Page 100 of Dangerous Play

“Not really,” she replied, not taking her eyes off the game, while her boyfriend did glance in my direction. “I’m American. Just because I was born in Barcelona, lived there for eighteen years, and now I live there again...”

“You’re totally Spanish,” Gabriel muttered with a grin. “She’s Spanish, and she’s low-key rooting them on.”

“Not low-key at all,” Natalie laughed. “Gosh, Perez is so good.”

“That’s the guy who plays for FC Barcelona,” Maddox informed me, pointing at number eleven.

“Got it. I feel like Natalie knows everyone.”

“I do,” she grinned. “On both teams. It’s really stressful. I mean... the US has no chance anymore. Unless your superstar boyfriend wants to score four more goals. Which would be impressive, but highly unlikely. I’d give him 54% chances at a goal if he gets past their defense.”

I almost let my jaw drop from her assessment as I watched the red and blue players run on the field. Clearly, I needed to polish my soccer knowledge.

Exchanging a look with Natalie’s boyfriend, I leaned against Nova. “I really hope he manages to score.”

“He will.” Nova squeezed my hand. “How are you feeling about the whole Ander issue?”

Maddox and Dex both glanced at me as I took a deep breath, painfully aware of Max’s parents looking at me too. Daisy transferred to Hillview for the rest of her college career and told the school board at Westpoint everything Ander did to her and me. She had more courage than me in speaking up and making her voice heard. And I was proud of her. The therapy she was going to was paying off. As for Ander, his soccer scholarship was revoked, and he was removed from the team after I had to give a statement to the school too.

“He got what he deserved.” I shrugged. “I kind of feel bad, but Max said I only feel bad because I’m a decent human being.”

“Which is code for you shouldn’t give a shit,” Maddox muttered.

“It’s not like he ever cared,” Derek agreed. “If it was the opposite, he would have bragged about kicking you out.”

I nodded, but part of me still felt guilty over him losing soccer. I knew it meant a lot to him, but after what he did to Derek, he was living on borrowed time.

“It feels good knowing I won’t have to see him again next year,” I admitted with a smile.

“You can always transfer.” Nova hugged me. “I would love that.”

“Doesn’t make a difference for you,” I reminded her, as we were in different majors.

She just lifted a shoulder when Derek leaned over. “What about Kaia? Did you girls make up?”

I grimaced. “Kaia called me briefly, apologizing and telling me she broke things off with Tristan, but us being friends again is something we both need to work on, and I promised herthat come next school year, we will do our best to leave all the negativity of the previous year behind. But I’m not going to blindly trust her.”

Derek nodded, a pensive expression on his face. “Seems fair.”

I offered him a soft smile, and we both watched the field, catching the way Max’s eyes narrowed at the ball and how his footwork caught it.

It was easier to follow soccer when Max had the ball, and I was looking at the exact same thing. Just the ball rolling in front of Max and his Nike shoes as they ran across the field.

“Holy shit.” Dex took a deep breath and almost pushed me over as he leaned against the railing.

“How the hell did he do that?” Natalie followed, both of them staring.

Glancing around the field, I noticed Max was surrounded by all red players, breaking through their defense.

“He can’t hesitate,” Maddox said, slamming his fist on the rail in front of us.

Nova and I both jumped up, and we watched with bated breath as Max pivoted with the ball, breaking away from the Spanish players.

“He needs to score,” Derek said, pointing at the opening only people with soccer knowledge saw. All I saw was a sea of players and an impossible positioning.

Max must have come to the same conclusion, as he did some fancy trick with the ball, pretending to shoot it away, but in the last moment, he caught it with the top of his foot and let the ball fly in the opposite direction.

The entire stadium sucked in a deep breath, waiting for the pass between the goalie’s extended arms and into the net.

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