Leah's POV
I reach over to take some pancakes from the plate in front of me but my mum slaps my hand away with a disapproving look, "uhuh, no pancakes for you!"
Jacob, who's seated in front of me grins, adding some whipped cream on his pancakes, making my mouth water.
"Come on mum" I complain, "My personal trainer doesn't have to know"
"That's not why im not letting you eat them Leah" she says and places some on Jacob's plate.
"Why don't I get any then? Its unfair"
"Because you hid your relationship from me for months" my mum hits me on the head with her napkin.
I groan in annoyance by fact that for the entire hour I've been in the café with my mum and brother, I've spent 59 minutes of it getting lectured by my mother and laughed at by my brother.
"The least you could do was bring her with you for breakfast so we could meet and get to know her" my mum places some pancakes on my plate anyway and I grin ins satisfaction.
"I told you mum, she was sleeping peacefully when I left and I didn't have the heart to wake her up"
My mum's 'anger' at me seems to fade away after my comment and she thankfully decides to drop this entire situation.
When me and Hailey started our PR relationship, it kind of got announced to the world right away because I guess we didn't handle the situation in the proper way. In between all of that, I didn't have the chance to explain to my family at the time that it was fake and now... it's a bit too late for that.
"What's gotten into your head Leah" Jacob asks and I shrug.
"Nothing, just thinking" I smile and we continue eating breakfast while making conversation and filling each other in on our lives to make up for the time we've spent apart, everyone busy doing their own job.
After eating and spending time with my family, I get up to leave, rushing to get to the pitch on time for training and excited to see Hailey.
"Next time, don't show up without your girlfriend" my mum warns me as she squeezes me into a tight hug.
"I wouldn't even dare"
Hailey's POV
"What's different about you today?" Jen asks me as she's walking with me into the front of the training ground.
"What do you mean?" I ask while I get stopped by a fan asking for a picture. I quickly pose and sign a short, leaving them happy.
"I don't know" Jen continues when we start walking again, "I haven't figured it out yet but you look... more happy?"
"Well, I guess I am"
Its true. For the first time in a while, everything seems to be working out for me.
"And where is lover girl?" Jen asks and hits me playfully with her elbow right in my rib.
"Leah left before I even woke up to spend the morning with her mum before training. She texted me a few minutes ago and she should be here any minute now"
"I heard your mum is here too" Jen says and I nod.
"She'll be watching me play for the first time in person on Sunday"
"Really?" Jen says and turns to look at me when we stop before the entrance of the changing rooms, "I'm really proud of you, of everything you do... I hope you know that"
"Thank you Jenny" I ruffle her hair making her groan.
"never touch my perfect hair again Hailey" she pretends to be mad, pointing her finger at me.
Jen blows a kiss in the air, making me giggle before walking inside. As I make my way towards my cubby, I greet the physio's and other players, but I also don't fail to notice her.
Hannah. Katie's girlfriend... or whoever she is.
What is she doing here?
I watch as she laughs at something a physio is telling her. Her being here was the last thing I was expecting. I thought they were keeping their relationship off the media. Guess not.
Making sure that she doesn't spot me, I walk into my room to get ready for training today. I grab my training gear, put it on and take a look at myself in the mirror.
There is only one thing on my mind right now... Leah
I start blushing even thinking about her but now I need to focus and have a good training session, I cant be distracted. But everything about her and about last night was just incredible. How am I supposed to focus now?
Damn you Leah.
I force myself to stop daydreaming about the England captain and walk out of the room to join the others before we start. There's a few people walking around and working, while Jonas is standing at the side of the pitch.
"Good morning" I greet my head coach.
"Hailey, good morning" he interrupts his previous conversation, closing a notebook that he had in his hands and turns my way, "I wanted to talk to you about yesterday" he whispers, "well, mostly congratulate you for the job you did. There were some good pictures taken"
I just nod, unsure how to reply to that.
"But where'd you go after the dinner? The paparazzi I hired didn't send me any further reports of you two"
"Yeah. Leah wasn't feeling too well, we had to cut it short" I put on my best convincing smile.
"Oh, so she went back to her hotel room?" Jonas asks, suspicion visible in his voice.
Why is this any of his business again?
"She did" I say, but still Jonas looks unconvinced.
"And where did you go?"
"I umh" I play with my hair tie, my heart beat running faster.
Shit. I cant tell him that I spent the night with Leah, but again I haven't once checked into my hotel room this week. If he wants to, he can get a hold of that information, proving that I haven't stayed in the same hotel as the other drivers.
"I was..."
"She was with me"
Katie stands beside me, crossing her arms in front of her chest and throwing me a wide smile.
I try to wipe away my confused look, to not seem suspicious and smile at Katie.
Why is she defending me? I thought she was mad at me. What is she playing at?
A thousands questions run through my head, but they remain unanswered.
