Scoring Wilder(73)

God, that was tempting. The feel of his arms around me blocked out most of my functioning brain cells, but I still had enough sense to shake my head. Liam was a force of nature in my life. If I let him, he'd breeze in and turn everything upside down until all that was left standing were my feelings for him. I had to put some healthy distance between us, just for a night.

I spun around in his arms and wrapped my hands around his neck. When I popped up onto my tiptoes, I was almost level with his face. "I should go home and call my parents… check my email, you know, wrap my head around what normal life is like again."

He chuckled, "This could be normal life."

I shivered at his insinuation. "Don't try and convince me. My desire to leave is already dwindling."

“Sounds like I should keep trying to convince you then." He dipped his head and kissed my neck. My eyes fluttered closed and I let out a small sigh.

Then I snapped back to reality. "Nope. No. No. Liam!" I pushed away from him and he held up his hands, trying to contain his laughter.

"You play dirty! Becca, let's go!"

She felt the exact same way I did, which is why we all but sprinted from the house, waving goodbye to the boys and not letting them get near us. We hopped into my car and I locked the doors behind us just for good measure. The second we were inside and safe from our hormones, we started cracking up.

"Those boys are dangerous," I accused as I started my car and backed up out of the driveway.

"Good thing you were there for moral support or I wouldn't have left. Penn probably would have had to kick me out three weeks from now when I’d barricaded myself in his room."

I laughed. "I just can't believe how fast everything is happening. Liam asked me to be his girlfriend last night."

Becca spun to face me in her seat. "What?! When?"

I bit my lip and tried to focus on the road ahead of me. "Well, sort of in the middle of the night, but then he confirmed it again this morning on the beach."

I could see her gaping from the corner of my eye. "What did you say?"

"Yes! Of course. Do you think I’m insane?"

"Yes, a little bit. But, that’s unrelated to this situation. Wow, he’s such a catch.” She nodded as if imagining him for a moment.

"What about you and Penn?" I asked.

Becca narrowed her eyes and stared out the front window. "I'm not sure yet. He just got out of that relationship and he's told me he wants to take things really slow. I don't think he wants to disrespect his ex by jumping into a new relationship so soon."

"I guess that makes sense. How long ago did they break up?"

"A little over a month."

"Hmm..." Honestly, I wasn't sure what the rule was on the appropriate amount of time between relationships. I guess it depends on how long they were together and the way they broke up.

"I think it's obvious that he has serious feelings about you, you guys were practically attached at the hip today. Just hang in there and I'll try to get info from Liam if you need it."

Becca smiled. "Yeah, I'm trying to just go with the flow, but I'm not very good at it. I think my body’s too stiff.”

…



Monday morning, Coach Davis sat everyone down and explained that Tara was no longer a member of the ULA team. We voted for the new captains right away, opting to bump Sofie up and then replace her spot with a junior that everyone loved. I expected more commotion about Tara's leaving, but as soon as Coach Davis said the announcement, it was almost as if you could hear an audible sigh pass through the group.

After practice I was heading into the locker room when Sofie caught up to me.

"Hey, could we talk for a second?" she asked. Her eyes were fleeting from me, to the ground, then back again, and she was fidgeting with her hands.

"Sure. Of course," I said, preparing myself for the worst. At certain moments during the past few weeks, Sofie was just as bad as Tara, but now that her leader was gone, it was as if Sofie almost seemed shy.

"I just wanted to apologize for everything. Tara and I were really out of line, and while we both should have probably been kicked off the squad, I realize now that I was given a second chance and I won't blow it. I should have never treated you like I did and there's really no excuse..."

I put my hand on her arm.

"No worries. Let's forget the past few weeks ever happened and we'll just move on. Sound good?"

Relief flashed across her face. "Thanks, Kinsley." To my surprise she reached forward and gave me a tight hug. It was awkward. So very awkward. I patted her back and then kind of squirmed out of her hold eventually.

Throughout the rest of the week I tried to stay in the moment. At soccer, I focused on soccer. Coach Davis pushed us hard and it felt good to keep my mind occupied on something other than Liam.

We had a scrimmage scheduled against another area college the following week, so we were gearing up for that. I was nervous just thinking about it, but Coach Davis assured me I would be starting in the game. Unfortunately, that only made me more nervous. It would technically be my first college game and I wanted to impress everyone that was expecting me to excel. No, I wanted to exceed everyone’s expectations of me. I wanted them to say, “I thought she’d be good, but that girl is on fire.” They’d have no choice but to compare me to Katniss.