Settling the Score (The Summer Games #1) - R.S. Grey Page 0,113
you up and then head straight for the airport.”
She wasn’t listening to me.
“I can’t go. I have to stay here.”
“Andie, you can’t stay in Rio. This thing with Freddie, if it’s real, you two will find each other again. Right now, you need to focus on yourself. You have that doctor’s appointment tomorrow and then we have to meet up with the rest of our team in a few days for interviews. On Friday we’re flying to the White House for a special dinner with the president.”
My heart was splitting in two, but she kept on talking. “Life goes on. You have to be at these interviews. The world needs to be reminded that you’re a soccer star with your own hopes and dreams, not just another one of Freddie’s groupies.”
I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the bathroom wall. I didn’t want her to be right. I wanted to stay in Rio.
“Now, where are you?”
I rattled off the name of the hotel and she promised they’d pick me up in five minutes. I had just enough time to slip out of the bathroom and pull on my dirty clothes. I hadn’t showered since the game, but the ocean had washed away the sweat. My skin was sticky and warm and when I sniffed my arm, it smelled like Freddie. I’d sit on a ten-hour flight back to the United States with his scent wrapped around me.
Kinsley called when they were outside the hotel and I scrambled to gather up my things inside the dark hotel room. Freddie was still asleep, laying on his stomach with his body splayed out over the bed. I made sure his phone had two alarms set so he wouldn’t oversleep, and then I leaned down to kiss his cheek.
A part of me wanted him to wake up and pull him down onto me. I wanted him to hold me down so I couldn’t leave. The plane could take off without me and I’d stay in Rio forever with Freddie.
He didn’t wake though, even after I whispered his name in the dark.
Kinsley called me again and my phone buzzed in my hand. Freddie stirred and rolled over. I froze, but he didn’t wake up. I walked to the door and resisted the urge to look back at him. I had a thousand images to remember him by; one more would only only make it harder to walk away.
To their credit, Kinsley and Becca didn’t berate me when I finally made it into the van. They directed the driver to the airport and I stared out the window, mesmerized by the rolling waves. If I closed my eyes, I could still feel them lapping against me. Kinsley pressed her hand to my shoulder and squeezed. I shook my head and brushed her off. It was too early for condolences. I wasn’t ready to accept that I was actually in a van, on the way to the airport, leaving Rio without Freddie.
We arrived outside the empty airport and the driver popped the trunk to grab our bags.
“Thanks for packing my stuff K—”
“Andie!”
The sound of my name shouted from a few yards away nearly sent me into cardiac arrest. It didn’t matter that the British accent was light and feminine, or that I knew Freddie was still in dreamland. I heard my name called outside of an airport and I assumed it was Freddie running after me until I turned and saw Georgie nearly falling out of a cab to get to me in time. Her brown hair whipped in the wind and her flip-flops clapped against the concrete.
“Wait!” she yelled, though I wasn’t going anywhere.
“We don’t have a ton of time, Andie,” Kinsley reminded me. I nodded and turned back to Georgie just as she’d made it to me.
“Give me a second.” She leaned over and clutched her knees, calming her breath. “I know you wouldn’t know it, given my enviable physique,” she said. “But I’m quite out of shape.”
I laughed and shook my head. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard you were leaving early, and I needed to tell you this in person. I know Caroline’s faking the pregnancy. I KNOW IT. I just have to prove it.”
Her determination made my heart break even more.
“It’s okay, Georgie,” I said, pulling her up to stand so I could wrap her in a hug. “Caroline has won the battle. I’m going home.”
“The battle, yes, but not the war. You can’t give up.”