6
Geneviève
“You’ve got five minutes left, that’s it,” Jillian mumbled from beside me. She’d insisted on staying over, even though I’d told her a million times that I would be okay.
My eyes were nearly swollen shut from all the crying I’d done. Luckily, Jillian had every magic serum known to womankind for such maladies.
“I’m not looking at anything to do with today’s incident.”
Before I could click the screen on my phone, Jillian had flopped over and grabbed it out of my hands. “Hey, give it back,” I said, reaching over to get my phone back.
“G, why are you torturing yourself? How many times have you watched Sienna’s stupid press conference?”
“Not enough,” I sniffed, taking another swipe at it, but she was too fast.
She leveled her gaze at me and said, “Look, he’s not exactly my favorite person at the moment, either. But when we get back, you guys need to sit down and talk this out.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. He lied to me.” I could feel the burning sensation again behind my eyes, but I’d cried for hours. Until I was literally sick. And I didn’t want to start up again.
“Yeah, he messed up. Royally. But anyone with eyes can see through that Sienna chick. Beau’s a good guy. I don’t believe he knew about those kids at all. And the way she talked about her and Beau’s relationship was ridiculous. We all know he only has eyes for you. Not to mention she was constantly conflicting whatever popped out of her mouth. I don’t trust her one bit.”
Sienna had said a lot of things during the press conference. And yes, during it she also had alluded to her and Beau ‘getting back together for the sake of the kids’. Hearing those words come out of her mouth had made me more than queasy.
When one of the reporters had asked her what Beau did when he’d seen the kids at her house, she replied, “We both cried. It was such a special moment for all of us.”
Thinking about Beau having such an emotional moment without me there—well, it broke what was left of my heart.
Jillian was right, though. Sienna also made it sound like Beau already knew about the boys. When pressed on the matter by a reporter, her lawyer had stepped in front of her and insisted there’d be no more questions. Then he’d whisked her away amid the flashing cameras and shouting press.
At any rate, the boys were hers.
And Beau’s.
They obviously had a history. One that Beau had never told me about. He hadn’t so much as mentioned her name.
“You said I had five minutes left. My time’s not up. Give it here, Jillybean,” I said, opening my hand and wiggling my fingers.
“I’m timing you, Martin,” she said before handing my phone back.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Then I continued torturing myself as I watched the press conference again.
And again.
Half an hour later, I handed Jillian my phone back, and cried myself to sleep.
“Straight on the level,Gigi. Are you good enough to play?” Our coach, Eliza, asked me after she’d pulled me aside. “The shit that’s gone down in the last twenty-four hours, nobody would blame you if your head wasn’t on the game.”
Eliza was a tough coach. One of the toughest I’d ever had.
But I loved that. She challenged us and pushed us to do and be our best.
“I’m good,” I assured her as I kept my eyes on hers.
“If your mind is preoccupied, and you’re not one hundred percent in the game, injuries can happen. This team is tough. They aren’t going to go easy on you because of recent events.” Her gaze was unrelenting. It felt like she could see right through me.
She was more than right. Not only would this team not care that my entire world had fallen apart—they’d use that fact to their advantage.