He was so close to the goal and wanted to take a shot, but there wasn’t a clear opening. He saw Cardosa was open and passed it to him. Cardosa took the shot, and the ball went over the keeper’s shoulder into the back of the net.
“Go-oal!”
Celebratory music played as the lights dimmed. Spotlights went over the crowd and then settled onto the huddle of Storm players in the middle of the field. They wrapped their arms over each other’s shoulders forming a large circle and started jumping in unison singing, “Olé, olé, olé, olé!” the entire time.
They had to be broken apart so that game play could continue. Silas realized after the fact that the guy to his left had been Grant—and he hadn’t made some terrible remark either. Coach quickly pulled Silas and Cardosa out before play started up again and replaced them with Barros and Vinny.
Silas entered his team’s box and took a quick swig from his water bottle before he leaned his arms on the short wall between them and the field. He watched as his teammates passed the ball back and forth in an effort to get it upfield.
“Hey,” Miriam said.
Silas pulled his eyes from the game happening only a couple of feet away from him and turned to face Miriam, who had made her way to the side of the box next to the bench. Now she was only a couple feet away. It was an easy decision to step away from the field and walk toward the back of the box. Miriam met him on the other side.
“That was a good play.”
“Thanks.” He smiled. “Cardosa did a great job of getting it past their keeper.”
“And you knew you needed to pass it to someone else.” She paused and bit her bottom lip. “I could tell you wanted that goal.”
Silas’ heart swelled that Miriam knew him so well.
“There’ll be others.”
She rested her hands on the barrier between the home bench and the box seats. “I know.”
Silas’ eyes went to her hands. He’d made the mistake of moving too fast already. The voice inside his head was telling him to stop. He ignored it and put his hand next to hers anyway, barely brushing his fingers against hers as he did so. “I’m really glad you came tonight.”
Miriam closed her eyes. “I am too.”
Silas moved his hand closer and rubbed his thumb over the top of her hand. “Thank you for coming.”
“You’re welcome.” She opened her eyes and jerked her head toward the other players. “You should probably go stand with the rest of the team.”
No, I should stay here with you.
She smiled like she could hear his thoughts. “Have a good rest of the game.” Then she turned and walked to the other side of her box to stand with Harris and Allie. Allie immediately started speaking to her, and while Silas couldn’t hear the words being said, it was obvious that Allie was telling her what she thought about Miriam talking to Silas.
Meanwhile, Harris’ eyes went from Silas to Miriam and back again. His brows were furrowed, and his lips pursed. If there’d been any question before, there wasn’t anymore. Harris had a thing for Miriam, and Silas was pretty sure he’d just lost a fan with that little convo.
It was totally worth it though.
Silas returned to his spot in the front of the box and leaned against the board once more. Maryland took a shot that Finn easily blocked, and the ball moved up and down the field as both teams fought to get—and keep—possession.
The game continued with both teams scoring two more goals before the half.
When the team retreated to the locker room, Coach let them know how unhappy he was that the game was so close. He paced in front of the players, calling them each out by name.
“Bastian, your footwork was sloppy. Grant, you need to take more shots on goal. Finn, you got lucky on their shot that hit the bars.” He paused and looked at Silas. “I seriously can’t believe I’m having to say this to you, but you know better than to flirt with Miriam during the game. What if I needed you out on the field?”
Silas lifted his hands. “You’d literally just called me off. It was fine.”
Murmuring went through the locker room, and Silas realized his mistake. He hadn’t denied flirting with Miriam, he’d justified it. There was sure to be a reckoning with Finn when the game was over.
Coach shook his head and put his hands on his hips. “I don’t care if you think it’s okay or not. Don’t let it happen again.”
He answered with a “yes, sir” under his breath and listened as Coach launched into the game plan for the second half. He drew different plans on the whiteboard and reminded everyone of their marks.
“I don’t want to see Maryland get another goal. Do you understand?”
A round of yeses echoed off the walls of the locker room, and with a few more pats on backs and cheering, the team went back out to the arena.
Miriam gave Silas a small smile as he walked by her seat to the home bench. While he waited for the halftime show—some local dance company—to finish their routine, Silas couldn’t tear his eyes away from Miriam.
If he wasn’t allowed to talk to her for the next thirty minutes of gameplay, which would end up taking close to an hour to finish, he wanted to drink her in as much as possible. She wasn’t looking at him, her eyes had gone to the dancers on the field, and she and Allie were involved in a heated conversation.
Harris lingered on the other side of Miriam, clearly listening, but not contributing to said conversation.
“Silas.”
His head snapped toward the sound of his
