“There is no fucking way that Megara could have made those saves! They think she’s so invincible but she’s not! She’s human, just like everyone else. Some shots just can’t be saved. If they think that the result would have been different if Megara was between the posts, then they’re stupid.” Rhetta’s anger trailed off until her words came in choked sobs.
Caroline rushed forwards and wrapped her arms around her sobbing fiancée. Tears stung in her eyes that what someone had said about her had had such an effect on Rhetta.
“Fuck them,” Caroline whispered fiercely against Rhetta’s hair. “I don’t care what they think. I don’t care what anyone thinks but you.”
“But I do, Caro,” Rhetta cried quietly. “I can’t stand to hear people talk about you like that. I just don’t understand why they do it. Some of them even know you, know us.”
Her tense body had gone pliant in Caroline’s arms, relaxing into the comfort that only her closest family – Caroline included – could give to her.
“People are going to say worse things than that, you know that right?” Caroline asked gently. She was angry that they had upset Rhetta, but what they had said would be nothing compared to what some people would and already did say.
“About us?” Rhetta’s question came as a tentative breath against Caroline’s neck and despite their conversation, Caroline couldn’t help but shiver.
“About us. About me. About you.” Caroline’s voice wavered on that last word. She had been dealing with the hateful things that people said about her for her entire life. It hurt her heart that because of her, Rhetta had started learning what that felt like too. But what she had been exposed to over the last few years would be nothing compared to what she would experience when they went public. Truth was, when it came down to it, the kind of people who would say hurtful things were exactly the kind of people who were sure that their relationship was nothing but platonic, if they even thought of it at all. The thought that Rhetta wasn’t straight had probably never entered their heads.
“I’m scared,” Rhetta admitted. Truthfully, she was terrified. Scared of so many things that she couldn’t even begin to list them. But not one of them, not even all of them together, would ever be enough to outweigh the sheer joy that being with Caroline brought her. None would ever come close to even the thought of being married to her. “I wish we could run away and get married today. I don’t want to wait any longer.”
Caroline smiled and leant down to kiss the top of Rhetta’s head. “Me too, beautiful. But my Princess deserves a fairy tale wedding and I want to give you one.”
Rhetta shivered. The balcony door was open by an inch and a cold breeze was drifting into the room.
Caroline saw the opportunity to spoil Rhetta a little and pulled back just enough to take off her jacket and drape it around Rhetta’s shoulders. “Better?”
Rhetta grinned when she realised what Caroline was doing. “Much. Thanks.”
* * *
Caroline had never been in love before, but she was pretty sure that this was it. It had only been 24 hours since she had looked up from her meal and found herself getting lost in deep brown eyes, but it was enough. She had known after a moment. Known that this was different. This was the kind of thing that people wrote songs about. The kind of thing that Caroline was too scared to call ‘love at first sight’, even though, in her heart, she knew that it was.
They had spent the whole night talking. Caroline would say something stupid and Rhetta would laugh as if it was the funniest thing that she had ever heard. When dinner was over, they sat together on the team bus, talking quietly with their heads bent together and smiles on their lips. That night, Caroline had lain awake thinking of beautiful brown eyes and most dazzling smile that she had ever seen.
Three rooms over, Rhetta dreamt of a single dimple and a roguish smile. She felt it the moment she laid eyes on Caroline. Her heart fluttered in her chest and every inch of her was alive with anticipation. When they parted, her heart hurt. She felt like it was shrinking, shrivelling away in the absence of the person who had made it beat so fast. She felt sick. Felt like all the happiness in her life had been taken away. But that all changed the moment that she walked into breakfast the next morning and saw Caroline’s bright smile. That was the moment that she knew that she was in love.
Training that day was hard. Rhetta was pushing herself to her limits to try and impress the coaches. It was her big chance. Her chance to go the World Cup. What they did over the next few months would well determine whether or not they would be in with a chance of raising that trophy. But as hard as she worked, she couldn’t get Caroline out of her head. Every time she closed her eyes she saw that dreamy smile and single, charming dimple.
For the next two days she tried to be subtle about the fact that she was hopelessly in love. Apparently she wasn’t subtle enough.
“You know she’s a player, right?” Fenton asked pointedly as they lay awake in the darkness of their third night of camp.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Fenton,” Rhetta lied, her heart pounding in her chest.
“Bullshit, Morsten. I’ve seen the way you look at her.”
Rhetta’s cheeks flamed with embarrassment. If Fenton had noticed, maybe others had too. “It’s really that obvious?”
“So you do like her!” There was a moment’s silence before Fenton asked, “Does this mean that you’re into women then? How come you never told me?”
It was the question that Rhetta dreaded. She knew that Fenton wouldn’t understand. More than that, she knew that Fenton would be hurt that Rhetta had never told her about it before. But there had never really been anything to tell. Only thoughts rattling around in her head. “It’s complicated.”
“How is it complicated?” Oriole sounded as confused as Rhetta had thought that she would.
“Because it just is, okay? Sometimes I like women, but I’ve never actually… you know, with a woman before. The thought kind of terrifies me.”
