Page 15 of False Start
“I’m good to go. Looking forward to my best season yet. You don’t have to worry about me.”
The silence down the line told me better than words that he didn’t for a minute buy what I was selling.
“I’ll send the details through.”
The call cut off just as Amber’s holler came from over the fence.
“Judging time!!”
I slid the still warm cookies onto a plate, marveling at how much better my life had been since I moved into this town house. Amber and Marina had become a second family to me. Zara had met Amber when Christian brought her around for my housewarming party and the two had been inseparable ever since. My greatest fear when I injured my shoulder wasn’t that I’d never play again.
It was that I’d lose my community. My chosen family.
I shouldn’t have worried, though. My loved ones hadn’t abandoned me like the rest of the world. If anything, they held on tighter. Marina had checked in daily in the first weeks, pretending she was helping with housework while asking pointed questions about my mental health like only a therapist would.
Amber decreed that my talents really laid in baking, and thus, the bake-offs had begun.
Christian had offered his spare room, but I couldn’t bear subjecting him and Zara to the mood I’d been in during those early days when my professional life was in shambles.
“Are you coming? Or are you chicken?” Amber called.
I stepped outside to a chorus of clucking noises.
“You two are trouble from A to Z,” I teased, pointing first at the fair head, then the dark one as they peeked over the fence. As usual, the joke was met with peals of delighted laughter.
“Is your mom there?” I asked, holding up my baked goods in offering.
“I’m here. What did they talk you into this time?” Marina replied.
“Cookies.”
“Of course.”
I dragged the nearest patio chair to the fence and climbed up, peering over to find two ten-year-olds vibrating with excitement, a Tupperware container grasped between them, as Marina reclined on a daybed nearby.
“One cookie each, girls.” She pinned me with a dark look, amusement dancing in her eyes. “If Zara goes home high on sugar, I’m sending Christian to you for answers.”
I winced dramatically, grinning at the conspiratorial giggles the girls let out. Christian was an amazing father. He’d raised Zara alone since her mother walked out eight years ago. But his obsession with clean eating was unparalleled.
“You’d sell me out? Just like that?”
Marina pushed out of her chair and stole a cookie for herself.
“In a heartbeat. Now, what’s this I hear about you having a new girlfriend and when do I get to meet her?”
Gia
My hand shookas I swiped on another coat of mascara.
Should I change my dress?
I’d opted for a forest green sheath dress to compliment my hair, but maybe I should have gone with blue to bring out my eyes. I had to look perfect so I didn’t embarrass Weston at this launch. Lydia had sent through the details with advice on what to wear and how to behave at the event, and I’d studied the instructions until the words no longer made sense. If I messed this up, I’d do it publicly. Weston would end our arrangement, andShifting Sandswould stay nothing more than a dream job that was forever out of reach.
Breathe.
I glanced at my phone where a red dot announced a notification awaited me.
What if he was cancelling?
