She leaned in toward Miriam. “Who’s that?”
“You mean Grant?”
Grant. The name didn’t ring a bell. “Is Grant the guy with the giant number seven on his jersey passing the ball to Bastian?”
Miriam bumped her shoulder against Emmeline. “You’d know the answer to that if you’d been to any of the games or events this year.”
It was true that she hadn’t been to any games this season—or watched any online—but it wasn’t her fault. She’d been so busy rewriting lesson plans and getting extra certifications that she didn’t have a free moment. Besides, she hadn’t been completely out of the loop. She’d known about Silas and Miriam, hadn’t she? Though that was only because Finn was such a gossipy grandmother when the two of them got together.
Emmeline turned toward Miriam. “Does that mean yes?”
Miriam laughed. “Yes. That’s Grant Vaughn. He’s a rookie. Graduated from Mercer last year and signed on with the Storm just before the season started.”
If he just graduated college in the spring, that meant he was about a year younger than Emmeline. Her gaze wandered to where he stood waiting for gameplay to start again. He pushed his too-long blond hair off his forehead before planting his hands on his hips. His body was lean and toned. He was cute...very cute.
She closed her eyes.
Nope. She was not going to let her thoughts go down that road. Grant might be a legit hottie, but so were most of the guys out there. They spent hours training to become finely tuned athletic machines, and somehow lost all common decency in the process. Professional athletes were jerks.
Everyone but her brother, of course.
Emmeline opened her eyes just in time to watch the ref put the ball in front of Grant and blow his whistle. The rookie scanned the field looking for someone to pass the ball to. He found his target and kicked toward Cardosa. Cardosa took the shot...and missed.
The other team kicked it back toward Finn.
Emmeline held her breath as the ball got dangerously close to their goal, and Finn’s entire body tensed. He crouched over slightly, ready to dive in either direction to block any shots on him.
Thankfully, another player kicked the ball upfield.
Emmeline released her breath and kept her eyes trained on the game while she tried to catch up with Miriam. “So, how has this season been going?”
“Finn tells you about the drama, not their record?”
Emmeline snorted. “Well, I know their wins and losses. And I know that Finn has had a hard time with Vinny.”
Miriam laughed. “Everyone has a hard time with Vinny. They don’t call him ‘The Box’ because he’s a peacemaker.”
No, they called him that because he spent so much time in the penalty box, the place players went when they were too aggressive on the field. Em still remembered how hard it was to get used to the vastly different rules when Finn started playing arena soccer. Now, she knew them like the back of her hand and had no problem yelling at the refs when they made the wrong call.
“I guess not, but I know it’s hard on Finn when his team doesn’t gel right. Thankfully, he and Silas kissed and made up.”
Miriam turned her head toward Emmeline and lifted her brows. “Oh, I didn’t realize there was kissing involved. Should I be jealous?”
Emmeline shook her head. “Shut up. You know what I mean.”
“What if Finn’s a better kisser than me?”
Emmeline opened her mouth to make a sarcastic reply, when the ball hit the boards right next to her seat. She yelped and looked up just in time to see Grant and another player sprinting in their direction in a race to get to the ball first. Emmeline barely lifted her arms up before they both slammed against the board.
Grant recovered quickly and managed to kick the ball to Cardosa, who then passed it to Silas.
The rookie should have run off down the field ready for the ball to come back at any moment, but he hesitated and looked at Emmeline with an adorably crinkled brow. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
Her eyes narrowed. What was he doing talking to her? In the years she’d been coming to these games to watch her brother play, Emmeline had never known a player to stop and ask a fan if they were okay unless a stray ball hit a small child in the stands. Even then, they didn’t always stop.
Since she was most definitely not a small child and the ball hadn’t gone out of play, there was no reason for him to lose precious game minutes talking to her. And yet, she couldn’t find her voice to tell him to get back on the field before Finn or Coach noticed. The minute his blue eyes met hers, she’d lost her voice.
“She’s fine, Grant.” Miriam pushed his shoulder over the boards. “Get moving.”
Emmeline watched as he ran down the field toward the rest of the players, his mouth still turned down in confusion by her silence.
“What was that?” Miriam asked once he started playing again.
Emmeline blinked slowly. “What was what?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, so you can stop playing all innocent. You’ve got a crush on Grant.” Miriam’s lips curled into a sly grin.
“It’s hard to have a crush on someone when you only found out they existed ten minutes ago.”
Besides, Emmeline didn’t get crushes at all. She was constantly working at her school, where most of her coworkers were women. Even when she wasn’t, she didn’t have a desire to date anyone—not anymore. While she didn’t have an explanation for why she got all tongue-tied in front of Grant, she could absolutely, one-hundred percent say it was not because of a crush.
“No love at first sight?”
“Ew.” She scrunched up her nose. “What is this? A cheesy rom-com? No, I don’t love Grant Vaughn just because he