There was a long silence and Rhetta began to panic that she had just ruined her friendship with Fenton forever.
“You mean that the thought of having sex with a woman scares you, even though you sometimes ‘like’ them? What are you scared of?”
Rhetta could tell that Fenton was trying to understand and she felt bad for ever thinking that she wouldn’t. Even so, she was too embarrassed to admit that she had hadn’t meant sex. She had never even kissed a woman before. She had never even come close.
When Rhetta didn’t answer, Fenton asked, “So you really like Caro, huh?”
Rhetta knew that she was a goner when her whole body began to tingle at the mention of Caroline’s name. “I think I’m in love with her.”
She didn’t know what possessed her to say it. She had barely even admitted it to herself. But the moment she said it, she knew without a doubt that it was true.
“Fuck, Morsten. You sure you’re not a lesbian?”
Rhetta laughed and buried her head in her pillow.
“I’m totally fucked, aren’t i?” she mumbled into the pillow.
Fenton couldn’t resist. “If Caroline has anything to do with it, probably.”
Rhetta could have died of embarrassment then and there.
The next day, Rhetta decided that the best course of action was to avoid Caroline entirely. It wasn’t implausible that in a camp of 25 people, they would just by chance keep missing each other. Especially when Rhetta was giving chance a heavy push in the right direction. After succeeding for most of the day – well, except for the incident with the only remaining coffee cup at breakfast – Rhetta decided to escape from her stuffy hotel room and take a walk around the hotel to clear her head. Her day without Caroline hadn’t exactly gone to plan. What had started off as a way to get Caroline off of her mind had only resulted in making her obsess about her even more.
As luck would have it, Rhetta wasn’t the only one roaming the halls in the late hours of the evening.
&n
bsp; “Rhetta, hey. What’s a good girl like you doing out of your room after curfew,” Caroline teased smoothly when she and Rhetta quite literally bumped into each other in the stairwell.
Rhetta couldn’t help but smile. The way that Caroline said ‘good girl’ sounded like a genuine compliment, not the gibe that it would have been from one of the other girls.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Rhetta admitted shyly.
“That sucks. I was just heading out for a walk, if you wanna to join? It might help,” Caroline asked. She had her hands shoved into the pockets of her lowslung jeans and a snapback angled atop her head. Everything about her was casual and confident. Like she was 100% confident in her own skin and wasn’t afraid to show it. Rhetta wished that she could feel like that.
“It’s after curfew!” Rhetta laughed nervously, though she was already following Caroline towards lobby. “What if we get caught!”
“Megara wanted some ‘alone time’ in our room. I’m pretty sure she’s getting the freaky on with herself,” Caroline deadpanned, turning and giving Rhetta a look that said that that was definitely not a team bonding moment that Caroline wished to experience. “If anyone asks, I’m pretty sure that explanation will get us a full pardon. That is a moment that no one should be subjected to, roomie or not.”
Rhetta’s nose crinkled in a smile. “What about me? What’s my excuse.”
Caroline shrugged, a roguish smile tugging up the corner of her mouth. “You’re my chaperone. Coach would be thrilled that a crazy girl like me has such a good girl by my side to make sure that I don’t get into too much trouble.”
Rhetta had the vague inkling that Caroline was flirting with her and it made her nervous. “Where -where are we going?”
“I was thinking of heading down to the beach, if that’s cool with you?” Caroline suggested as they exited the lobby and walked down the long winding hotel driveway. “It’s kind of my-”
“Special place,” Rhetta put in, her belly fluttering. “You – err – you mentioned it at dinner. Dinner on our first night, I mean.”
It was Caroline’s turn to blush. There were people who she had known for years who she hadn’t told nearly as much about herself as she had to Rhetta in the three days since they had met. She didn’t know why, but spilling her heart to Rhetta felt easy. So natural.
Rhetta noticed her blush and took Caroline’s arm in response. She didn’t believe that this girl who bared her heart and blushed was the player that Fenton had warned her about. “Thanks for being willing to share it with me. I’m honoured.”
Caroline blushed again, but this time there was a smile on her face. No, Rhetta didn’t think that Caroline was trying to play her at all. And if she was, she was a master at it. Good enough that it would be worth it for the ride.
They walked along the moonlit beach, their hands brushing as they meandered in and out of the rising tide. Their conversation flowed as easy as if they had known each other their whole lives. Caroline told Rhetta about how close she had come to falling in with the wrong crowd when she was a kid and Rhetta found herself telling Caroline about the night she almost died. Not the story that she gave in interviews, but how she had felt. How terrified she had been. She didn’t mention her ex-boyfriend at all until near the end, and when she did, she was sure that she felt Caroline’s body stiffen beside her.
As the night drew on, the breeze off the sea cooled and Rhetta began to wish that she had run back to her room for a jacket instead of following instantly after Caroline like a puppy after its master. She resisted the urge to shiver, not wanting Caroline to cut their walk short, but in the end she couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“Are you cold?” Caroline asked, stopping and looking at Rhetta with far more concern than one shiver called for. She had only just realised that she was wearing a zip-up sweatshirt and Rhetta was only wearing a tank top.
