Page 46 of Caught Up In You (Indigo Royal Resort)
She rolled her eyes again, but he could tell that his words had more of an effect on her than she wanted to admit.
“And to think you were worried about me behaving,” she teased. “So seriously, what’s the plan?”
“I was thinking that we could each captain a team and play with them, if you’re up for it.” He gave her a challenging look, moving his eyebrows up and down. “I mean, if you think you can keep up.”
“Excuse you? Challenge accepted,” she said, raising her chin indignantly. “Who gets Jo-bro?”
“You. I want to play against him, see how he handles a few things.”
“Let’s do this!” She turned to walk toward the side of the pitch her brother was standing on, swaying her hips exaggeratedly, trying to look confident.
“Lee,” Cullen called out. She turned around with all the sass he had come to expect from her. “Winner picks dinner.”
“You’re on!” she hollered, pointing her finger in his direction.
With a quick blow of his whistle, the scrimmage started. The kids were elated to have him out on the pitch playing with them and had even warmed up to Leona fairly quickly. Josef was right, though—she wasn’t very good. In fact, she was downright terrible. Every time one of the kids would go to pass her the ball, she would nearly trip over it trying to accept the pass. The one time she managed to receive the pass, a round of cheering broke out, not only from her team, but from Cullen’s team and everyone on the sidelines. When she went to turn and kick the ball, however, she totally missed it, completely whiffing by it with her foot. The effort behind her kick kept her body in motion, landing her on her ass with a thud. What had been cheers just a moment ago were replaced with gasps of concern and then some outright laughter, as she popped back up on her feet and brushed off her pretty little backside.
Cullen couldn’t help but laugh once he knew she wasn’t hurt. She must have heard his laughter from down the pitch because she turned and glared at him.
“You okay over there?” he called out, trying to control his laughter.
“Fine!” she answered back, still giving him the stink eye.
He knew she would make him pay for his laughter later, but in this moment he was getting way too much enjoyment out of seeing her like this. Sliding his glance over to her brother, he found him just standing there shaking his head in embarrassment. The sight made him laugh out loud again, earning another glare from Leona, who must have thought his reaction was still directed at her. That was more than fine, though. He knew exactly how he would make it up to her with his tongue tonight.
A little while later, Cullen finally decided to put Josef’s skills to the test. He watched the scene play out as if he were watching a movie. A defender on Josef’s team did a fantastic job of clearing the ball from the box and sending the long ball up to Josef, who received it against his chest, letting it bounce lightly to the ground to take control of it with his feet and then sprint off toward the other end of the field. Trying to read the kid’s movements, Cullen started running toward him, fast enough to hopefully catch him off guard, but still not quite at full speed. Waiting for just the right moment for the steal, Cullen lunged to his left, only to have Josef send the ball through his legs, skirting around him like he was simply stepping around a pothole. Still sprinting, Josef continued his way to the goal. Cullen turned around in time to see him taking the shot, only to find the left post rather than the back of the net.
Damn, that kid is good, Cullen thought. We just have to work on his finishing…
“Nice work, Josef!” Cullen called out to the kid, who was now sulking his way back to midfield.
“Did you just get nutmegged by my brother?” Leona asked, running up to stand beside him.
Cullen chose to ignore the mocking in her tone. “He did exactly what he should have there. That was part of what I wanted to see—his reactions to such moves—and he did everything right. I’m telling you, your brother is a hell of a player.”
“Still, you were schooled by a thi
rteen-year-old!”
“On purpose, Menina,” he reminded her.
“Whatever you need to tell yourself, Coach,” she said, jogging away to go give her brother a high five.
After lunch, Cullen had the kids scrimmage some more, this time without him and Leona leading the charge. Thanks to a lucky shot from Josef while the goalie for the opposing team was caught wrong-footed, his team ending up winning by one. When he felt that they were all mostly worn out, he lined them all up to work on some penalty kicks, and to give the couple of kids who were there as goalies some serious practice. At one point, Leona had lined up five or six kids at a time to take rapid-fire shots on goal, keeping the goalies on their toes. Everyone, goalies included, seemed to love this drill and Cullen wished he had thought of it himself last week.
Once everyone was good and tired, Cullen sat down and took selfies and signed all the memorabilia that the kids had brought, just as he had the week before. He’d always dreaded the meet and greets that the team put together, or any of the other miscellaneous public appearances that Oliver had set up. Not because he didn’t enjoy interacting with fans, but they always made for long, exhausting days. One could only sign their name so many times in a matter of hours. However, hanging out with these kids and hearing them talk about items they had, or tell a story about them seeing him play, was actually invigorating. He had enjoyed getting to know these kids, imparting some of his knowledge of the game into them, and working on basic skills. Maybe it was time he called Oliver back and had a serious talk about this coaching thing.
When he’d finished signing autographs and all the kids had been picked up, he turned to Josef, looking him up and down. It was amazing to him just how attached he had become to the little guy in just two weeks. Not that he would admit that to anyone but himself, but it was true. He had started to care very much for the kid and was seriously invested in what happened next with him as a player. Cullen thought of his buddy and former teammate, Gunnar Gracin, who was in charge of an academy team in Ireland. After he spoke to Oliver about his own future, maybe a call to Gracin would be in order about the next steps for Josef.
With the gear all gathered up, he wandered over to where Leona and Josef were hanging out in front of a goal, waiting on Anna to arrive to pick up Josef. They were laughing about something and based on the way their faces suddenly turned guilty-looking when he walked up, he assumed it was how Josef had gotten the better of him on the field.
“We need to work on your finishing, sir. That should have been a goal this morning,” Cullen said, trying to sound serious and encouraging all at the same time.
“I’ll make sure to practice extra hard, Coach, promise!”
“Let’s work on it some now, while we wait for your mom.” Cullen kicked the ball over to him.
Josef took the ball and dribbled it around Cullen and Leona. The smile on the kid’s face couldn’t have been any bigger had he just scored in the World Cup. Skipping slightly to the side, Cullen kicked out his leg, stealing the ball from Josef and running it closer to Leona. Just when he thought he had Josef, the kid appeared out of nowhere and stole it back.
