogging around to my side to open my door, holding his hand out for me to take.

“Such a gentleman,” I joke.

He clutches his chest. “No one haseveraccused me of such a thing. How dare you, Elise?” he asks, feigning hurt.

“You’re ridiculous,” I say, smacking his chest as he pulls me from the car. He winds his arms around my waist, tugging me against him and pressing his forehead onto mine.

“I think I’mridiculouslyin like with you,” he says, his voice small.

I want to laugh, but I don’t because I know that in the same way that I’m not usually someone who allows myself to be vulnerable around others, Rafael isn’t either. There’s a huge difference between speaking my mind and feeling safe to be truly emotionally transparent with someone.

“I think I might be too,” I finally say, bringing my lips to his. The kiss is quick, but it still manages to make my head spin.

“Alright, come on, the ice cream’s gonna melt,” he jokes, smacking my ass to propel me forward.

“Ice cream?!”

“Yes, ice cream,” he says, dragging me into the barn, which isn’t really a barn at all. It’s got a bakery to the left and an ice cream counter to the right, and I can’t wait to have my fill.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

MONDAY, MAY 19

“If you keep lickingyour ice cream cone like that, I’m gonna have to pull over and teach you a lesson about teasing me,” I groan, side-eyeing Elise as she sweeps her tongue from the base of her pistachio ice cream all the way to the tip with one languid stroke.

“It’s not my fault you’re a horny man with an insatiable appetite,” she taunts.

“Actually, I’m pretty sure it is. I wasn’t even this horny in first year,” I admit, clamping a hand down on her thigh as I try to focus on the road and not the way she’s tormenting me.

“Well, then I’m glad to be the one to help you raise your testosterone. I hear that shit plummets in your old age.” Now Iknowshe’s just begging to get fucked.

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