Best Played (Salt Lake Pumas) Read online

  This whole thing was a bit weird, but it was actually going better than I had expected. What I had said to Roxi the night before, about not knowing if I’d been a very good boyfriend in the past, was true. The two relationships I had behind me had been very different from one another.

  With Laura, it had always been so hot and cold. She had loved an extreme and, at twenty, I was all about extremes. In comparison, Nova had been the calmest, most supportive influence on me. We’d just lacked that bit of thrill that pushes a relationship to the next level.

  Placing Roxi in that comparison was impossible, because I didn’t really know her. That was kind of weird, too. We were sharing a bed in her childhood home and yet I hardly knew her!

  More importantly, though, I found myself really wanting to get to know Roxi better.

  It was difficult to know what to do with those feelings.

  So I got up quietly. The benefit of an early morning start was that I could go out running before anyone would even be up. Or so I assumed. I should, of course, have anticipated that on a working vineyard like this, I wouldn’t be the first one up.

  “Morning,” I greeted Roxi’s mom who was reading a newspaper in the kitchen. “I’ve just come to get some water, I was going to go for a run,” I explained at her slightly surprised look, presumably because it really was very early. “Roxi’s still asleep,” I added, though perhaps unnecessarily.

  Mona laughed. “Yes,” she agreed. “I would expect her to be. Isn’t it an hour earlier in Utah?” I hadn’t even thought about the time difference, or how it might affect Roxi. Playing for the Pumas, not to mention flying back and forth from Sweden at least once a year, I was accustomed to jet lag in a way that most people weren’t.

  “Did you not sleep well?” Mona asked, a concerned frown appearing between her brows. “We can give you more pillows or blankets, if you need them.” She caught herself, shaking her head. “But I’m sure Roxi would have fetched anything for you. It’s so nice to have her finally bring somebody home with her.”

  Her words left me with an unexpected pang of guilt. Lying to this woman wasn’t very nice and thinking about how sad she’d be for Roxi when we ‘broke up’ made me look away.

  “Um, no, I slept fine,” I promised, clearing my throat. It didn’t do much to get rid of the guilt, but at least it distracted me from it a little. “There was enough of everything. I’ve enjoyed teasing Roxi about all her teenage posters,” I admitted with a small grin. “It’s very sweet you’ve kept it all up.”

  Mona’s smile was so affectionate, it reminded me of my own mom. She hadn’t kept my room the way I’d had it, but she would proudly show off my team photos for every year since I started playing professionally with just that same sweet look of maternal pride.

  “It’s a big house,” Mona pointed out. “We don’t need Roxi’s room for anything, and I like having her things here. It makes this part of the vineyard feel like home, especially when we have a lot of guests in the other buildings.”

  Giving me a teasing smile, she added, “We might have to rethink that if Rachel and Tim give us any grandchildren. Then we might need a playroom or a children’s bedroom.”

  That was fair enough and I doubted that Roxi would hold it against them. While it was sweet that Mona had kept her room the way it was, Roxi didn’t strike me as someone who was particularly nostalgic. As such, she might not be too saddened at having her room changed into something else, for as long as she still had somewhere to stay here.

  “Do Rachel and Tim live close?” I asked before it occurred to me that I should probably already know that as Roxi’s boyfriend. It seemed like the sort of question I would have asked on the way here if not before. It probably should have been a question I’d asked on the way here!

  Once again, that crease of concern appeared between Mona’s brows. “In Nashville,” she said slowly. Now that she mentioned it, I did remember Roxi saying that her sister had met Tim in the city.

  Before I could rush in, explaining that I’d just forgotten, Mona went on to add. “They live more in the city itself, so it takes a bit longer to get here, with traffic and everything.”

  She gave me a sympathetic smile. “You don’t have any siblings, Roxi said? It must feel a little overwhelming to have to remember everything about all of hers!”

  That gave me the perfect excuse, so I nodded. “I do try,” I promised. That wasn’t even a lie. I really was trying to keep all of the information Roxi told me in my head. It was just a bit hard since, rather than the months her mom thought I’d had to learn it, I’d had about two days.

