Page 137 of Face Off With Fate

I pulled out my phone and found two missed texts.

Itze:

I’m watching the live feed on my phone.

Itze:

I’m outside when you need your getaway…

My fingers hovered over the keyboard.

Me:

coming

I hit send and started toward the exit.

Monroe’s time slot was next, and by the time he found out what I’d done…

I’d be gone.

All his troubles, solved.

I pushed through the door into the gray afternoon light and found Itzel’s car idling at the curb. I got in, not looking back at the building.

Because if I did…I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to keep going.

FORTY-SIX

MONROE

AND HE WAS ALWAYS THE TYPE OF MAN TO PROVE SHE DIDN’T NEED TO CARRY THEM ALONE.

I still hated press days.

The severity of that hate had subsided somewhat since working with Graciella. Who would’ve guessed that not grunting at people asking you questions would make them like you more?

But some dread still sat in my chest when I walked into one of these rooms.

This one was a little different. It wasn’t a sea of reporters. Just one, a camera crew, and two players by my side. Well, Tommy was there, too.

They were already in the room when I got there, but I scanned the back wall for one face in particular.

She’s not here.

A rock dropped in my stomach.

I’d called her twice in the last thirty minutes. Both calls went unanswered, along with the handful of texts. I checked my phone one more time before I sat, staring at the screen like if I looked long enough, her name would pop up.

Dana, the ESPN reporter I’d meet when I spoke to the women’s team, took her place across from us, tablet in her lap, shooting us a small smile. Well, shooting Thatcher and Jimenez one. She’d yet to look at me.

“Ready?” She didn’t wait for a response before telling her cameraman, “Go ahead.”

The little light went red.

She started easy. Season expectations coming off the Cup win, what it meant to have the roster intact heading into fall. I answered the way Graciella had taught me to answer—full sentences without growling.

Oh, and smiling. I’d almost forgotten that.