Page 82 of Set Play

Henri moves to sit in the chair beside the bed. For a moment, we just stare at one another, until he reaches out and brushes his fingers along the inside of my right wrist. “Espoir,” he whispers so only I can hear him. He turns his left wrist, showing his tattoo in the same exact place. Croire.

“There’s no point, Henri. I hoped that I could play soccer again. I wished and hoped and it got me nowhere. So, no. I don’t believe in that stuff anymore.”

Why can’t he understand? Why does he have to be so pushy?

I move to walk away from Henri, ready to go back to my room where I can just be alone. I’m halfway up the stairs when I hear his footsteps behind me because of course he couldn’t just leave me alone. I whirl around to face him, but the tears rimming his deep brown eyes stop any words I plan to throw at him.

“Crois en l'espoir, Élise. S'il te plaît. Si ce n'est pas pour toi, alors pour moi.1”

I blink back tears. We got the tattoos the day I turned eighteen: a reminder to never forget how bad things got and the words that likely saved me.

Crois en l'espoir. Believe in hope.

Henri’s wrist reads ‘believe’ while mine reads ‘hope.’

The memory is so vivid that it takes a second for me to realize that the tear-filled brown eyes staring at me are not the ones from all those years ago. “I’m so sorry, Lise. For everything. It guts me that you got hurt yesterday. I’ve been horrible toward you for months and now this. There truly aren’t enough words to describe my regret.”

Niamh stares at my brother like he’s had a personality transplant, but this is the Henri I’ve known for years. Not the one that’s been ignoring me for months and so hateful toward Mateo for years. That thought reminds me of why this all started.

Big Shot.

I ease my hand away, drawing in a shaky breath. “Okay. Thank you for your apology. I can’t say I forgive you yet, but I still appreciate it.”

He nods without arguing. “Now, can we get back to the fact that you two decided to end your rivalry?”

“Fair enough. After you kicked us out last night, I left. But a few kilometers down the road, I realized I had a few things to say to Reyes, so I turned around. I pulled in to find him on a bench out front, clearly colder than hell, looking at his phone.”

I look over at Mateo, who is apparently very fascinated with the floor right now, but Henri continues before I can ask him any questions.

“My anger dimmed when I saw him there because I couldn’t help but think of you up here and how, despite me living thirty kilometers away, he made it to you first. I tried to stay angry, but all I felt was gratitude. I’m glad you have someone who cares that much. Someone that would drop everything and fly hundreds of kilometers just to make sure you’re okay. So I offered him a ride to his hotel.”

“But I didn’t have a hotel,” Mateo chimes in, looking a bit sheepish. “I didn’t exactly think that far ahead. My only goal was to get here and make sure you were okay. But by the time Henri knew that, I was already in his truck. I honestly thought he would take me to the shadiest place possible, especially when he asked why I was here and about about our situation. But he shocked the fuck out of me and let me crash at his place instead.”

My eyes fly back to Henri, just in time to see him grimace. I have so many questions for my brother, but he picks up the story without missing a beat.

“Fast forward to this morning and we talked about our rivalry over breakfast and realized it never should have happened.”

Niamh’s head is like a pendulum as she looks back and forth between the guys. “What do you mean, ‘it shouldn’t have happened’?”

1. Crois en l’espoir, Élise. S’il te plaît. Si ce n'est pas pour toi, alors pour moi. = Believe in hope, Élise. Please. If not for yourself, then for me.

Chapter 47

Élise

“You’re both aware of the general story of our rivalry.”

Surprisingly, it’s Mateo’s voice that breaks the silence despite Niamh’s question being directed mostly at Henri.

We both nod.

“Right, well apparently Henri knew that there was a reporter nearby during our first interaction, but due to some personal shit he was going through, he kept that information to himself.”

I’m about to interject and say that personal shit doesn’t excuse the things he said that night. But as if he can read my mind, Mateo continues, “I’m not saying it excuses the things said, but it at least gives a bit of context to his overall mental state at that time.”

Henri clears his throat, signaling that he’s taking over. “After that interaction with Reyes, I realized that my anger controlled me more often than not. It wasn’t the first time my emotions had gotten the upper hand on me, and I wish I could say it was the last. So, I hired a PR team to help control the public side of things and started therapy. I guess I didn’t do a good job vetting my team, though. You see, until this morning, I didn’t know he reached out after that encounter. Other than our face-to-face interactions, I’ve only ever said anything about or heard anything from him during interviews. Oh, and when he called to ask for your number.”

“Wait,” I say, holding up my hand to stop him.