That smile, and the sentiment, squashed much of Reese’s bad mood. She didn’t mind so much the booing and cursing her name that went on around the stadium or the shifting gazes thrown her way when she looked at her teammates. Miles Baker had her back. Wilkens did. That was something at least, right? Then Reese glanced at Ryder, doing a double-take when she realized the man watched her, glaring. He moved his attention from Reese to Baker, who got narrowed eyes and a curled lip he quickly moved from his face when Reese shook her head at him. He was still mad, that much she could make out, but Reese wasn’t sure if it was the leaked pics or the loud mouth DJs or missing the field goal that had the quarterback hacked off. A big part of her didn’t really care what sin in particular she’d committed that made him mad.
“Stay mad. Don’t. I couldn’t care less,” she muttered, attention back on the field and the interception Pérez landed.
“We talking to ourselves now?” Reese heard, exhaling when she looked over at Gia. The woman had taken off her shades, but her mouth was still stony.
“I’m always talking to myself.”
“It’s okay, you know,” she said, ignoring Reese’s comment. The kicker watched the woman as she shifted her attention to the crowd, eyes rolling. They’d already forgotten her missed field goal and were back to manic screaming and laughing over Pérez’s interception.
“What is?” she asked, nodding when Wilson jogged in front of her, giving her a light jab on the shoulder.
“That blocked kick. No one expects you to be…”
“Perfect?” she said, staring right at Gia. There was a lot she could remind the woman of. There were a lot of promises Gia had made to Reese when she got the call from the general manager encouraging her to try out for the Steamers.
“It’ll be hard, and you’ll have to be better than everyone else,” Gia had told her.
“Perfect?” she’d asked.
“Just be you, and I swear, we’ll make history.”
“I was mad about you lying to me,” Gia said, joining Reese as she watched the offense trying like hell to beat the clock and land another touchdown.
“Couldn’t tell from the cold shoulder happening.”
“It was shitty of you to lie to me.” She stood with her back to the field and her mouth away from the cameras zooming overhead. “I told you, we’re making history here. You can’t let anything get in the way of that.”
“I didn’t,” she told Gia, head in a tilt. “I kept everything to myself. Some asshole went digging, and you had me making out with Lennox Murry while paparazzi went camera happy. How is any of this my fault?”
“That was you subverting the cliché. They wanted to paint you as some she-man and you’re not.”
“And the past coming back to haunt me?”
Gia bit her top lip, gaze working around Reese’s face as she considered her question. Then the crowd erupted as Wilson scored, landing a final score on the board before the clock ran out and the game ended.
They lost by one lousy point.
A point that Reese could have managed if she’d only blocked out the bullshit.
When the woman didn’t answer, Reese shook her head, waving her general manager off. “I gotta go meet my folks for dinner. See you later.”
She didn’t respond when Gia called back to her. Reese deflected the laughs issued in her direction and the taunts that came her way from the fans as she headed toward the locker room. They wouldn’t relent, she knew that. She’d disappointed them, and no matter what positive things some of the fans had to say about her and Lennox, now they were disgusted that she’d lost them the game.
“Reese! Hey, Reese, over here!” She heard, the voice young, high-pitched, and female.
She hazarded a look, a little self-conscious, a lot unsure, and Reese wondered what she was opening herself up to by looking up at the crowd. But as she got closer to the field exit, a small congregation of young girls waved at her, smiles wide and welcoming.
Despite her foul mood, she jogged toward them, slipping off her helmet as she stopped at the bottom section of seats. “Hey,” she said, smiling when they jumped up and down.
“You were awesome,” one girl said, sporting a “Noble for President” t-shirt. Reese’s eyes widened then went huge as she noticed all of these girls, from eight all the way up to maybe seventeen, had a shirt with Reese’s name