Page 2 of Unexpectedly Falling
It’s daunting—overwhelming—but I’ll do everything and anything to ensure my daughter comes home to me.
She’s safe with her guardian.
Her guardian.
They’d told me over and over that she’s safe.
But where? With whom?
Only everher guardian.
The nameless woman who’d seen far more firsts than I had. A woman who had somehow found me when she could have kept my daughter as her own.
A woman I owed my life to.
A woman who might just prove to be my guardian as well.
1
NESSA
“Nessa, please take a seat,” Stella Arsenault says in the way that means it’s not a request, and anyway, I know the drill. You don’t play for the toughest coach in the league without falling in like at least a little.
Caramel highlights in her professionally dyed blonde hair are accentuated by the aggressive overhead lighting. Her hair is pulled back in her standard ponytail, her brown eyes assessing as she watches me. She’s poised and sophisticated.
And yet still swears like a sailor on the sidelines and blames us for the deep V between her eyebrows, choosing to ignore that she’ll be turning fifty soon.
“Morning, Coach.” Lowering myself into the chair, I cross my feet at the ankles, my dress pants and blouse making me feel like someone else in this moment.
“How’s the baby?”
“She’s good,” I say, trying my best not to fidget. The last forty-eight hours had been the worst kind of chaos, and I was running on an energy drink and half a graham cracker.
“And the hearing for Remi?”
Swallowing, I dig my nails into the palms of my hands where they rest in my lap, making sure to keep my face carefully neutral.
“It’s been finalized and I’ll be traveling to Blackstone Falls to bring her to her father.”
“And what’s your plan after that?”
My heart rate picks up at the intonation of her words as I try to decipher what she’s not saying. “I’ll be returning to Nashville.”
Coach Arsenault stares at me before sighing and leaning back in her chair. “You’re taking a vacation.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mutter under my breath as my nails dig in harder to my flesh, the bite of pain the only thing keeping me grounded in this moment.
“It’s done. We’ve minimized it the best we can and your absence will help get rid of the rest.” I open my mouth to speak but she just holds up her hand. “I already spoke to her coach, and Cardova is dealing with her own consequences. It’s a contract year, Hart.”
She says that like she has to remind me. Being a professional soccer player is all I’ve ever wanted to do, and right now renewing my contract with the Tornadoes is even more imperative because of how close I’ll still be to Remi.
“She went after my cousin. And Remi. Coach, I?—”
“Nessa, I know. It’s why you’re getting a vacation and she’s not.”
Maria Cardova and I had been pitted against each other by the media since our rookie year. Instead of celebrating the chance to play professional soccer, we’d become a frenzied campaign to drum up attention. They compared our time on the field, stats, and personal lives without a second thought. And while I hated the fabricated rivalry, Cardova leaned into it.
Hard.
