Rumor Has It I'm Dating the Football Captain

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: The Girl in His Hoodie

The morning air felt like a frozen blade. Audrey sat on the edge of the master bed, her knees tucked against her chest. She had barely slept. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw that text message from Logan. I know where you are.

She looked at her phone. Nothing. Not a sound. She felt like she was waiting for a bomb to go off.

Downstairs, the cabin was already loud. She could hear the guys yelling about breakfast. She changed into her oversized green sweater and thick leggings. She really didn’t want to go down there, but if she stayed in the room, Logan might think she was hiding.

She walked into the kitchen and froze.

Zoey was standing by the stove, flipping pancakes. She was wearing a pair of Mason’s sweatpants and one of his team hoodies. She looked like she’d just walked out of a shampoo commercial.

”Coffee’s over there,” Zoey said without looking up. ”Mason still drinks it black with one sugar, right? I remembered he hated pineapple on pizza, so I thought I’d make blueberry pancakes. He used to like those.”

Audrey tightened her grip on her mug. Why does she know all that?

She stared at Zoey. Were they close?

The thought made something uncomfortable twist in her stomach. Why did she even care? Mason Calloway could date whoever he wanted. It wasn’t her business.

...Then why couldn’t she stop thinking about it?

Mason walked into the kitchen, his hair still damp. He stopped dead when he saw Zoey in his hoodie.

”Take it off,” Mason said. His voice was flat.

Zoey shrugged, tossing the spatula onto the counter. ”It’s freezing out there, Mason. Don’t be so dramatic.”

”Get your own,” he said, walking straight over to her. He didn’t touch her, but he stood close enough that she had to step back. ”I told you, you’re not staying here. Stop acting like you live here.”

Zoey rolled her eyes, but she pulled the hoodie off over her head. She handed it to him, her fingers lingering on the fabric for a second too long. Mason snatched it back and tossed it onto the couch in the other room.

”Let’s go, guys!” Leo yelled, kicking the back door open. ”Beach football! Five minutes!”

Audrey started to back toward the stairs. ”I have flashcards. I’m going to stay inside and—”

”Nope!” Leo lunged forward, grabbing Audrey’s hand. He was incredibly strong, and before she could even plant her feet, she was being dragged toward the door.

”Leo, stop! I’m wearing leggings! I have no coordination!”

”Captain’s girlfriend has to join!” Leo shouted. ”It’s the rules!”

Five minutes later, Audrey was standing on the sand. The lake breeze was whipping her hair into her face. She was completely out of her element. The guys were running around, fast and aggressive.

”Here, Audrey!” Mason tossed the ball toward her.

Audrey froze. She panicked. She saw the ball coming, didn’t think, and just swung her leg. She kicked with all her might.

The ball didn’t go toward the other team’s goal. It went the opposite way, sailing straight toward their own team’s net and rolling neatly across the line.

The entire beach went silent for a second.

Then, Mason started laughing. He didn’t just chuckle; he doubled over, clutching his stomach, his shoulders shaking with genuine, helpless laughter.

Audrey felt her face turn a deep, humiliated shade of red. She glared at him. ”It was an accident!”

Mason jogged over, wiping tears from his eyes. He stopped right in front of her, leaning down to look at her face. ”You’re supposed to kick their goal, Audrey. Not ours.”

”I know that!” she snapped, crossing her arms.

”Clearly,” Mason teased, his voice still vibrating with laughter. ”I’ve seen toddlers with better aim.”

”I’m done,” she said, turning to walk away. ”I’m going to go fail my major in peace.”

”Wait, wait,” Mason said, his voice softening. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back. He was still smiling, but he looked at her with that intense, observant gaze. ”You’re getting all worked up. It’s just a game.”

”I don’t like being bad at things,” she muttered.

”You’re not bad at everything,” he said, his voice dropping. ”You’re actually pretty good at being a nuisance.”

