Heaven knew, sitting watching her last weekend made him realise he didn’t know this Cress. The last game he’d watched her play she’d been a kid. Last weekend, there was nothing childish about the game or her play.
Maybe that was the way to do this.
‘Last time I watched you was under 15s, and you were good, but you did it easy. Your opponents weren’t girls who shared your dream of being the best. They were girls who wanted to kick a footy.’ Her brows lifted and her forehead scrunched. He kept speaking. ‘On the weekend, you matched it with the best of the best. There weren’t any players better than you and your opponent on that ground. The level of skill you both showed was exceptional.’ When her brows lifted higher, he sat beside her and turned so she had to look at him. ‘I’m not saying this for fun, Cress. I’d be proud to play with either, or both, of you girls. You both were incredible.’ He paused to let that sink in, not that he was certain it was. ‘But you pushed each other to breaking. You’re both going to be vehicles with no petrol this week. And that means filling up, not running on fumes.’
She sighed. Then shook her head. Sighed again, before a more vigorous head shake. ‘No. You don’t understand. I couldn’t get rid of her. I have to run harder and smarter than that. I need to train more, to be tougher next week.’
He took her shoulders and gave her a shake. ‘I do understand. I’ve been playing at this level for eight years. If anyone understands, I do.’ He flinched. He’d been aiming for gentle big brother coaxing her, and it came out as grizzly bear threatening.
Her eyes widened and she leaned back, but didn’t break his hold. Her fine brows pulled down and tugged together.
He let her think, still holding her loosely, but not saying anything. She was working it out, or so he hoped. If this didn’t work, he was out of ideas.
Finally, she blinked, and looked at him. ‘I did too much today.’
He nodded. Then he pulled a bag of snakes from beneath the cushions. Years ago, they were her favourite treat and he hoped the sugary hit would do her good, today. He tore open the bag and waved it beneath her nose.
‘Oh, you don’t play fair.’ Her groan was pained.
He picked up a red one and dangled it above her lips. When she opened her mouth, he flicked it away and gobbled it himself. Laughing, she grabbed a handful from the bag and began to eat. Her eyes closed as if they tasted of heaven.
‘Did the game scare you?’
Her gaze bounced up so quickly, he knew he’d hit the jackpot. ‘No. Why?’
‘It would have scared me if that’d been my first game. Your opponent was good. Really good. But you held your own.’ When she went to argue, he held up his hand. ‘You may not think so, but you did.’ Quin took a green snake and chewed it slowly. ‘My first game was easy. I was a better player than my opponent, so all I had to worry about was my game and fitting into my team. Next week’ll be easier for you—if you rest up.’
Cress gave a sigh, eyed the bag of snakes again, then looked up. ‘And resting up means snakes?’
‘Only for tonight. The sugar hit will help since you overdid it today, but I don’t recommend a bag of snakes every day or anything.’
Cress clicked her fingers. ‘Drat.’ She grinned before sobering again. ‘You’re not just saying it, Quin, are you? I mean, you’re not telling me I did okay when I didn’t, are you?’
He sat back and stared at her. ‘Did someone tell you that you didn’t play well?’
She shook her head.
He slid his finger beneath her chin and tipped her face up. ‘It’s just you, abusing yourself, when you didn’t watch the game?’
Her lips twitched. ‘I played it.’
‘Hard.’
She stared at him.
‘I’m not just saying it. You and your opponent were best on ground for each of your teams. Easily. Your tactics to outmanoeuvre her, by running deep into the defence and outrunning her back to position, were perfect. Any lesser opponent and you would have won that battle.’
Cress sighed deeply. ‘Thanks, Quin.’ Her words were softly spoken, as if she was sagging, even though she didn’t look any worse physically.
He gave her shoulder a squeeze. ‘Go shower and I’ll get dinner ready.’
‘It’s my night.’
He shook his head. ‘I’ve already got it organised. You’re taking it easy, remember?’
She waved at the snakes. ‘Are you sure I get to eat all these?’
He swiped the bag. ‘Not now. You’ll spoil your dinner.’
