Page 27 of Offside

“I invite lots of people. Not everyone comes.” He handed me his drink. “Just made it, straight from the bartender, I watched the whole thing.” I hadn’t asked, but I accepted it because the afternoon called for it. “What do you think?”

I was scanning the yard when I found Ryan at the far end of the pool with some of the younger guys. He was laughing and watching him relax and let go with the boys made me happy. Ryan definitely had a tendency to be Mr. Serious and seeing him this way pleased me. He must have felt me looking because he glanced over, and I didn’t quite manage to look away in time, distracted by his incredible, shirtless, wet body. He held my gaze for a half-second and gave me the smallest nod, the kind that said I see you without saying anything at all. How could he tell through my sunglasses?

I looked back at the grill.

“Interesting,” Cole said, without looking up from the burgers.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Your tone is saying something.”

He grinned at the grill. “Okay. What do you really think of all this?” He gestured broadly.

I took in the flamingos, the DJ, the taco truck visible around the side of the house, Sutter on his flotation device, the string lights beginning to matter as the sun dropped behind the roofline. “Honestly? I think you might be a genius.”

Cole pointed at Theo. “She thinks I’m a genius.”

“She’s being polite,” Theo said, but he was almost smiling, which for Theo was a standing ovation.

“I’m not,” I said. “I mean it. These guys have been grinding for weeks. Look at them.” Sutter had drifted to the far end of the pool on his flamingo, eyes closed, completely at peace. Danny Hart was in the shallow end teaching Kasperi something that required him to draw in the air to make his point. Even Eli, at the far wall, had a drink in his hand and wasn’t actively looking for a reason to leave. “This is exactly what they needed.”

I turned to Cole. “You knew that.”

The grin dropped. Gone, no warning, and underneath it was someone considerably quieter and more serious than the version he showed the room. “Yeah,” he said. He gazed out at the backyard. “I’ve been on teams where everyone goes home after practice and you never know each other. This one’s different. I wanted to do something about it while it was still new.” He shrugged and the grin came back, easy as breathing. “Also the flamingos were ordered from Florida.”

I laughed and watched him for a moment. “Cole Westbrook,” I said, “you are going to be one of my favorite people.”

“Obviously.” He put an arm around me while he flipped another burger.

Theo picked up his drink and walked away without a word which was the most Theo thing he could’ve done.

Cole waited until he was gone. “You and Lindqvist seem like you’ve known each other longer than just this season.”

I kept my eyes on the grill while my heart beat against my chest. “He’s Griffin’s best friend.”

“Sure, but I saw you two at The Rusty Nail. You weren’t sitting together like people who just met.”

My stomach dropped. Not in a bad way necessarily, but it was uncomfortable. Nine years ago, a pond in Minnesota, the tailgate of a truck, a moment I’d spent a long time not thinking about. “We met once. It was like nine years ago though. A lifetime ago. It wasn’t anything.”

“Funny how some connections just—” He glanced at me sideways over his sunglasses. “Nine years?”

“It wasn’t a connection. It was one weekend I had gone to visit Griffin his senior year in college, before he got drafted. We all hung out. That’s all.”

“Right.” He nodded slowly. “Time is a flat circle or whatever.”

“That means nothing.”

“It means something.” He glanced at the drink in my hand. “That’s mine, you know.”

“You gave it to me.”

“I did.” He shook his head with great theatrical sadness. “Guess I need to go get another one.” He turned me gently by the shoulders toward the yard. “Go say hello. See if he needs sunscreen or something. He’s very pale. Wouldn’t want him to get burned by the Arizona sun.”

I turned back. “Cole⁠—”

He winked.