Page 111 of Hitting the Goal Line
“She pressed charges against him, didn’t she?” I ask Officer King.
He gives me a curt nod, already knowing who I’m talking about. “She did, but pressing charges was just the start of it. If he fights her on it, this can take a while to resolve. She’s going to need someone in her corner every step of the way.”
Officer King says the words as if I don’t already know that.
I want to tell him that after today, I’m always going to be by Sophia’s side, even if she tries to push me away. As her friend, her protector, as whatever the fuck she needs me to be. I will be there for her, no matter what, because no way am I going to let the woman that I love, that owns every single part of me down again. I’ve already failed her, I’m never going to down that road ever again.
“She will,” I say affirmatively. Not only will she have me, but there is a lot of people in our lives that will stand by her side no matter what.
With that, Officer King offers me his hand again and his card before going on his merry way.
“What happens now?” Eliana asks, giving me a look of concern.
I look down at her and give her a small smile. “Now, I have to go find Sophia. I need to know that she is doing okay.”
Both Eliana and Christian nod in agreement. I don’t know when it happened but these two seem to be so damn in sync that I don’t know whether to find it cute or annoying. I’m going with the second one.
“Maybe you will have better luck getting a hold of her. I’ve been calling and texting her since you called Christian, but she hasn’t answered,” Eliana says, looking a little hurt by it.
“She was probably freaking out,” Christian offers her, and I nod in agreement.
Sophia may have just met Eliana at the end of last summer, but she loves and care about her so she wouldn’t be ignoring her just because.
Pulling out my phone out if the plastic bag that it was placed in, I power it on, surprised it’s not dead and go into my location app, ignoring all the notifications that are coming through.
If she didn’t answer Eliana, there is slight chance she’s not going to answer me. Might as well show up wherever she is to talk to her.
Her location takes a second to load and as soon as it does, I can’t help but let out a sigh of relief when I see that she’s close.
“Apparently, she’s across the street,” I say to my friends.
“She probably didn’t want to be too far away, just in case you were released.” Christian lets out.
“Sounds like Soph,” I say, giving him a nod.
It doesn’t take long for us to decided that it’s time to leave the police station. When we walk out, I feel like I’m leaving a huge chunk of stress behind. When I decided to follow Sophia to San Francisco a few days ago, I didn’t think this short trip would end like this. If I did, I would have prepared mentally for it.
When we reach a fork between the parking lot and the crosswalk that is going to lead me to Sophia, I turn to look at Christian instead of just saying goodbye.
“Thanks for coming. I know you didn’t bail me out or anything, but the fact that you came and didn’t leave me to rot in there, means a lot.”
Christian claps me on the shoulder, a smirk forming on his face too like he knows I’m in fucking pain but doesn’t give two shits.
“Just because I find you annoying sometimes, Jacobi, doesn’t mean that I don’t see you as another annoying little brother that I didn’t ask for,” He throws me a wink but then, he changes his facial expression from a joking one to a more serious one. “We’re family, Blake. Whether we play for the same team or not, we’re family. We’ve connected and we are going to be there for each other. And if that includes bailing each other out from jail, thenwe will do it. I always thought that we were going to bail out Logan and not you, but hey, we can’t be picky.”
“We’re family.” I say, because I might have thought of him the same way, but I didn’t think he too.
“We’re family. But if I ever walk into my house and I find you on my couch bare assed, fucking some girl, I’m kicking you out of said family. I couldn’t do it to my actual brother, but I will do it to you.”
What the actual fuck?
Eliana lets out a laugh as she takes in my face.
“We might have walked in on his brother once over the summer. Apparently the beach house is popular among the Rodriguez men and we might have seen things that we didn’t want to see,” Eliana explains, all the while her boyfriend makes a face.
“I’d rather not know any details,” I say, shaking my head at her.
“And I don’t want to speak them,” Christian says, clapping me on the shoulder again. It’s like he wants me to hit him with my stick the next time we hit the ice. That is if I’m still a Knight after all of this.
