Penalty Box: A Second Chance Sports Romance (Love in the Arena Book 1)

by Kayla Tirrell

  The card fell from her fingers as she sat down in her seat.

  Harris was an added part of the equation that Miriam wasn’t ready for. Deep down, she had expected something romantic to develop between them—given enough time.

  But that was before Silas had returned and jumbled her mind and her heart.

  Now that she knew that the flowers were from Harris, not Silas, it felt mean-spirited to throw them away. Miriam did the only thing she could think of. She grabbed the flowers and her purse, and left.

  Half an hour later, she was sitting across from Allie in a small coffee shop.

  “Are the flowers still in the car?” Allie asked, once Miriam had finished filling her in on everything that had happened. “Won’t they die in the heat?”

  Miriam rubbed her temples. “I pour my heart out to you, and you’re concerned about the flowers?”

  Her best friend shrugged. “It’s a tragic waste of roses.”

  “How about this? If they’re still alive after coffee, they’re yours.”

  “Yay!” Allie clapped her hands.

  “But you have to help me with the Silas-Harris situation first.”

  Allie shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, there is no ‘Silas-Harris’ situation.”

  Miriam sighed loudly. “Allie.”

  “There isn’t.” Allie lifted the mug to her lips and took a sip of her latte in an obvious show to be dramatic. “To me, it’s a no-brainer. You go to dinner with Harris.”

  “Seriously?”

  Allie set her drink down and leveled Miriam with a stare. “I know that you have history with Silas, and maybe that’s why you’re having a hard time. But don’t forget he broke up with you over a soccer team.”

  “But—”

  “Harris, on the other hand, is sweet,” Allie continued. “He’s the kind of guy to bring home to meet your parents. He would never break up with you over something like sports.” Allie paused and shook her head. “I doubt he’d ever break up with you, period.”

  Miriam slumped down in her seat. Allie made an excellent point. Harris wasn’t the kind of guy who left a trail of heartbroken girls in his wake. Miriam was just as sure as Allie that Harris would never hurt her. The problem was, he didn’t excite her either.

  “You’re right,” she said. “I could see myself dating Harris.”

  Allie smiled triumphantly.

  “Dating Harris would be easy. It would be pancakes on Saturday mornings, crosswords together on Sunday. We could carpool to work and heat up leftovers in the breakroom for lunch.”

  “That sounds really nice.”

  “Of course it does.” Miriam nodded. “But it’s also boring.”

  Allie shook her head. “There’s nothing wrong with boring. Boring doesn’t break your heart. Boring doesn’t move halfway across the country for sports.”

  “Boring doesn’t make my heart race or my palms sweat. I don’t have the urge to kiss boring. I can’t even picture it if I try.”

  Allie leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table between them. “Do you think that it’s because you’re not trying hard enough?”

  Miriam shook her head. “No. I think it’s because I’m still in love with Silas.”

  The words came out with a startling realization. Miriam had wanted to be angry with Silas when he returned to the Storm. She wanted to avoid him. Not because she hated him—though he did hurt her immensely. It was because she knew that she’d give him another chance if she didn’t put walls around herself.

  And now, with every interaction, those walls were crumbling down around her. The idea of letting Silas back in was both thrilling and terrifying. Mostly terrifying.

  “Oh, sweetie.” Allie leaned back in her chair and studied Miriam. “It’s been two years. Are you sure you’re not just getting caught up in the season and old habits?”

  Miriam nodded. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

  Allie released a long breath. “Then I don’t think you need me to tell you what to do. Your mind’s already made up.”

  Miriam nodded again.

  “Want me to come to the watch party to keep you company?”

  Miriam laughed. “I know how much you hate soccer, and you’ve already braved a lot this season because of my relationship drama.”

  “That’s what best friends do, silly. I’ll come to every single home game if you need me to.” She lifted a shoulder. “I’d even go to some of the away ones if you asked nicely.”

  She’d never ask Allie to travel for a game, but warmth built in Miriam’s chest. She was so thankful to have a friend like Allie in her life. The fact that she was willing to go through so much trouble for Miriam meant the world to her. She smiled at Allie. “There’ll be some other Storm employees and fans there. I think I’ll be fine.”

  Allie raised a brow. “And Harris?”

  “I’ll have to have an awkward conversation with him. But at least I know what I want now.”

  And she did. Now, she just needed to figure out how to get it without getting her heart broken again.

  Silas

  Silas had never been a fan of away games but playing the Wolves at their home arena made it more nerve wracking than usual.

  Though no one came out and said it, he could feel everyone’s eyes on him. Silas knew that Finn was watching to see what going back to Wisconsin would do to Silas, especially after how poorly he’d played against the Asteroids the week before.

  Finn didn’t need to worry though. There was no cheerful reunion to be had with the rest of the players on the Wolves. Silas had left a team full of players he’d refused to build bonds with without a word. So, while it wasn’t uncommon for players on opposing teams to greet each other before the game, that wasn’t going to happen. Not tonight.

  Silas just wanted to get in, play the game, and get out. Then he could start working on his relationship with Miriam again. She’d said she’d forgiven him after forgetting to text her back, but she hadn’t exactly been chatty either. There was still a huge wedge between them, and Silas needed to fix things as quickly as possible.

