Page 46 of Well Aware

By the time we sat on the plane, we were all exhausted.

And I had a shadow.

Magnolia hadn’t strayed far from me because Iris hadn’t given me a single inch.

She hadn’t been in my arms, but she’d been as close as she could get without touching me.

“Your sister doesn’t seem to take kindly to you bringing kids,” he murmured, glancing at said sister.

“No,” I agreed. “She doesn’t. That was why half the team hated her. She wasn’t very kid-friendly, and let’s be honest. Women have kids. Even professional soccer players.”

“Your dad doesn’t look much better,” he mused.

I looked over at my dad, who was up in the press box with my sister, who would never be caught dead watching the team from normal seats.

“He likely found out that I sold my shares.”

“He doesn’t look good, though. Seriously.”

“Nope,” I agreed.

He didn’t, either.

He looked like he was as white as a ghost.

“He probably thought that the team would stay in the family forever,” I murmured. “But the thing is, the rest of us—Mom, Lysander, and me—we didn’t have the same experience. Mom had to raise four children alone because Dad was gone a lot with the Condors. Then he goes and buys another team for Sonja, and she finally saw the writing on the wall.”

“If you ever want me to sell it back…” Court started, but I interrupted with a loud grunt.

“Absolutely not. I don’t want anything to do with this team after this season. I enjoy the players. I enjoy the part where I get to sit here and watch. But I won’t miss the headache of running the team.” I heard banging and looked up to see my sister pounding on the glass of the suite, her glare on me. “And I definitely won’t miss her.”

Court followed my gaze and said, “You think she just found out?”

“Probably,” I admitted.

Tugging on my pant leg had me looking down at Iris.

“She’s back in,” Iris signed.

I looked up to the field and saw that, sure enough, Magnolia was back in.

She’d had to come out due to a bloody nose.

Nettie toed the ball sideways after she’d received a throw-in, then switched the field to the left defender across the entire length of the pitch.

The ball came back to the midfield then back to the middle where Magnolia was.

She looked up, spotted Nettie free of any defenders, and launched the ball off her feet.

“She reads it so fast,” Court murmured. “I know why she’s quitting, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still a shame.”

The ball landed at Nettie’s sprinting feet and the crowd started to roar.

Nettie passed it to the left wing, but the winger lost it, kicking it back down the field to Magnolia’s feet once again.

This time, though, Magnolia was wide open to dribble.

She took the ball up the field, not something that the defenders usually did, and kept dribbling since she was left uncontested.