Page 38 of Fair Catch
I let my hands fall with a clap against my thighs, giving her an exhausted look of annoyance. Then, I dunked my hand right into that soapy bucket and grabbed her ankle.
“Hey!”
She tried to wriggle free, but I held tight.
“That water is lukewarm and not going to do anything to help. Stop being stubborn and just… fucking relax.”
Her eyes narrowed even more, but with a glance at the pathetic water, she made a face and eased up, letting me guide her ankle into my lap.
“They’re wet,” she warned me, as if I couldn’t already tell by the way her foot dampened my shorts. “And probably dirty.”
“You act like I don’t smash up against wet, dirty men every day of my life.”
She almost crooked a smile at that, but in the next breath, her entire face twisted up in pain, body curling in as something between a yelp and a groan escaped her lips. I had barely even started massaging her, which told me how sore she was.
“Easy,” I told her, then I hopped up long enough to grab a few pillows from her bed. I propped them up behind her, waited until she relaxed against them and took her other foot out of the soapy water, and then pulled her ankle back into my lap. “Try to relax.”
I started slow, squeezing her foot in my hands and rubbing wide circles on her heel. She hissed, staring at where my hands worked like she still wasn’t sure about me touching her. When I ran my thumbs hard and slow up the arch of her foot, she moaned, her head falling against the pillows as her back arched, fists clenching at her sides.
I froze at the sound, at the sight, a very non-PG-13 image striking me without warning.
Riley seemed to sense it, too, her eyelids fluttering open as her hazel eyes made contact with mine.
I tore my gaze away and focused on her foot, letting out a slow breath as I made the same motion, a little softer this time.
“You were in your head,” I said, desperate to talk about anything so I could stop zeroing in on the little noises she was making as I massaged her. “I saw it even before the game started.”
Riley sighed. “I know. I felt it.”
“What’s going on?”
Another deep sigh, followed by a groan as I massaged the ball of her foot, thumbs working up the middle. “I don’t know. Maybe just pressure since we haven’t lost a game?” She frowned. “At least, we hadn’t.”
“You had the yips.”
She cocked a brow.
“I mean, not technically. But you know what I mean, it’s like… a mental block.”
Riley nodded, her brows tugging together as she stared at where I worked on her foot. “I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t shake it. I…” She swallowed. “I’ve never felt like that before.”
Her eyes watered, but she sniffed quickly, blinking several times to clear any sign of moisture or emotion.
“It’s different from high school, isn’t it?”
“Very.”
I considered my next words carefully. “You know… if you didn’t want to do this anymore… Gavin would—”
“I want to play.”
I knew what she’d say before I even baited her to say it, but I couldn’t help but smile a little, my eyes finding her determined gaze.
As if she’d been caught in a trap, she cleared her throat, sitting back a little as she amended. “I made a promise.”
“And you love it.”
She bit the inside of her cheek, silent.
“I don’t know how to bounce back from this,” she confessed a few minutes later, her voice soft and cracking. “I know it was just one game, but… I feel like it sank its teeth into me. And the way everyone looked at me in the locker room…”
“Fuck them. They all had things they could have done better tonight, and they know it.”
“But it was my kick that lost the game, Zeke,” she said, her eyes flicking between mine. “You and I both know it, and so does everyone else.”
For a while, I just worked on her foot, up her ankle, even taking time to stretch and crack her toes before I moved to the next foot. She groaned with even more earnest, and I realized it was her kicking foot, the top of it a little bruised from the bad contacts tonight.
“Maybe we could help each other.”
She quirked her head to the side. “No offense, but I’m pretty sure you don’t know the first thing when it comes to kicking.”
“Hey! I helped train your brother when we were younger, thank you very much,” I defended. “And helped you get ready for tryouts in high school, in case you forgot.” I shook my head. “But that’s not what I mean.”
Riley was quiet, waiting.
“I know we’ve kind of been at odds this season…” I made a face. “Or for years, if we’re being honest. But what if instead of working against each other… what if we work together?”
