Plus Principal Marshall is there.
Or rather Alaric.
Because he’s Poe’s boyfriend now.
And I’m so glad about that.
While all the boys play soccer in the backyard, all the girls along with Callie’s little girl Halo gather around on these cute little picnic blankets and talk. Also, steal glances at all the guys. And why wouldn’t they? These are some really, really sexy men.
Plus they’re all very athletic.
They run. They swerve. They dodge. They dribble and kick. They head the ball. They even flip and land on their feet with a laugh. Like that’s so normal. Like everyone should just flip in the air all the time and high five each other.
“Soccer players, huh,” Callie says, bumping my shoulder, staring at her husband, Reed, who’s just gotten the ball and is dribbling it with such finesse that it could only be magic.
“I know.”
Seriously though, soccer players with their sleek, streamlined bodieshaveto be the sexiest.
Soccer is art.
Or maybe soccer players are.
“And I didn’t even know that my man could play,” Poe sighs, staring at her boyfriend, who gets the ball from Reed and is now trying to pass it to a striker on their team probably.
I agree with Poe. Alaric is a history professor AKA total academic geek. So yeah, it was a surprise for us too. But apparently, there is nothing that he can’t do.
“Well, I already knew.” Wyn shrugs, watching her man, Conrad, who’s managed to steal the ball from Alaric and is now trying to make his own pass. “My man’s the coach and I totally suck at soccer.”
I high five her.
Conradisthe coach. He used to coach high school soccer — he even coached us at St. Mary’s for a little bit — but now he has a new job, coaching the pro soccer team for New York. Alongside his younger brother Stellan, the assistant coach, and Ledger and Shepard, both players on the team.
Usually they live in New York, Shep, Stellan and Ledger, but they’re here for the weekend.
Anyway, while we’re all perving over and praising soccer players, Tempest has other ideas.
She has Halo in her lap as she glares at one guy in particular, Ledger Thorne with his crazy hair and angry eyes. Who, before Reed got the ball, had scored a goal.
“I, for one, am super over soccer,” she says, her chin lifted.
Is it me or was that really loud? And did Ledger hear it?
He definitely did shoot a glance our way.
Callie glares at her. “Hey, my husband’s a soccer player. Who also happens to be your brother. We met at a soccer game, remember?”
“Whatever,” Pest grumbles. “But just for the record, I don’t like soccer players. I don’t like how they’re always so obsessed with their practice and routine and exercising and scoring and dribbling and running laps around the field. I think athletes, in general, are very superficial and hotheaded. There’s zero depth in them. Zero layers.” She holds her finger then. “Rockstars, on the other hand, I’ll take. All that angst and poetry. Yum.” Then, she kisses Halo’s cute curly head. “Right, Halo? You and me, we’re going to find ourselves an artist. Art’s where it’s at, really.”
Wyn high fives with Tempest at this.
But I don’t think that comment was for Wyn or any of us really.
It was definitely for Ledger. Whodefinitelyheard her and, in response to her comment, kicks the ball so hard that it almost takes down the goalpost when it hits the net.
And then there’s Jupiter.
My feisty, talkative best friend who hasn’t said a word in all this.