Rhetta shrugged, unable to deny it when her traitorous body shivered again.
“A little,” she admitted. “But I’m fine, honestly I-”
Before she could finish, Caroline had shrugged off her sweatshirt and had draped it around Rhetta’s shoulders.
“Better?” she asked, her hands hovering before Rhetta’s chest, holding together her sweatshirt like a cloak.
Rhetta swallowed, a different kind of shiver running through her body. “Much. Thanks.”
She lifted up her eyes to meet Caroline’s gaze and felt herself melt at the tender look her eyes.
Caroline smiled, soft and wistful. “You’re so beautiful, you know that?”
Rhetta felt her cheeks burn but she couldn’t look away from Caroline’s kind, honest eyes. She was holding nothing back. She was being 100% truthful to what she was feeling and didn’t seem to be self-conscious about it at all. Rhetta envied and loved her for it.
“Not half as beautiful as you.”
She didn’t mean to say the words aloud, but she heard them with her own ears and so she must have. Caroline’s tender smile brightened and she leant down and kissed Rhetta – soft and gentle.
Rhetta’s head spun. The world around her seemed to whirl away into nothingness as Caroline held her captivated, touching her only where their lips met with a gentle pressure. It spun so much that Rhetta forgot to move and Caroline feared the worst. She began to pull back, her stomach churning with fear, when Rhetta finally started kissing her back.
As Caroline’s swearshirt fell away from her shoulders, Caroline’s arms wrapped around her waist, bringing their bodies together until the coldness of Rhetta’s body was met with the warmth of Caroline’s.
“Caro,” Rhetta breathed, needing to say her name to prove to herself that what was happening was real. She reached up and wrapped her arms around Caroline’s neck, deepening their kiss into something richer and deeper. Her whole world was turning on its head and she was more grateful for it than she had ever been for anything. She knew that this was the start of something that would last the rest of her life. She just knew it.
* * *
“And I was right,” Rhetta said, looking up into Caroline’s still-tender eyes. The skin around them had gained a few lines and was a little less tanned than it had been all those years ago, but the look in them had never changed. Caroline still looked at her now the same way that she had after their first kiss.
“What were you right about, Princess?” Caroline asked with an indulgent smile.
“That our first kiss was the start of something that would last the rest of my life,” Rhetta said with unabashed contentedness.
Caroline’s smile brightened. “If I’ve got anything to do with it.”
This was it – all that mattered. It didn’t matter what critics or commentators said. It didn’t matter what snide remarks distant relatives made at family occasions or what bitter ‘fans’ would say in the comments on the social media accounts. All that mattered was her and Caroline and the family that they started that night on the beach. The two of them together could face the world, and hopefully grow a little along the way.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
It wasn’t long after they stepped onto English soil that Gillian called Rhetta and Caroline into a private meeting. They could tell from the tone of her voice that there was something wrong. Caroline’s hands twitched nervously at her side and Rhetta’s lips felt dry, no matter how many times she moistened them. The anxiety passed between them, reverberating and amplifying with every passing second.
They sat in a hotel meeting room, them on one side of the table and Gillian on the other. It felt ominous. Like she was distancing herself from them.
“I’ve just had the federation on the phone,” Gillian began with a weary sigh. “Someone told them about the two of you rooming together.”
Rhetta’s blood ran cold. She hadn’t known that it was a secret, but as soon as Gillian said it, she couldn’t imagine the federation ever giving it the go ahead. Not after all the warnings they gave her when she and Caroline first started dating. Warning her of what would h
appen to Caroline’s career if it ever got out. But that was before Denise and Fenton. Before they learnt that the backlash that they had been expecting had never really happened. She hadn’t even stopped to think of what they would say about her and Caroline coming out. Having someone on the team come out was one thing, but having a couple on the team was something else entirely.
“I thought that they were okay with it,” Caroline said, her voice high and panicked.
“It’s my fault. I let you believe that. I thought that if I could show them that it didn’t impact upon your performance, then they would have to allow it. I was wrong. Apparently appearances are more important to them than their players performing to the best to their abilities. Especially with a World Cup coming up.”
“What – What happens now?” Rhetta asked, her throat as dry as her lips. If they ever followed through on their promises and hurt Caroline’s career, she would never forgive herself.
“The person that leaked the information has been transferred to the men’s staff. From now on, we need to be more careful. A lot more careful. We need people to think that you’re rooming with other people,” Gillian continued, her voice slow and measured.
Rhetta didn’t understand. “Think?”
Gillian nodded. “The two of you have been on top form. To me, that’s all that matters. I know that being away from home can affect moral, especially when we’re in a different time zone. It’s why we invest so much in keeping moms with their kids, and it’s why I think that it’s worth investing in you two.”
Caroline’s hand found Rhetta’s under the table and she finally began to relax.
“What do you want us to do, coach?” Caroline asked. “We’ll do whatever it takes.”
Gillian smiled and nodded. “Just hint that you’re rooming with other people. A photo here and there, that sort of thing.” She paused a looked up at Rhetta. “I think that we should hold back on your interview for the 23 stories too.”
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