She looked up at him, ready to snap back, but the way he was looking at her made her heart stutter. For a second, the beach, the guys, and the embarrassment disappeared.

”Captain!” Jackson yelled from the other side of the field. ”Stop flirting and get back in the game!”

Audrey pulled away instantly, her heart hammering against her ribs. She walked back toward the cabin, trying to keep her head down.

As the sun started to dip lower, the team began gathering the gear. Audrey was sitting on the porch steps, watching the water.

The wood under her was still warm from the afternoon sun, but the air had turned cold fast once the light started dying. Audrey pulled her sleeves down over her hands and watched the lake turn from blue to gray to almost black at the edges.

She kept replaying the beach game in her head. Not the part where she scored on her own team, though that was bad enough. The part right after, when Mason looked at her like she was the only person on the sand.

She told herself it didn’t mean anything. He probably looked at every girl like that. It was probably just a thing his face did.

The porch door creaked. Mason walked out holding two mugs, steam curling off the top of both. He held one out to her without asking if she wanted it.

”It’s not coffee,” he said. ”Leo drank all the coffee. This is hot chocolate from a packet that expired in March.”

”That’s comforting.”

”I checked. It’s fine. Probably.” He sat down next to her on the step, close enough that his shoulder brushed hers, and stretched his legs out toward the yard. ”You looked upset earlier. More than the game should have made you.”

Audrey wrapped both hands around the mug. ”I don’t like being laughed at.”

”I wasn’t laughing at you. I was laughing because you looked so personally betrayed by your own leg.”

”That’s the same thing.”

”It’s really not.” He nudged her knee with his. ”For what it’s worth, Jackson missed an open net last week from four feet away. Nobody remembers that because I made fun of you first.”

She almost smiled. She caught it before it fully happened and looked back out at the water instead.

”Can I ask you something?” she said.

”You’re going to anyway.”

”Why did Zoey know exactly how you take your coffee? And what pizza you hate? That’s not the kind of thing you remember about someone unless you actually paid attention.”

Mason went quiet for a second. He turned the mug slowly in his hands.

”We used to be close,” he said finally. ”A long time ago. It’s not what you think.”

”I don’t think anything,” Audrey said quickly.

”You’re thinking something. Your eyebrows do a whole performance.”

”My eyebrows are neutral.”

”Your eyebrows have never been neutral in your life.”

She bumped her shoulder into his, just to have something to do with her hands that wasn’t gripping the mug too hard. He didn’t move away. If anything he leaned into it, just slightly, like it was nothing.

”It’s a long story,” Mason said. ”I’ll tell you sometime. Not tonight.”

”Why not tonight?”

”Because tonight I’d rather hear about how a sports journalism major managed to score on the wrong goal.”

”I told you it was an accident.”

”Sure it was.”

They sat there a while longer, not talking, the cold coming up off the lake and the last of the light going purple over the water. It wasn’t uncomfortable. It was the kind of quiet Audrey usually only got when she was completely alone, except this time she wasn’t alone and it still felt like relief.

Eventually Mason stood and stretched, his knees cracking. ”I should go find Coach before he sends a search party. Don’t let the hot chocolate go cold on my account.”

”I make no promises.”

He gave her a small, lingering look before heading back inside, the porch door swinging shut behind him.

A minute later the back door banged open on the other side of the cabin. Leo and Jackson were carrying the coolers back toward the cabin, still soaked from the last swim of the day.

”Man, that was a good game,” Leo said, wiping sand off his legs. ”Zoey hasn’t been around the team since...”

Jackson nudged him hard in the ribs. ”Dude.”

Leo looked up and saw Audrey sitting on the steps, watching them. His face turned pale.

”...Oops,” Leo whispered.

Audrey felt a cold, sinking feeling in her chest. She didn’t want to know. She really, really didn’t want to know. But her brain was already racing, putting the pieces together.

She stood up, forcing a small, tight smile onto her face.

”Since what?” she asked.