Falling for My Best Friend's Brother의 모든 챕터: 챕터 211 - 챕터 220

Avery's POVI got through the gate and onto the tracks and dropped my bag and picked up where the squad was in the warm up sequence and Coach Vega gave me the look she gave people who arrived after the session had technically started, which I acknowledged with a nod and kept moving.But I kept half my attention on the football field.Brianna had not gone to the far end of the tracks where she usually set up. She had cut across the complex toward the field, toward the far end where Colton was running drills alone. He had not been in the team session this morning, which after yesterday made sense. He would have come in separately, done his individual work quietly, kept his head down. Or so I would have thought.She reached him and he slowed and stopped.Even from the tracks I could see the way his body was already carrying the day. Tight across the shoulders. Jaw pushed slightly forward. The posture of a man who had been holding something in since the morning before and had not found an

Avery's POVCoach Vega called formation three and I took my mark and the squad moved into position around me and the session was running and everything on the surface looked exactly like a normal Tuesday morning practice.The first sign was small.The left flank came in a half beat late on the transition. Not a mistake, not something Coach Vega would pull them up on, just a hesitation that had not been there last week or the week before. I clocked it and said nothing and ran the formation through to the end and called the reset.The second time it happened I knew it was not a coincidence.Brianna was on the floor doing everything she was supposed to do. Her technique was clean, her positioning was correct, she was giving me nothing to work with. But in the gap between formations, in the fifteen seconds while the squad reset their marks and Coach Vega made a note on her clipboard, I saw her lean toward the girl on her left and say something. The girl glanced at me and then looked back

Avery's POVThe stadium was already very loud when we arrived and it was not even warm up yet. Good thing we arrived earlier than the planned time. The fans were very eager to begin the season.The home crowd had been building since the gates opened. I could hear it from the tunnel as the squad walked through, the thick noise of people who had come expecting something and were already in the mood to get it. The field lights were brutal and bright and the grass was sharp under them. The visiting team was already on the far end doing their thing.I led the squad to our sideline position and turned to face them."Formation two for warm up," I said. "Full energy from the first count. The crowd is already there, we match it."They spread out and I took my mark and called the count and we went.Two counts in I saw Brianna lean to Mia on her left and say something. Mia adjusted her spacing by half a step and it pulled the right side of the formation off mine. Not catastrophically. Just enoug

Avery's POVBrianna went to Vega at halftime and came back to the squad without a word to me. I did not ask what was said because the second half was starting and I had a job to do. Whatever she went to report to Vega, I could defend myself cleanly. Half the squad watched her come back. None of them said anything either.The teams came back out and I called the formation and we went.About ten minutes into the third quarter Keely appeared at my shoulder again during a defensive series."Watch his eyes," she said."Whose.""Colton's. Watch where he looks before he throws."I kept my eyes on the field. "What am I watching for?""You'll know when you see it."I shifted my focus from the squad to the field and watched.The defense held and the offense came out. Liam lined up wide right and the snap came. He ran his route and got open, three steps of clear space and closing fast. Colton looked directly at him and then moved his eyes left and threw short for four yards."There," Keely said.

Avery's POVThe squad wrap-up took at least twenty minutes and I got through it and sent everyone home. I then went to stand outside the changing rooms with my kit bag and my phone and waited for Liam. Brianna left without looking at me. I noted it and kept moving. I couldn't honestly care less about whatever it is that was going through her head. Right now, she was a problem I refused to acknowledge.The stadium had quieted down. The crowd was mostly gone and the lights were on their maintenance setting and the grounds staff were doing their rounds and the whole place was settling back into the ordinary version of itself after three hours of being something else. I thought about what Keely had said on the field and I let myself feel good about it for a few minutes before I started checking my phone.Liam came out about fifteen minutes later with his bag and his jacket and his hair still damp from the shower and he saw me against the wall and the look on his face changed into a wide s