  I did give her a grin. “I remember a lot of details about Lear,” I informed her. “Roxi is much more passionate about telling me about her favorite horse than she is about her sisters, I have to be honest.” It was a joke and from how Mona laughed, one that landed quite well.

  “That surprises me,” Mona said, her eyes twinkling at me. “Roxi and Steph have always been close. I would have thought she’d talk passionately about the holidays they’ve taken together.”

  Finishing her coffee, Mona stood, moving to the sink to rinse out her cup. “I suppose there’s not that many things we feel as strongly about as our childhoods,” she allowed. “Though, I must say, Roxi talks very warmly about you!”

  That actually made me frown. I couldn’t really imagine when Roxi had had the time to talk warmly about me. Thankfully, Mona missed it by taking her cup over to wash it.

  “I hope I talk about her very warmly, too,” I said. It was probably the first time in this conversation I’d felt like I had to... lie. Roxi was lovely but it wasn’t exactly like I knew her very well. Certainly not well enough to be talking any way about her. I should try harder.

  “Anyway,” I shook my head. “I best go run before Roxi’s up and wondering where I’ve gone off to. It’s been nice chatting with you, Mona.” I smiled.

  She turned to smile back, clearly pleased by my politeness. “Have a nice run. I’ll tell Roxi where you’ve gone when she gets up. Hopefully, we’ll have breakfast ready by the time that you get back.”

  I found myself genuinely looking forward to returning to a meal cooked for me. It wasn’t something I got a lot at home, and the added warmth of a family kitchen only made it more appealing. It would certainly be a good reward for working myself hard!

  The run gave me an opportunity to explore more of the vineyard. It was as beautiful as I had imagined, perhaps even more so. The morning sun was just coming over the horizon, lighting up everything in its wake. With a steady rhythm, I ran for over an hour before finally looping my way back to the main house.

  Once I was back, I headed straight to our room for a quick shower. Roxi wasn’t there anymore, but I was sure it wouldn’t take me long to find her. After a nice shower and a change of clothes, I headed downstairs back to the kitchen.

  Where earlier it had only been Mona, now the kitchen was buzzing with people. There was Rachel, of course, but also a lot of women I definitely didn’t recognize. Spotting Roxi was almost a relief.

  “Oh! It’s Olle! Roxi’s boyfriend,” Rachel exclaimed. “Olle these are the girls from my bridal party. We’re just about to start some wine tasting for the wedding,” she explained as I made my way over to Roxi.

  “Hi,” I greeted and then, because at least three women were watching me, I reached out to put my hand around Roxi’s waist. It would be weird not to do that as her boyfriend. She felt warm under my palm, only hesitating for the shortest of moments before she leaned into my touch.

  “Hi,” Roxi greeted, looking almost as shocked as I felt. But she turned to Rachel, smiling proudly as she lifted a hand lightly to my shoulder. She was tall enough that she didn’t need to tiptoe, which made it somehow easier to smile into her eyes.

  Rachel’s friends beamed at us approvingly, without a glimmer of suspicion that we weren’t accustomed to acting the part of boyfriend and girlfriend.

  “You were gone ages,” Roxi added. “You must have seen pr
actically the whole vineyard! I thought you were going to let me give you a tour.”

  I gave a soft laugh, shaking my head. “If it helps, I only saw it in passing as I ran alongside it,” I promised. If Roxi still wanted to give me a tour, I wouldn’t turn it down. “You can show me all the places you used to play as a kid,” I told her and it was only when one of Rachel’s friends made an ‘aww’ sound that it struck me that that probably was a very boyfriend-y thing to say.

  The thing was, it wasn’t even pretend. I genuinely wanted to see where Roxi had grown up. She had proved herself to be a very passionate explainer and it was exciting to think she might show as much passion in explaining the vineyard to me.

  Roxi’s gaze up into my face was a very good impression of girlfriendly adoration. “I’d like to show you,” she confirmed. “We can even do a tour on horseback, if you like.”