She poked her tongue out, but she was laughing as she limped towards the bathroom. Watercress was one tough footy player. He didn’t want to think how badly she must be aching.
***
Quin found Cress’s game days more difficult than he’d imagined. It wasn’t as if he could play, but he hated sitting on the sidelines and not being out there with Cress. He wanted to be near her this game, if only to make sure she was doing okay. He’d ridden her hard this week with the ‘relax’ message and although he knew he was right to do that, he was a little concerned it may not have been right for her.
What if she had a terrible game this week?
There was nothing he could do about it. Nothing at all. He struggled with that.
At least the Kennedys hadn’t arrived until a few hours ago. By then Watercress had left for the game. His house was bursting at the seams, just as the Sirens home ground was quickly filling. The way people were streaming in, he expected it to reach capacity very soon. The girls were warming up, and the noise was deafening.
‘Another big crowd,’ Mr Kennedy said after he’d battled his way back from the toilets.
Quin nodded. ‘It’s great, isn’t it?’
By kick-off, you could hardly move for people. There were easily as many people as attended his own games, and he was proud of the Sydney fans for supporting not only women’s sport, but also Aussie Rules. Victoria was traditionally the home of Aussie Rules, and Sydney had been slowly coming to terms with the game over the last forty years.
The fans were screaming themselves hoarse throughout the game but as Cress kicked her third goal, they seemed to go up to another level. Watercress was playing out of her skin. She was at a higher skill level to her opponent and she was showcasing her expertise.
Quin’s heart was filled to bursting. The restful week had worked.
‘You must love watching her play like this.’ Quin made the comment to Mr Kennedy in the third break.
‘Much better than last week’s game. Last week hurt to watch because I knew how hard she’d take it.’
Quin tipped his head. ‘Does she always take losses hard?’
Mr Kennedy paused, glanced at the ground, then back at Quin. ‘Not so much the loss. She’s really hard on herself.’
Quin gave a grin. ‘No idea where she’d get that from?’
Mr Kennedy laughed and elbowed him in the ribs. ‘Enough of that, thanks.’
The Sirens were way in front, and after a solid fourth quarter, ended with a good win over the Astors. When the hooter went, the Sirens and the crowd all leapt, cheering maniacally.
‘Do you reckon there’s enough grog for the party?’ Damo asked Tris.
‘They’re girls, they’re not going to drink like us.’
Quin tried not to laugh. He wasn’t sure how these country boys would cope with the city girls. Petra, Geral, Kirstin and Hayley had talked about nothing aside from Cress’s brothers all week. And Quin was looking forward to the evening’s entertainment—the yoga girls and the country boys.
The after-game celebration on field was a melee of people. They’d allowed kids onto the ground and the kids were a mix of those racing around madly kicking footballs, and those hanging around their favourite players.
A glow filled Quin’s chest when he saw that Watercress had the largest number of kids swarming around her. He’d been looking for her and hadn’t been able to spot her, until a gap in the kids allowed him to spy her, on her knees
, talking to kids and signing books, flyers, guernseys, caps, water bottles. She was beaming and that gave Quin goosebumps.
‘I wonder if her poster’s gonna be on kids’ bedroom walls?’ Damo’s musing made Quin chuckle.
‘Wonder if she’ll get kissed each night like Cress used to do to her posters?’ Tris snorted with laughter after he made that announcement. Quin wondered who on earth Cress would have been kissing, but he wasn’t game to ask.
‘That’d be karma, wouldn’t it?’ Gar was laughing and jostling against Ollie, who was laughing so hard he could hardly stand.
‘Tris, she learned that from you,’ Ollie eventually blurted through his laughter. If fury had a face, it’d be Tris’s right now. Quin was laughing hard.
Mr Kennedy shook his head, muttering, ‘Boys,’ as he led Quin away from what might become a messy argument. ‘Do you mind if we head home, Quin? I could do with a cup of tea.’
Quin headed towards the exit with Mr Kennedy, but a quick glance over his shoulder had him grinning. When they were out of the crowd, he leaned across to Cress’s dad. ‘I didn’t pick you as someone who’d run away from a bunch of old ladies.’
