Page 46 of The Sky Between Us

Aiden deserved the truth.

But I wasn’t ready to lose him.

The mind battled the heart and there was no clear winner.

“Would you like to try the Waldorf salad, Aiden?” Hazel’s mother asked me, offering me some weirdly looking dish she called salad.

“It’s apple and celery,” Hazel whispered into my ear as she leaned in, pretending to take some from said salad. Her scent intoxicated me and I really wished we weren’t having dinner with her parents. Sporting a smile as I sat across her father aka my coach was uncomfortable. In every sense.

Biting into the inside of my mouth to stop myself from laughing or gagging, I shook my head. “No, thank you. Everything is delicious.”

My plate was packed with beef burgers, buns, ketchup and a mixed salad with good old things I could recognize, like tomato, cucumber, red and yellow peppers, lettuce and onions. Even though I picked out the onions as I planned on kissing Hazel. But glancing at her choice of salad, the celery one, I wasn’t sure it was a good idea.

Finding her leg under the table, I placed my hand on her knee and gave it a small squeeze. Since dinner started her expression was serious and half lost in her thoughts, only rarely chiming in to add a comment to the conversation. It wasn’t bad, as Coach and I could talk about soccer and Elena kept inserting her own questions, but overall, it didn’t seem like an interrogation at all. I thought Hazel was going to be pleased, but it didn’t look like she cared. My heart dropped, watching her concerned face building shapes with the small chicken pieces and salad on her plate.

Squeezing her knee, a bit longer, the tip of her mouth curved up and she threw me a playful glance.

That was my girl.

The sun hit from behind, warming up my back. I quickly changed my shirt before sitting down to eat dinner, just to make sure I wasn’t too smelly from chasing Sky around. The warmth of the sunlight tickled the base of my neck as my body didn’t need too much of a warming up. The girl next to me did that job perfectly.

“What are your plans for the future?” Elena threw in the question usually fathers asked during dinner. But coach knew better than me what the plan was, since he was in charge of it.

“Play soccer professionally?” I questioned myself too, making Hazel snort with laughter. “Yes, I’m going to play soccer, I just don’t know where yet.”

“LA Galaxy!” Sky exclaimed; his mouth full with half-chewed burger.

“That’s the plan, little man,” I winked at him.

“I’ll be there too, in the Academy! That’s gonna be super cool!” he jumped up from his chair, energy rolling off of him.

That really would be nice because it would mean no matter what happens I’ll still see Hazel in the future. It gave me reassurance.

“Los Angeles FC has contacted me too,” Coach added, in an even, conversational voice, as if we were discussing the weather and not my future. “And the Seattle Sounders. But I know, you’ve been hell bent on LA Galaxy despite the other clubs having better rankings.”

Did I want to spend my best pro years in a shitty club? No. But did it have to be the best club in the country? No. I wanted a solid team that got the best of me. Teammates who were equally driven and hungry, as me, to take the club to the next level. I had aspirations, but I knew my limitations too. I’d be up against kids younger than me from club Academies. D-1 soccer wasn't a joke, but it wasn’t a soccer academy either.

“I’m sure whichever team you choose they’ll be lucky to have you,” Hazel said, interrupting my racing thoughts and saving me from looking like a moron as I forgot to address what her father just told me.

Flashing her a grin, I placed a kiss on her forehead, not missing the way her body naturally leaned into me. “Thanks, baby.”

Despite my eyes being glued to her face, watching as she flushed, her skin turning pink and eyes fluttering closed, I was painfully aware of her parent’s watchful gaze. They studied us, like we were a scientific experiment wanting to explode.

Running my thumb across her jaw, I hooked my fingers under her chin and tilted her face up. “You okay?” I mouthed without even speaking the words.

Hazel nodded, her hands finding mine under the table and squeezed it. “Don’t worry.”

“Who wants dessert?” Elena stood from the table gathering empty plates, breaking our quiet conversation.

“That would be great,” I smiled, turning back to the others by the table. From the corner of my eyes, I watched Hazel quickly taking a few more bites of her chicken and salad, before kicking the chair out and helping her mother.

Elena smiled at me. “We have chocolate lava cake.”

“Sounds delicious,” I nodded politely despite not being a huge chocolate fan. Sorry, I just couldn’t understand excessive chocolates. White chocolate, on the other hand, was heaven.

“Hazel made cheesecake too,” Sky said, looking after his sister. “Is it okay now?” he glanced nervously at his parents. “Yesterday it was more like cheese soup…”

“You know I can hear you Sky!” Hazel shouted from the kitchen, making the little boy giggle, while her mother returned with a delicious looking lava cake and placed it in front of me.

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