Silas continued to sign shirts, but as kids started kicking balls around the field, the fanbase started becoming filled with more and more adults. While Silas loved his adult fans, they weren’t able to hold his attention in the same way.
He kept comparing each female fan to Miriam. They always fell short, and then he’d find himself scanning the crowd one more time to see if she’d decided to come out. The guys were no better. A lot of them were ‘experts’ in the MASL and had all kinds of advice for Silas—or theories about why he left the Storm and came back.
As promised, McKensie was there. Silas signed the back of her shirt and stood next to her with a smile when she asked for a picture of the two of them together.
After that, the fans all became a blur. That was until two hands slapped the table in front of him. Silas looked up to see a disgruntled Allie staring down at him. The two had never gotten along, even during the best of times, and Silas had a feeling the tension between the two of them would be even worse with his return.
“Allie.”
“Don’t ‘Allie’ me.” She put her hands on her hips.
“Okay.” He drew out the word, not sure what he was supposed to be doing or saying as she continued to stare down at him.
“Do you realize I just spent my Saturday night at a soccer game?”
“Sounds like a great time.”
“Ugh. You and I both know I don’t like soccer. I’d rather go watch paint dry than watch a bunch of guys chase after a ball for two hours.”
He lifted his hand to argue that soccer wasn’t just chasing around a ball but thought better of it and lowered it. “So why did you come?”
“I came because some jerk decided he wanted to come back to everything he left behind like it’s no big deal, and someone had to be here to help Miriam through this.”
Much better Allie than Harris. Silas shuddered at the thought of another guy’s arms wrapped around Miriam—another set of lips on hers.
Allie smiled triumphantly, thinking she’d scared Silas. She had, just not the way she thought. Silas wasn’t intimidated by her tone or her death stare. He was genuinely terrified that he’d screwed things up with Miriam forever and that, no matter how hard he tried, he’d never get a chance of winning her heart again.
Not that he was throwing in the towel just yet.
When Silas came back to Florida, he had two goals: Lead the Storm to the championship game and make things right with Miriam. Nothing else mattered. Until those two things were accomplished, he planned to pour all his energy into them.
“No more meet and greets,” Allie said, pulling him from his thoughts. She crossed her arms over her chest.
As Miriam’s best friend, Allie knew the rules as well as anyone else with the Storm. Silas shook his head. “You know I can’t agree to that.”
A frown touched her lips. “Fine. No more than the required amount.”
“I’m not promising that either.”
Allie let out an impatient sigh. “See? This is why I never liked you. I’m not going to pretend to understand the inner workings of your mind. I don’t know why you want to torture Miriam the way you are, but whatever it is, it comes from something purely selfish. If you cared about her at all, you’d leave her alone.”
When she was finished with her tirade, Allie flipped her hair dramatically, and stormed off across the field.
Silas was dumbstruck. Was it selfish for him to want to make it up to Miriam? He didn’t think so. But maybe Allie had a point about his motives. He wanted things to go back to how they were, and that was never going to happen. He knew that. However, he didn’t stop to think about the consequences of manipulating the situation trying to create artificial feelings. If things turned that direction, no one was going to be happy in the end.
He faked a smile for the rest of the autograph session dwelling on what Allie had said hoping he still had a real, fighting chance.
Miriam
Miriam put away half a tub of ice cream when she got home from the Storm game on Saturday. She polished off the rest for breakfast. Her stress-induced eating was making her feel terrible, and she wasn’t lying when she told Allie she was going to gain a ton of weight if she didn’t limit the sweets. And since Miriam didn’t think she was going to stop stuffing her face with chocolate anytime soon, she did the next best thing—she went to the gym.
Big Results was a corporate sponsor, which meant that all the players and the office staff for the Storm got to work out for free. It was a nice perk that ensured she stayed in at least moderate shape.
She threw her hair up in a messy bun, put on an oversized tee, and some old running shorts that had paint on them before heading out the door of her apartment. Miriam didn’t even look at her reflection in the rearview mirror of her car before walking up to the gym, since she only came to get some hardcore cardio in.
Too bad Murphy’s Law was alive and well.
Miriam groaned when she pulled into a parking spot and saw Silas walking up to the gym. She wanted to turn and go back to the comfort of her home. For a moment, she seriously thought about it. But then she considered what that would mean for the long term. Was Miriam planning on cowering every time she bumped into Silas?
No way was she going to stop living her life because Silas made things uncomfortable. She straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath, and continued her walk to
