Page 78 of The Hellion and the Captain
She didn’t turn around as she stared at the river, the wind pushing a few tendrils of hair across her face, the rest captured in the cap atop her head.
“I had my meeting today.”
“I know,” Rhys said, sitting beside her a fair distance away, although his hand rested on the bank just beside her hips. “How did it go?”
“Terribly,” she sighed, resting her chin on her knees. “They practically laughed me out of the room. They treated the idea of ladies playing football like one big joke.”
She heard a growl and looked up to find that Rhys was staring out over the water. His jaw was clenched in anger, as opposed to her own current emotion of despair.
“Then they’re all idiots.”
“They are,” she agreed. “I appreciate that you feel the same.”
“What will you do now?”
“What else is there to do?” she said with a shrug. “It’s done. We’re not going anywhere with it. Thinking I should take any opportunity to play football was a mistake. I was foolish, Rhys. I should never have entertained the idea of playing football with men. Who do I think I am? Not only am I not good enough, but all I have done is bring risk to all of you. I’ve been discovered, and I’m sure Reeves is waiting to make his move at the championship match today, and you will lose it all.”
Rhys lifted his gaze from the water to stare at her.
“Emmaline, you must listen to me and understand that there is truth in everything I say.”
She eyed him warily.
“First, I added you to our club without knowing who you truly were. You were the best of those who tried to play withus, as Emmett Williams, even before all the extra training we did. And if you think you do not deserve to be on this team, then you are taking my judgment and training into question, you hear me?”
She swallowed hard. “I do. I’m sorry, Rhys, I didn’t mean?—”
“And further, just because a bunch of old men, set in their ways, don’t think your idea is good, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It just means you haven’t found the right backer yet. You are not a woman who gives up on her dreams. Why stop when you’ve only just begun?”
“It’s just all too much.”
“Too much for one person, perhaps,” he said. “But you are not alone, Emmaline. You have me, and you have Lily, and all your other friends and the women on your football club. Trust me in this. As for the game, we need you. We need to start with you, and we will stand beside you no matter what happens. I know these men we play with. If they knew the truth, they would support you however they could.”
She sniffed and wiped away a tear that threatened. She wouldn’t allow him to see her cry.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
He lifted his hand as though he was going to reach out toward her but stopped before touching her.
“I’ve never met a woman like you.”
“Not the first time I’ve heard that,” she said, biting her lip. “Usually followed by, ‘it’s been fun, but you’re just too much for me.’”
“Is that what you believe I am going to say?” he said, capturing her attention as she swung her gaze toward him.
“Something of the sort.”
“You truly think that I’m going to give up on you, that I’ve had my fun, that once I see this through, I’ll be gone?”
“Perhaps,” she said warily.
“Well, you’re wrong,” he said resolutely. “When I told you I love you, I meant it, and I am not going anywhere.”
“You told me yourself that you have always become bored with women after a time, that you didn’t believe you would ever find anyone you would be interested in staying with for any length of time.”
“Exactly,” he said, and she could only stare at him until he continued.
“Everyone else bored me after a time. You, Emmaline, are anything but boring. You keep me on my toes. I never know what to expect from you – what you will say, what you will do. I love that about you. You say others find you too much? Well, I find you just the right amount.”