Mr Kennedy chuckled. ‘Don’t you dare tell Cress.’
***
By eleven o’clock, Quin reckoned the whole team and all the coaching staff, plus much of the support and management team, had been to his house, shaken his hand, and celebrated. Thankfully most people brought drinks, and some extra food. People came and went like waves on the ocean, and it was almost low tide now, with only the yoga girls left.
‘Thank you so much, Quin.’ Cress walked into the kitchen with a pile of rubbish and stuffed it into the last garbage bag she had open and ready.
‘What for?’
Her lips twisted and she crossed her eyes. ‘Pretty much everything. But tonight, for opening your house up, accepting all these people, and being an awesome host.’ Then she glanced and studied something riveting on the floor, before stepping right close to him and looking up into his eyes. ‘For the whole week, Quin. You made me relax. You made me slow down. You knew exactly what I needed to do.’ She bit her lips. ‘I would have ended up … I don’t know … probably injured.’
‘I wouldn’t have let you get injured, Watercress.’
‘I know.’ Spoken so gently, with her gaze softening and her lips remaining partly open, she was irresistible.
He leaned as she stretched and before their lips touched, they both seemed to pause. Time stopped as he searched the depths of her gaze where he saw nothing but honesty. Sincerity. Watercress. Their lips brushed together. Soft. Tentative.
His hand slid along her back, before he cupped her neck, holding the base of her head cushioned between thumb and forefinger. Her arms slid around his middle and her body settled against his. Perfectly.
Their mouths separated, for just a moment. Her lips lifted and her smile was like sunrise.
Everything rushed inside him.
Their lips met again and there was nothing tentative or gentle. He wanted to devour, and she seemed to want the same. When his lips moved and his tongue slid to meet hers, he touched the warm inside of her mouth, and then her tongue. She was ready for him. His groan was deep, as his body seemed to sigh at the rightness of their touch.
A loud grumbling penetrated the fog in Quin’s brain and then a male, ‘Oh, excuse me.’ Quin’s gaze met Cress’s for just a second and he hoped he read as much disappointment there as he felt. He never wanted that kiss to end. He looked across the kitchen to Damo’s smirking face.
‘Better than the posters?’ Damo chuckled at his own joke, which Cress must have understood as her forehead met Quin’s chest, twice, in heavy thuds.
Then she stepped back from him, and her arms dropped from his body, forcing his hands to stop touching her too. ‘It’s always better in reality, Damo. Surely you know that, or you’re doing it all wrong.’ Her cool tone, relaxed stance, and easy rebuff sounded all wrong. Quin wanted her to be melting, like he was. He wanted her to be unable to find words, unable to think or focus. Yet she was unaffected. Normal. Unchanged.
‘Did you want something?’ she asked, again completely normal. Or maybe a tad icier than normal, but she often used that iciness with her brothers.
He shrugged. ‘Nah, not really.’
Cress growled and Quin could imagine her glare, even though he stood behind her.
Damo looked between his sister and Quin before he shrugged. ‘The girls are heading off.’
‘Thanks, we’ll be there in a sec.’ Cress was so controlled, while Quin wasn’t sure he could have strung a sentence.
After Damo left, she turned to Quin but didn’t lift her gaze above his shoulders. He lifted his hand, gently stroked his thumb against her cheek. ‘I’m sorry. I’ll sort things out with your dad.’
That made her look up, and her glare almost cut him in two. His hand fell from her face and hung limply by his side. ‘Don’t you say a word to Dad, or Tris, or any of them. I’m an adult. Plenty able to choose who I do what with.’ She spun and stalked from the kitchen.
After a few steps, he asked, ‘What was that about the poster?’
She’d half-turned when he spoke, so he saw the red blush speed across her face. Her jaw tensed and she muttered under her breath before she took off out of the kitchen as if the hounds of hell were on her tail.
Chapter 18
The weeks and the games went quickly. Far too quickly. Cress needed to slow life down but there was no way to do that. It rolled along at its pace, paying no attention to what she needed.