  Rachel nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, you should,” she urged. “It’s a very romantic way to see the vineyard. I took Tim on exactly that kind of tour when we first started dating. And I’m pretty sure Steph took Gerry for the full wine-tasting experience.”

  She seemed to falter then, giving me an abashed look. “But you can hear all about us growing up here without tasting any of the wine,” she assured.

  I laughed, shaking my head. “It doesn’t bother me,” I assured Rachel and wasn’t particularly surprised when one of her friends piped up with, “You don’t drink? That’s a bit awkward, dating the daughter of vineyard owners!”

  From the look Roxi shot her, I could tell she wasn’t very pleased with that comment. There was no need to worry on my account, though. I gave Roxi’s side a small squeeze, a reassuring one, I hoped.

  “She’s got other positives.” I grinned.

  Everybody laughed, Roxi ducking her head in an attempt to hide the sudden flare of red in her cheeks. “You’re blushing, Rox!” Rachel announced. “I guess that shows us exactly what some of those positives must be.”

  I’d expected Roxi to feel embarrassed - but she threw her head back and laughed heartily. Catching my eye, she shot me a smirk. “Olle’s shocked, Rachel,” she announced. “He didn’t realize that siblings could be just as infuriating as hockey players.”

  Roxi’s arm trapped my hand against her waist, giving me her own version of a reassuring squeeze.

  I hardly needed the reassurance, but it was hard to deny that there was something very sweet about it. If I didn’t let myself think too much about it, there was just a nice content kind of feeling. One that was easy enough to imagine existing in a real relationship.

  “Alright, so you don’t drink, but you do eat, right?” one of Rachel’s friends asked jokingly, before waving her hand at the selection of foods on the table, all of which were presumably there to compliment the wines.

  “I do eat,” I confirmed and my stomach rumbled in response, too. Mona had said there would be breakfast but perhaps my run had been just a bit too long for that. Reaching out, I helped myself to some cheese, before reaching for the plate containing celery. “Tempt you with a celery stick?” I joked at Roxi.

  Almost as soon as the words left my lips, I knew something was wrong. Roxi’s nose wrinkled in an expression of disgust, and then her eyes widened with surprise.

  “Roxi hates celery,” Rachel informed me, making me turn my head in her direction. She was giving me a narrow-eyed look that was almost a glare. “She can’t stand it.”

  Before I could formulate a response, Roxi jumped to my rescue. “Calm down, Rachel,” she teased, forcing a laugh that sounded brittle to my ears. “He’s not trying to poison me. It just hasn’t come up, that’s all.”

  I pulled the plate away, trying to curve my lips into a smile. Roxi nodded encouragingly at me. “You never noticed that all those cheese boards I made for you never had celery?”

  Worry rushed through me before I remembered that this was a small thing. No one knew that we weren’t actually a couple, at most, they might think I was a bit shit for not remembering that Roxi didn’t like a particular food. Celery, too. Not even a food that came up a lot.

  “I thought you just couldn’t get any,” I recovered quickly, reaching for a celery stick. “But don’t worry, I’ll eat all the celery to protect you from it.” I took a loud bite then, making Rachel snort.

  “Well, now she won’t kiss you!” she informed me.

  “Of course I will,” Roxi countered, which earned her a chorus of expectant ‘ooohs’. She held up a hand, shaking her head. “After you’ve brushed your teeth.”

  Everybody chuckled at that, even me, and I felt the worry shrink inside me. We were fine - this wasn’t going to be a problem. At least, it wouldn’t be as long as we didn’t have too many more mistakes like this.

  Roxi turned to me, glancing at the plate of cheese. “Is that going to be alright for breakfast? Do you want me to make you something healthier?” It was surprisingly sweet of her to be concerned - it had been a long time since anyone except El, our nutritionist, had offered to make food for me.

  Maybe it would’ve been more polite to turn her offer down, but I was hungry after such a long run and celery alone was not going to satisfy me. “I would love some breakfast,” I told Roxi genuinely.

