Page 137 of Try Line Hearts
Lucas leaned back in his chair and, after a moment’s hesitation, pulled his phone out.
“I should probably…” he said, mostly to himself.
Eli nodded. “Yeah.”
Lucas turned it on.
The screen lit up immediately — notifications stacking so fast they blurred together. Headlines. Missed calls. Messages. The familiar surge of adrenaline started to rise automatically, but he forced himself to breathe through it.
Ignore the noise.
One message sat at the top, calm and unmistakable.
Evelyn: Proud of you. Tell Eli that Paris would have LOVED that drama on their field.
Lucas frowned.
He read it again.
Then looked up slowly. “What… does that mean?”
Eli blinked. “What?”
Lucas slid the phone across the table. “That.”
Eli read the message.
His expression changed—not surprise exactly, but something like recognition catching up to him. He leaned back in his chair, exhaled through his nose, and scrubbed a hand over his face.
“Right,” he said quietly.
Lucas’s brow furrowed. “Eli.”
Eli glanced up at him. Held his gaze for a beat longer than necessary.
“That night in Paris,” he said. “Before the away match. When she was staying at the hotel.”
Lucas went still.
“I saw her with you and wanted to get some air,” Eli continued. “I was outside on the patio. She came out to smoke.”
Lucas nodded slowly. He remembered the night—remembered Eli disappearing early, remembered the ache he’d refused to examine.
“I was just going to walk away,” Eli said. “Didn’t want anything to do with her. Didn’t want to be near her.”
He paused, jaw tightening briefly at the memory.
“And she said—” Eli swallowed once. “She said,“I have no intention of taking him from you, you know.”
Lucas’s breath caught.
“That stopped me cold,” Eli said. “I didn’t even know what to say.”
He let out a short, incredulous laugh. “Turns out she knew. About us. All along.”
Lucas stared at him. “She… knew?”
“Yeah,” Eli said softly. “Said she saw it in body language. The way you watched me. The way I leaned toward you without thinking.”