  He shuddered and pulled his jacket tighter around him as the team walked up to the Wolves’ arena.

  “Shouldn’t you be used to this kind of weather?” Finn said, coming up beside him.

  “Can anyone ever get used to freezing their nethers off?” Silas asked. “I’m pretty sure only third generation Cheeseheads actually like it below freezing.”

  “Good point.” Finn laughed, but quickly sobered. “What can you tell me about these guys? What do I need to look out for?”

  Silas quickly rattled off three names and numbers. “They’re the top scorers.”

  “I’ve looked at their roster and stats. I’m not going in completely blind.” He rolled his eyes. “What I mean is, what do I need to be careful about?”

  Silas didn’t hesitate before telling Finn about the forwards’ weaknesses. There wasn’t an ounce of loyalty toward any of the Wolves. He was a member of the Storm. Why was it so hard to prove that?

  “Good, good.” Finn slapped Silas’ back. “That’s really helpful.”

  “I want to beat them, too, you know.”

  Finn stopped walking and looked at Silas. “I know you do. So, let’s get warmed up, and make sure it happens.”

  They won in overtime, with Cardosa scoring the winning goal.

  After some low-key celebrating, they went to the airport late that night ready to fly home. The general manager would have sprung for another night at the hotel, but the team had unanimously voted to take a red-eye back to sunny Florida. Nobody wanted to spend another night in this frigid wasteland.

  Silas looked for an outlet to plug his phone in while they waited for the flight to start boarding. He’d forgotten to charge it the night before, and it had died sometime during their game. He was eager to talk to Miriam, to know if she’d watched the game tonight.

  Finn flopped down beside him. “Great job tonight.”

  Silas wasn’t sure w
hat to make with Finn’s sudden desire to be near him twenty-four seven. He jerked his chin at him. “You too, man.”

  “I don’t think I would have blocked so many goals without your help.”

  A corner of Silas’ mouth lifted in a disbelieving grin as he shook his head. They both knew that Finn didn’t need Silas’ five-minute breakdown of the Wolves’ offensive players to block their shots on goal. The keeper was a brick wall.

  That said, Silas took the words for what they were—an olive branch.

  They might not get that friendship they once had, but once Finn stopped antagonizing Silas over every little thing, the rest of the players would be quick to follow their captain’s lead. Or so Silas hoped.

  Finn’s phone dinged, and he pulled it from his pocket. His mouth turned down in a frown when he looked at the screen.

  “Everything okay?”

  Finn nodded. “Just some drama at home.”

  “Emmeline?”

  Finn gave him a warning look. He may have extended the olive branch, but apparently Silas talking about Finn’s baby sister was still off-limits. He walked over to one of the giant glass windows overlooking the runway.

  With Finn now gone, Silas continued his search for an outlet. He found one under his seat and plugged in his phone. The reboot screen came up only moments later. Now he could do what he’d been thinking about ever since the final goal had been made: talk to Miriam.

  When his home screen finally appeared, there was a notification that he had a text message from Miriam. She’d beat him to it.

  Miriam: Great game tonight.

  Silas smiled as he started typing out a reply, but decided he wanted to hear her voice. It was a much better option than holding his breath while he waited for text bubbles to turn into messages. He hit the call button.

  His knee bounced quickly as the phone rang. Once. Twice. It felt like an eternity between rings, and Silas wondered if Miriam was ever going to answer.

  Her voice interrupted the third ring. “Hey.”

  Silas let out a shaky breath and leaned back in his seat. “Hey.”

  “Great game tonight.”

  He smiled to himself. “You already said that.”

  There was a short pause, and Silas could hear some music in the background. “I guess I did.”

  “Are you still at City Bar?”

  “Yeah. They did one-dollar draft beers after Cardosa got the winning shot, so people are still hanging out. When I saw you calling, I stepped outside.”

  She hadn’t been debating whether or not to answer his call. Miriam wanted to make sure she could hear him. “That’s awesome.”

  “The fans are pretty happy.” There was another pause. “Y’all did so great. Your goal in the second quarter. Then that assist to Barros in the third. Oh, and when you cleared out the ball and it went past, like, three of the other players.”

  This was the Miriam he remembered—the girl who got excited about games. Back when they’d been dating, she’d watch all the Storm’s away matches, the MASL highlights of the week, and on occasion, other teams play. Silas hadn’t seen this girl at all since his return to Florida.

  Silas chuckled. “It was a good game.”

  “It was,” she said loudly. Silas had to pull the phone away from his ear. “You guys won against the Wolves in their home arena.”

  Silas wished he could see her face right now. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine it. Her blue eyes would be bright, her smile wide. Miriam was probably walking back and forth outside City Bar waving her free hand all over the place. It was the way she always used to act when she was talking about the Storm wins—which, admittedly, were few and far between two years ago.

  He ran a hand through his hair. “I wish I was there.”

  There was a soft gasp on the other end of the line. Silas clamped his lips together. They were having an easy conversation, and he’d gone too far. He hadn’t planned on saying the words aloud and held his breath as he waited for her reaction.