"Right" I break my eye contact with Katie and look at Jonas instead, "I met up with Katie"
"Thank you, about last night" she tells me and then turns to Jonas, "I had trouble understanding the strategy that we're following this weekend, Hailey helped me out"
"That's nice to see you getting along and working together" Jonas pats us both on the shoulder, "we'll manage to win by working together, I'm sure of it"
Jonas then Excuses himself to talk to one of his assistant coaches. I look at Katie, who's wearing a small smile and then behind her, where her girlfriend is constantly looking this way, with a not so friendly face. If looks could kill, I'd be six feet under right now.
Her intense staring encourages me to look away.
"Why'd you help me?" I lean over to ask her, in order to avoid people hearing our conversation.
Katie leans over as well, "I'm not the bad guy here Hailey, and I don't want you to see me as one" she says with a sincere voice.
"You don't have to prove yourself to me"
"I'm not. That's not why I helped you" she clears her throat "I feel like you would have done the same thing if it were me"
"Thank you" I smile back "So..."
"So?"
"You and Hannah became..."
"Official?" Katie slowly nods "yeah but it wasn't really my choice"
"What do you mean?"
"If it would have ended up how I wanted, everything would be very different right now" Katie's hands get closer to mine, our fingers softly brush against each other... but I feel nothing.
No spark, no heart beating like crazy, no breath getting stuck in my lungs, no butterflies. Absolutely nothing.
I pull my hand away.
There's only one person that makes adrenaline run through my entire body more than scoring a goal does. And that person has just walked past me onto the bitch with the game face that turns me on so much.
"There you are baby" Leah makes her way to my side, she places a cup of coffee in my hand before placing her hand at the back of my chair and gives me a quick peck on the lips, "I was looking everywhere for you" standing slightly behind me she whispers into my ear for only me to hear.
"Oh Katie, hey mate! Didn't see you there"
"Good to see you Leah" Katie greets her as friendly as she can.
"You should be on the pitch Captain, Jonas will be furious with you if he sees you skiving" I say and start looking around.
"I had to see you first" Leah says and starts kissing the spot down my ear "I missed you"
"We have only been apart for two hours Leah" I laugh
"Too long" she continues kissing my neck over the same places she did last night but I start feeling uncomfortable because of Katie in front of us who lowers her head down.
"Leah"
"Yes baby?" she smirks against my skin and I roll my eyes even though the she cant see me.
"I really hate you right now" I whisper and Leah's lips brush over my ear.
"Show me then"
"Show you what?"
"How much you hate me"
Leah whispering to me makes my entire body go absolutely numb but I force myself to snap out of it.
"Come with me for a second?" I pull Leah away with me into the tunnel beside the pitch.
"I like where this is going" Leah teases when her back as hit the wall.
"What is going through that stupid head of yours?" I whisper yell at her.
"Trust me... you don't wanna know" she smirks, her dimples making an appearance.
"Did you forget about the fact that Katie knows this isn't real?" I say and I watch as Leah's face drops.
Shit.
"Not real?" she repeats with a cold face to hide the fact that my words probably cut through her and I shake my head, regretting what I just said.
"You know that's not what I meant"
"Do I? Because I think I made it pretty clear to you last night that this isn't just some sick game to me Hailey. Do I have to repeat it all again?"
"Leah-" I place my hand on her chest to calm her down in order for me to explain myself, but she rips it off of her.
"What happened to giving us a chance?"
"I am giving us a chance, I just need some time to get used to all of it, you know, being actually together" I run my hand through my hair, "its not something I can adapt to overnight"
Leah looks away from me and I curse myself for making her feel unwanted.
When people tell you something is not real multiple times, it gets engraved in your brain and you start believing it yourself, no matter how much you want to. I was reminded that this wasn't real since the beginning, now I have difficulties considering it otherwise.
"We need to think this through, because it will only get complicated from now on"
"I don't care how complicated it gets" Leah shakes her hear, "I want to be yours not only when the cameras are around, I want to be able to kiss you, to touch you, to hold you even when no ones looking" Leah's hand caresses my cheek, her eyes looking down into mine.
"I want to be with you not just because we signed a piece of paper" she continues "I don't want the pretend, I want the real thing... and I want to have it with you"
Leah's POV
I watch as her mouth slightly falls open as she tries to process everything I just told her. It was hard, opening up to her about how I feel. It was like I wanted her to know how I felt for a very long time, but I didn't want to tell her. I didn't even have the courage to.
But I did it. I finally laid myself bare in front of her, in every way possible. And she knows how I feel.
I haven't been able to stop thinking about Hailey, especially after last night. Last night was the best night of my life that helped me decide what I actually wanted.
And I want her. All of her.
If there was some part of me that was unsure, now I know. And I've never been so sure about anyone else like I am about her.
Its like we're made for each other, like our souls are meant to be together and it goes against so many rules, but yet it feels so right.
Us being together comes with so many risks but she's worth taking every single one of them.
"Please say something" I please as I stand here, after pouring my heart out to her, "anything"
"Do you trust me?" Hailey asks, her hand cupping my cheek.
"Yes" I nod "of course I do"
She opens her mouth about to speak when...
"Hailey? Leah? We need you both on the pitch now, come on" Kim shouts.
"We'll talk later?"
Hailey walks away and im left standing there with a thousand thoughts running through my head.