The expression on her face prepared me for what was going to come out of her mouth. “Sal, I didn’t want to say anything but some of the girls are talking about you.”
I gave her a smile over my shoulder that I wasn’t totally feeling. “I know.”
That didn’t make her look any less concerned.
“It’s fine, Jen. I promise. I haven’t done anything I shouldn’t have, and I’m not going to run around defending myself.”
“I know.” Her dark almond-shaped eyes were long. “I don’t like hearing them say things about you.”
My neck got all hot. “Me neither. It doesn’t matter though.” I looked my friend in the face, understanding that she really did believe me when I said I hadn’t done anything with the German. At least someone knew better. “You know I didn’t and I know, and I’m okay with that.”
Jenny pressed her lips together and nodded stiffly. “If there’s anything I can do—“
“Don’t worry about it, really. There’s nothing to get mixed up in. They’ll get over it.” Or they wouldn’t. Blah. But I wasn’t about to let people who would so easily talk about me behind my back get me down.
And wasn’t that kind of shitty? I would have done just about anything for the girls on the team, even if it was someone I wasn’t close to. Yet here they were, gossiping like I hadn’t worked with most of them, trying to help them improve, or trying to motivate everyone when we needed it. On top of that, someone within that group was the person that had thrown me under the bus with Cordero weeks ago.
Whatever. Whatever. I’d been through this before, but this time I wasn’t going to let guilt get the best of me. I had nothing to feel guilty about.
My friend made a face before slipping an arm over my shoulder as we walked. “I know who’s gotten a nose job,” she offered. “I also know who has a yeast infection. What you do with that is up to you.”
I started laughing and hugged her back. “That’s all right, but thanks anyway.”
Jenny eventually dropped her arm as we got out to the parking lot. Her face still held worried lines at her mouth but she changed the subject. “Are you still going home for the break?”
“Yeah, it’s my dad’s birthday and I haven’t been back in a while. You?”
She undid her high ponytail and let her long, black hair fall down her shoulders. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning. We have a couple of exhibition games coming up in a few days. I won’t be back for almost two weeks.” The ‘we’ she was referring to was the national team.
I was a supporter of Jenny and Harlow, and I always rooted for them. But for once in a long time, I felt a twinge of something like grief.
“Fun,” I told her, only half-meaning it. I mustered up some enthusiasm for the person that was always supportive of me. “I’ll make sure Harlow tells Amber I said hi,” I said with an evil smile that made Jenny snort.
“You’re bad.”
I smacked her butt. “Only when I need to be.”
* * *
The familiar knock that I’d come to associate with Kulti started up at seven-fifteen the next morning. I’d already been awake for almost an hour and a half, finishing up my morning run and making it home to pack my bag before showering so that I could head out on my drive to San Antonio. The last thing I expected was for the German to show up on my doorstep, especially not at seven in the morning.
I grabbed a sweatshirt off the pile of clothes on my bed with every intention of putting it on when the knocking became even more persistent. Impatient ass. I carried it to the door with a sigh, not even bothering to check the peephole.
“Bratwurst?” I asked as I undid the deadbolt again.
“Ja.”
I swung the door wide and started to wave him in, only slowing down my movement when I noticed what he was wearing—a shirt, jeans and scuffed brown leather boots. It was the first time I’d seen him in something that wasn’t workout pants or shorts. Huh. A second later, I noticed something else.
There was a backpack was over his shoulder.
And he was staring at me.
I didn’t miss the tic in his jaw as he looked from the seven-year-old tank top I had on over my sports bra to the stretchy shorts that looked more like underwear than anything else.
I also didn’t miss the way his eyelid started twitching right before his gaze finally slipped upward and the twitching got worse.
“What?” I asked him when he hadn’t moved his body or his gaze.
Those murky green eyes flicked down to what I was wearing again. His voice was too steady and slow. “You open the door half naked all the time?”