She needed more time with Quin. Yet he was away at his preseason training camp this week. For a whole week.
Something had been developing, something that wasn’t in her imagination, and she wanted more time to explore that but it was not to be. Not yet anyway. They had such little time as it was and she missed him.
‘How are you managing without Quin?’ Hayley’s question at the end of the yoga session didn’t change Cress’s line of thinking at all.
‘It’s pretty quiet at home,’ Cress shrugged, ‘otherwise the same. Between my work and training, and his training, we don’t spend much time together.’ She hoped Hayley believed that.
‘I miss him here.’ Hayley’s words were echoed through the group.
‘You just miss perving on his muscles.’ Petra grinned impishly, making everyone laugh.
‘There goes the relaxation.’ Mattie’s tone was dry, setting the laughter off again.
‘Have you heard how he’s going?’ Claudine asked.
Cress shook her head. ‘No. It was one of those all-in camps without outside contact.’
‘Imagine what they’re doing...’ Hayley sounded dreamy.
‘Probably dragging tractor tyres up sandhills,’ Geral’s comment made Cress chuckle. That’s exactly the kind of thing she’d been imagining. She had no idea what Hayley had thought, and she wasn’t game to ask. Hayley’s wavelength wasn’t one where Cress wanted to go, or not in public anyway.
She’d had enough public embarrassment with Quin—if Damo’s kiss-interruption counted as public viewing. She counted it as a public interruption and would like to have murdered Damo for his timing. How could she have had her first, proper, longed-for kiss interrupted by her brother? It was completely unfair.
What made it worse was that they hadn’t gone there again. Not the delicious proper kissing. There’d been touches and brushes and long lingering looks, which she was sure weren’t all in her head, but nothing as intimate as another kiss.
Her head kept echoing with her own words about not looking for a relationship, while her body hummed with the overpowering need that kissing Quin had unlocked.
Mattie nudged Cress with her elbow. ‘Is he back before we head to Brisbane for the Banshees?’
‘No.’
‘What?’ Hayley’s yell made Cress jump. ‘What if we lose because he’s not there?’
Cress shook her head at Hayley. ‘We lost the fir
st game when he was there. He’s not our good-luck charm.’
‘Just because you’re not superstitious.’ Hayley’s grin softened her words. Cress had no idea about Hayley’s superstitions but, again, it wasn’t something she needed to know.
‘Anyway, lawns to mow, gardens to weed. Catch you all at training.’ Cress waved and headed home to get ready for a full day of work. It was going to be a scorcher too. She hoped Quin wasn’t dragging tyres up sandhills, but thinking he might be would make her sweating a little more bearable.
***
Cress headed up the driveway, sore and exhausted. The Banshees game had been tough. She wasn’t hurt, exactly, more bruised and battered. And since Quin wasn’t home, a long soak in the bathtub, with a book, was in order.
The bathtub filled while she chucked her gear in the washing machine. Then she took a bottle of water, a good book, and music into the bathroom and slid into a tub with bubbles. Music filled the warm air and swirled through the empty house, the sound haunting and beautiful. Cress put her head back on the edge of the tub and closed her eyes. The book could wait. She let the sound soak into her soul, soothing her mind as the water soaked her body.
A full bathtub, especially in summer, was a city luxury she loved. As a kid, soaking in the tub was impossible with so many of them needing to wash. With just Dad at home now, she could sometimes have a soak after a game if they’d had heaps of rain, but old habits died hard and she always felt a measure of guilt at using up the valuable resource. Sydney made her feel differently because the water came in a tap from a vast reservoir she didn’t have to think about. She didn’t have to tap the side of the tank to check the water level after a few dry weeks. She didn’t have to get the pump working if it cut out. She just turned on the tap and smiled at the rush of water. The cold water was even cold in the middle of summer, not like tank water that heated as the weather did. She was spoiled here. Totally and completely spoiled.
She stuck her arm out and reached for her towel, finding it easily. She wiped her hand dry and then picked up her book. When she opened her eyes, a yelp exploded from her.
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