Page 31 of Floored

Declan crossed his arms over his chest and pinned me with his patented Team Captain stare. "You made one of the physios cry."

"My knee is fine. He didn't need to go poking and prodding at it without being asked."

"And the new assistant?"

I was clenching my teeth so hard they had to be close to cracking. "I didn't mean to hit him in the head with the ball, obviously."

Declan sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "McAllister, you have about ten seconds to tell me what your problem is so you can stop taking it out on the rest of us. We've got enough to deal with right now without you making it worse."

I sank against the wall and stared at the glossy blue and white paint opposite me. I'd spent the best years of my career walking this hallway, staring at those colors and a logo that defined me. No matter what else was happening in my life, I knew who I was the moment I entered this arena.

And today, I didn't recognize any of it. Hardly recognized myself.

He groaned. "This is going to take longer than ten seconds, isn't it?"

"Probably," I admitted with a sideways glance. "You sure you want to hear this? We're not exactly best mates."

"We're not." His massive shoulders shrugged lightly. Declan was big for a goalie and took up so much bloody space, but he still managed to be quick enough. "But we've got a young team this year, and they look up to you. You're the one with your name in the lights, the one who gets to stand in the corner, arms spread wide, listening to the screaming fans when you score. They want to be you, but they'd also take your spot away from you in a heartbeat if you fuck it up for yourself."

The look I gave him was dry, but after five years of playing with him, I knew Dec's style of encouragement pretty well.

"My point is, if you've got something bleeding into your performance, you better figure it out. Because the second you take it onto the pitch, you've got a problem. And you are too valuable to this team for that to happen. I never thought it was something I'd need to worry about prior to today."

"It was one bad practice after a pretty ... life-altering evening."

"Tell me."

I cut him a look. "Can you pretend to have manners for two seconds?"

His steady gaze was what I got in answer, rather than a please tacked onto his gruffly spoken command.

Someone on the coaching staff passed us with a murmured greeting, and after he passed, I gestured to an empty pressroom so we could have some privacy. Declan preceded me in, sprawling out in a black desk chair.

"Oh, bleeding hell, he's shutting doors and everything," Declan murmured. "That bad?"

Bracing my back against the door, I stared blankly at the opposite wall for a minute. What I saw there was Lia's face, drained of all color, when I responded to her bombshell with ... well ... not very much tact.

"A few weeks ago," I started slowly, "I was in London to meet with my agent and stopped at my brother's pub. Met a girl." Closing my eyes, I tried to imagine again how easy it had been between us that night. How easy it had been those first few moments she was at my place. "American, studying at Oxford for Michaelmas. Had no idea who I was."

"You sure?"

I nodded. It was a fair question, and one I'd asked myself more than once since Lia stormed out of my house the night before. "It was one night. She left her number, and we messaged a few times but couldn't find time to meet up again until last night."

Declan's chest expanded on a deep inhale. He knew something was coming. Something was always hanging in the balance when guys in our positions slept around indiscriminately. We'd seen various types of fallout for years. Men cheating on wives, or girlfriends with groupies or prostitutes, the women going to the paps with their sordid tales.

"She came over last night for dinner, and we made no plans beyond that. Everything was fine—better than fine—at first. Then she told me she was pregnant."

That brought his chin up slightly, his eyes carefully assessing. "And what did you say?"

"I …" My throat worked on a hard swallow. "I asked her why she was telling me."

Declan pursed his mouth.

I held up a hand. "I know, not my best moment, but clearly, I wasn't expecting her to say that. We used protection. I'm not stupid."

"It might not have beeen particularly well-delivered, but it's a fair question in our position. People lie about all sorts of things for money."

What a diplomatic answer. Which was why I winced when I told him what I told him next.

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