Page 33 of Play For Me

“Yeah, because she knows them,” he says. “That’s the other thing about Ceece—she’s the most loyal person you’ll ever meet. Once she has your back, she has it forever.”

I blow out a breath. “Well, I don’t think I qualify in that department.”

He doesn’t argue. “That’s why I figured you needed some advice.”

I blink at him, surprised. “Wow. I mean, that would be great. I’ll take all the help I can get.”

Ash nods. “CeCe isn’t great about asking for help from others. Never has been. She needs to be really comfortable with you before she’ll let you help.”

“And how do I get her comfortable?”

“You need to find some common ground. Right now, she sees you as the person who could get in the way of her playing. And in her mind, that’s the absolute worst thing that could happen.”

Common ground,I think. I’m not sure what that looks like when it comes to Cecelia Ransome, but I figure soccer might be a good place to start.

“I don’t want to get in her way,” I tell her cousin. “I want to make sure she gets to keep playing at a top level without getting hurt.”

He nods. “That’s good—you both want the same thing. She just needs to see that.”

I nod, thinking about my options. “Any tips for getting her to trust me?”

He tilts his head, thinking. “Maybe try to take some of the pressure off. Talk to her outside of the training room.”And away from her coaches,I think, remembering how adverse she was to wearing tape on her injured knee just on the chance they might see and start to question her ability to contribute.

“Maybe I should try to get her to play some one-on-one with me,” I muse, mostly to myself, but Ash brightens immediately.

“That’s perfect. She’s always happiest when she’s playing soccer.” He shoots me a warning look. “But donotlet her win. She hates that shit.”

I find myself grinning because yeah, I can totally see that about her. “I would never.”

He gives an encouraging nod. “Good. I think if she can see that you have her back, she’ll chill out about the training sessions and stop giving you such a hard time.”

I watch him out of the corner of my eye, thinking about what he said about Cecelia and loyalty. I would put money on the fact that all of the Ransome cousins are similar in that way. Which makes me wonder why Ash doesn’t seem to be betting against me when it comes to Cecelia.

“Why are you trying to help me out?”

He shoves his hands into his pockets, looking a little uncomfortable. “I heard about what happened at the party.”

My insides freeze up. Is he feeling sorry for me because I was clearly such a basket case that night? Does he realize there’s something wrong with me or?—

“Violet is my twin sister.” His jaw tightens. “And I fucking hate that that punk put his hands on her when I wasn’t there to do anything about it.”

Oh. So maybe this doesn’t have anything to do with my freakout after all.

“Yeah. I mean, that guy was a total prick.”

Ash snorts, the sound angry, then looks at me. “I really appreciate that you stepped in.”

“It’s really no big deal, man,” I say quickly. “It’s not like I was gonna just stand there and let him manhandle a woman right in front of me.”

“A lot of people would,” he points out. “I’m just glad you were the guy sitting on that couch that night.”

I shift, feeling uncomfortable. In all honesty, the aftermath of that event made me pretty much forget all about what had happened with Violet.

“I’m pretty sure one of her cousins would have handled it if I hadn’t been,” I tell him.

He laughs. “It probably would have been CeCe, who would have then ended up in jail. So, yeah, definitely glad it was you.”

“She still managed to knee him in the balls,” I say, a smile coming to my lips as I remember the furious look on her face. That had been right before the whole punch thing, and I hadn’t thought about it since.