  “Me too.” The words were a whisper he barely heard over the background music.

  “Yeah?”

  “Silas, I—”

  Shouting in the background stopped Miriam from continuing. Silas wanted to crawl through the phone to tell whoever was interrupting to be quiet—just long enough to hear what she was about to say. Then they could get back to whatever dumb games they were playing. Silas strained but couldn’t understand what the other person was saying.

  “Harris, I’ll be right there. I’m just finishing up a call.” Of all the people it could be. Silas was really starting to hate that guy. “It’s just Allie. I’ll be back inside in just a second.”

  Allie? Silas’ heart sank. What did it mean that Miriam was lying to Harris about who she was talking to?

  “Hey.” Her voice was slightly breathless. “Sorry about that. What were we talking about?”

  “Actually, the plane is about to board.” He looked at the other players sitting around the terminal. They still had at least another forty-five minutes, but he didn’t think he could have the conversation he wanted to have knowing that Harris was waiting for Miriam inside. Not when Miriam was pretending that he was Allie.

  “I, uh, said you were Allie because—”

  “It doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “I really gotta go though.”

  “Oh, okay. Can we talk when you get back?”

  “Sure.”

  “Silas…”

  “Finn’s waving at me to hurry up. I don’t want to piss him off.”

  He hit end before Miriam could argue. When he looked up from his phone, he noticed Finn was standing just a few feet in front of him. He must have finished his call and wandered back over while Silas was trying to decipher what was going on with Miriam.

  Finn waved a hand at the gate. “Come on. The flight is about to leave without us.”

  Silas sighed and unplugged the charger. He shoved it, along with his phone, into his carry-on bag.

  Finn sat down. “Miriam?”

  Silas nodded. “I don’t really want to talk about it though.”

  “It might help.”

  And so would a drink from the airport bar. “Nah, I’m good.”

  Finn stretched his legs out in front of him and crossed his feet at the ankles. He leaned back and sighed. “I know I gave you a hard time when you first got back. After the crap you pulled, it wasn’t entirely undeserved.”

  “Here we go again.” He leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes.

  “You’ve changed.”

  That was unexpected. Silas cracked one of his eyelids to look at Finn.

  “You’ve been busting your tail out there. Every practice. Every game.” He cleared his throat. “I’m impressed.”

  This was more than an olive branch. This was almost an apology for not giving Silas a chance to prove himself when he’d returned to the Storm—though he doubted the keeper would ever call it that.

  Silas opened his eyes all the way and sat up in his seat. “Thanks, man.”

  “It’s true.” The keeper rested his elbows on his knees. “And I’ve been thinking that maybe I’m not the only one who is realizing that you’re not the same guy who left two years ago.”

  Miriam.

  Was Finn trying to give dating advice to Silas? It sure felt like it. Not only that, it sounded like Finn was giving his blessing for Silas to pursue Miriam. Even though he didn’t need permission, Silas appreciated what Finn was trying to do.

  If only Silas knew what he was going to do. Should he pursue Miriam and convince her that he’d grown and realized his mistakes? Or would it be better to let her go?

  He still didn’t have an answer when he boarded his flight later that evening and hoped that he’d come to a decision before he saw Miriam again. He knew that if he saw her while he was still trying to decide, it would be impossible to walk away this time.

  When he got back to Florida, Silas couldn’t stop thinking about Miriam, so he d
id what every rational human being would do—he avoided her at all costs.

  He still wasn’t over the fact that she’d been hanging out with Harris while watching the Storm play in Wisconsin. Not that spending time with Harris was the issue. They worked together and had been at a Storm watch party—it would be crazy to think they wouldn’t interact a little.

  It was the lie that had bothered him.

  Silas wasn’t sure what that meant. Did it mean that her feelings for Silas were truly platonic? He didn’t think so, but maybe he’d been seeing things that weren’t really there. The only way to know for sure was to talk to Miriam, and as lame as it was, he was afraid to find out if he was right.

  It was why he was looking at the sixth house of the day with his real estate agent, Bernard.

  The middle-aged man looked tired as he led Silas into the kitchen. He barely lifted his hand as he waved at the room. “As you can see, this one has mahogany cabinets and granite counters—just like the last two we looked at. The windows let in a lot of natural light.”

  Silas walked around the small kitchen island to look out the window over the sink. It faced the backyard which had two giant oak trees that shaded almost the entire yard.

  The realtor walked up and stood beside him. “Those trees will keep the house cool in the summer.”

  Silas looked at the lush lawn and imagined adding a small patio. He could put a picnic table or maybe a fire pit out back. It would be the perfect place to hang out on Saturday mornings when the weather was nice. Silas pictured him and Miriam drinking coffee out there.

  He stepped back quickly. “I don’t like it.”

  Bernard huffed and put his arms out. “You haven’t even looked at the rest of the house. What’s wrong with this one?”

  The frustrated attitude caught Silas by surprise. He thought that real estate agents were supposed to be patient while people looked for their dream house. Not that Silas would be all rainbows and sunshine if he’d spent the day looking for houses with someone who didn’t know what they wanted.