Page 167 of Falling Offsides

What we have… what we’ve found is everything I never imagined I could have. That I was worthy of having or capable of finding.

This is…love.

The kind I never allowed myself to believe in outside of fiction. That I’ve been too afraid to stumble into.

Until Auguste.

Because love—real, terrifying, soul-deep love—doesn’t guarantee a happy ending.

And mine is already bleeding out of me, drop by drop, every time I look at him.

Every time I think about leaving.

Even more when I think about staying.

Because either way this love is going to wreck me.

THIRTY-TWO

COURTNEY

It’swhen my eyes start to cross even when I zoom into the details to clean up the photos from the last week of training camp that I know it’s time to give up the ghost of crossing off the last item on my to-do list. The late nights I’m spending in Auguste’s bed are finally getting to me, and top that off with the constant countdown to falling back into it when I’m not tangled in his sheets… I’m lagging.

“I think it’s time for me to call it a day,” I tell Delilah, pausing the audiobook I have playing out loud on my phone while we FaceTime on my iPad—me working, her reading.

The office is empty, it’s just me and the hum of the mini fridge in the corner.

“Babe, you look sexed out and fucked up,” she chuckles while I start packing up my laptop from the hot desk. “You might want to sleep in your bed for a couple nights.”

“I have ten days left here and?—”

“You could look for another internship in LA. My dad is bound to know someone that needs an intern… or something…”

“Your dad has done enough recommending me to The Crescents, and besides it’s the best internship available. One hundred percent pay, a crapload of perks, and it’s a nationally recognized team in the major leagues. I’m not going to shut the door for myself.”

“Good, because if you so much as debated it, I would have to fly back just to slap sense into you,” she says.

“Dee, you literally brought it up.”

“It was a test.” Sure. Of course it was. “Anyway, I’m going to loveyou and leave you. I booked myself a private wine tour with the sommelier from the hotel restaurant and I’m running fashionably late already.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? This is great… it’s going to be fun…”

“Ugh, I don’t know. He’s not even local. His parents own the hotel and a bunch of vineyards across Europe, so like, he steps in as head sommelier when he’s in town…”

“Considering you don’t know about your date, you know a lot about him.” I waggle my brows at my phone to be met with a glare. “What? You had all these plans to explore and have fun.”

“Yeah, with an Adonis—a Greek sex god—not an Emirati billionaire.” I’m not sure what to say because this is so like Delilah to stumble into a wannabe sextuation with a filthy rich, super hot guy she instantly writes off because wealth and good looks are a red flag to her. Too good to be true given all the assholes that have used her and dumped her. “Like I said, I don’t know. I’m going to literally fill up my cup like you told me to, and I’m hoping he’s as interesting outside his hotel as he’s been during dinner.”

“Your mom is obsessed with him, isn’t she?”

“Totally. It’s the most fucking interest she’s shown in anything since my uncle died,” she groans. “And like, Kamran’s totally fucking hot. The embodiment of tall, dark, and handsome with those come hither, man-slut eyes. Hazel and pretty as sin.”

“So you’re going to fuck him. Right?”

“Fine,” Delilah chuffs. “Twist my arm. Sure, I’ll do it… for you.”

“Girl, you are not doing it for me. I’m totally sexed out and fucked up, remember?” I throw my backpack over one shoulder, giving the desk one last look over to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything. “I’m happy with what I have.”

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