  “You can use our kitchen, Rox,” Rachel offered. She and Tim were staying in the guest house next door. “There’s plenty of food, mom’s stocked the fridge full and then you can have the kitchen to yourselves.”

  It was a kind offer and we both thanked her before heading there. It wasn’t until we’d already made it to the guest house that I realized my arm was still around Roxi. When I pulled back, it was hard not to feel a sudden disappointment at the loss of her warmth against me.

  Chapter Nine

  Roxi

  Whatever I had expected from a fake boyfriend, Olle wasn’t it. He was genuinely interested in everything I had to say about Parker Vineyards, even bits of family history or gossip that could never be expected to come up in general conversation.

  It was surprisingly easy to tell him real things - secrets I had kept as a child which had seemed so important at the time. The day I’d been so jealous of Rachel’s new doll that I’d stolen one of her shoes and buried it in the yard. Or when Steph had broken mom’s favorite china ornament and I’d covered for her.

  After the celery incident, Olle and I had swapped pet hates and least favorite foods, hoping that we wouldn’t be caught out again. We’d smothered fits of giggles in my childhood bed when it turned out we both had an irrational dislike of George Clooney.

  The next day, Olle had breakfast with me, deciding to go out for his run in the lull before lunch. My dad was in his office, making sure everything was neatly wrapped up so that he could relax and not think about work on the day of Rachel’s wedding.

  “Anything I can help with, Daddy?” I asked, hesitating in the doorway. “I’m pretty good at tying up loose ends.”

  Looking up from what he was doing, Daddy shook his head. “I’m mostly done,” he told me. “There’s a few papers that need filing if you want to do that,” he offered. Daddy was always good at finding small jobs for me when I offered help. Besides, it gave us an opportunity to spend some time together with just the two of us. That was incentive enough.

  He clearly had the same idea, because he shot me a grin over his desk. “It’s nice to see you, Roxanne,” he told me. “You look happy, it’s nice of you to bring someone home for us to meet.”

  Guilt churned in the pit of my stomach, but I forced myself to smile. This was hardly the first time I’d lied to my dad. As a teenager, I’d done plenty of rebelling, telling my parents I was going out to study when actually I’d been invited to a party.

  But this felt different. This was lying about something nice that had supposedly happened. I couldn’t help but feel bad for getting my parents invested in a relationship that was only a figment of my imagination.

  “You’re going easier on Olle than you went on my high school boyfriends,” I teased, hoping
to turn the conversation off of me for a moment.

  Daddy hummed at that, like he was thinking about it. “I like him,” he told me, genuinely surprising me. It wasn’t that I had expected my dad to hate Olle or anything, but he always had such high standards and Olle had... met them? There must have been a very indicative frown between my eyebrows, because Daddy laughed.

  “You’re surprised?” he asked. “You’re the one who picked him!” he grinned and that, too, made my stomach twist with guilt. Thankfully, that wasn’t as obvious to read on my face.

  Shaking his head, Daddy shrugged one shoulder. “He seems very dedicated. Stands by his principles. And he makes you laugh. I see you, chatting away with each other like you hardly know each other, like every conversation is a first one. It’s lovely to see you both take such interest in each other.”

  Panic caught at my throat, my fingers tightening around the files as I moved them from Daddy’s desk. “Well, it’s only been a few months,” I pointed out. “And he didn’t have the advantage of reading interview after interview with me!”

  That made me give a genuine smile, because Olle really did seem interested in finding out about me and my life.

  I wanted to say something about how it might not last, prepare Daddy for the possibility that this wasn’t going to be a forever thing. But what if that seemed too suspicious? I was supposed to be madly in love, not thinking about the expiration date on this relationship!

  “Were you and Mom like that?” I asked instead. “Fascinated by each other, like every conversation was the first?”

  The way Daddy smiled at the question, just the corners of his mouth tugging softly, made my stomach flip. He was so obviously still in love with Mom and it was lovely to see. That was what I wanted. Someone who’d smile like that when they thought about me!