“That’s my girl.”

…

The next two weeks passed as if time was moving at 4x speed. Everything beyond 857/890

soccer, Liam, my friends, and family fell completely by the wayside. I forgot what TV

was, I hadn’t cracked my laptop open, and I swear there were cobwebs surrounding my makeup and high heels.

But I loved every second of it. I loved training alongside Liam after we both finished our team practices. He pushed me to become better, and I tried to do the same for him. I’d finally made the final transition to move in with him and I loved coming home to his house every day. I couldn’t feel the exact moments when our relationship began growing into something more, but one night as we laid in bed recounting our days and cuddling around one another, I realized that this was it.

He was it.

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I buried my face against his chest and I kept my thoughts to myself. After all, we’d only been together four months and I was still nineteen… a baby in the eyes of most people.

Early the next morning, I woke up to my phone vibrating on the nightstand beside Liam’s bed. I rolled over and reached blindly for the traitorous device, hoping in vain that my spidey senses would kick in. Nope, nothing. I had to actually blink my eyes open like a real person.

Emily’s named flashed across the screen and I groaned before answering.

“Emily? What’s up?” I asked with a sleepy voice. Why the hell was she calling me so early? I’d see her at practice in an hour anyway.

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“KINSLEY! You got a letter!” She squealed into the speaker so loudly that Liam shifted in his sleep next to me.

“What are you talking about? My mom sends me stuff all the time. Just bring it to—”

“No! Kinsley, you got the letter. It’s from the USA Soccer Association. I haven’t opened it, but it’s a thick packet and I know it’s your invitation!”

That sentence woke me up as if I’d just downed five espresso shots. My mouth fell open and my fingers loosened around the sleek phone. In slow motion I watched it clatter to the hardwood floor.

“Kinsley!

Kinsley?!”

Emily

called

through the speaker.

“HOLY SHIT!” I screamed, and jumped out of bed.

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“What? Kinsley, what’s going on?” Liam shot up, rubbing his eyes and trying to piece together the strange wakeup call. I was too busy dancing around his room to care that I woke him up.

“Liam! I got a letter this morning from the USA Soccer Association! Emily called—”

“Yeah… I’m still here by the way.” I heard her muffled voice through the speaker of my phone and started laughing.

I ran back over and grabbed the phone.

“Ah! Will you bring the letter to practice, Emily? I’ll open it there.”

“Okay. I’m so happy for you! I’ll see you in a little bit.”

“Thanks Em,” I hung up, dropped my phone on the bedside table, and slowly turned to Liam.

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He was sitting there shirtless with the comforter bunched around his waist. His hair was sticking in every direction, but his smile caught my breath.

“You did it,” he murmured with a scratchy voice.

I mashed my lips together to quell my emotions. “I don’t know if it’s actually the letter. It could be something else.” He dipped his head and gave me a little smirk. “Babe, you did it. They don’t bother sending letters of rejection. If you got a packet, it’s an invitation.”

“Liam…”

His smile widened, and he tossed the blankets off his body before reaching for me.

His fingertips caught my waist and I squealed as he pulled my body onto his.

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“You’re amazing,” he whispered into my ear as he pinned my body to his.

I propped my hands on his chest so that I could look up at him. The smile he was wearing was so genuine that I had to suck in a quick breath.

“So amazing that I probably can’t date you anymore.”

“Mmm…” he murmured, pulling me closer so that I could feel the rumbling in his chest. “Are you going to trade up?” he asked before placing a kiss right behind my ear.

Hah.

I tried to think of a single person that I could trade up to… let’s see… there was…

nope. No one. Liam was it. He was the person at the end of the day made me laugh the loudest and swoon the longest. He kept me 863/890

on my toes and I liked hanging out with him— chatting, working out, and cooking dinner just as much as I enjoyed having rockin’-out-of-this-world sex. No really, I’m talking about some primo horizontal tango action.

There was no trading up.

I’d scored Liam Wilder.

I let my body collapse onto his and smiled into the warmth of his neck. “On second thought, I think I’ll stay right here.” He laughed before wrapping his arms around me. “I’m so proud of you, Kins.”

“It doesn’t feel real,” I whispered into his neck.

He was quiet for a moment, and then finally he answered, “She believed she could so she did.” He was reminding me of the ink 864/890

inscribed over my ribcage. Ink that I stared at every morning as I resolved to work harder than I had the day before, to push myself past my limits, because in the back of my mind I thought that maybe I was just crazy enough to reach my dream.

And today, in that very moment, I realized that all of the work had actually paid off.

“I did it.”

Epilogue

On the eve of my 20th birthday I sat in a plush limousine, watching the city lights blur together as we continued to drive toward downtown LA. So much had changed in the course of one year. I’d been on a rollercoast-er ride and there was still no end in sight.

Becca and I had both been invited to try out for the Olympic team, and to our surprise, we’d both made it past the first round.

And then the second… and then finally our names were the final two printed on the Olympic roster. We were by far the youngest on the team, and we’d had a lot to prove over the last few months. Practices had challenged me mentally and physically, but I didn’t take a single moment for granted. I’d had to step back from the ULA team and put 866/890

school on pause for the time being, but none of that mattered. I wanted to play soccer and I’d landed my dream of competing at the world level.

“Are you all packed?” Becca asked, stirring me from my thoughts. I glanced back inside the limo to find her and Emily watching me with curiosity.

I shrugged. “I have a few last minute things to get, but yeah, mostly. I just need to remember to grab my passport.”

“As long as you don’t go too crazy at your party, you should be coherent enough to remember it in the morning,” Emily laughed.

I smiled at her joke and thought about how much effort Liam had put into tonight.

On top of preparing to leave the country, 867/890

Liam had planned an early birthday party for me. He’d kept every detail under lock and key, even when I tried to seduce it out of him. The guy wouldn’t crack, so I’d spent the day getting pampered with Emily and Becca, excited that there was a surprise waiting for me at the end of the limo ride.

“I don’t think I’ll drink at all, actually,” I said, staring down at my bright red dress. It was flirty with stretchy fabric, a dipped neck-line, cap sleeves, and a flared skirt. It cut off fairly short, but I knew Liam wouldn’t mind.

“Yeah, same here,” Becca agreed. We both had to eliminate anything deemed “un-healthy” from our diets almost as soon as we’d made the team.

“Wait, so now I’m the craziest one out of the three of us?” Emily laughed.

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I couldn’t help smiling as I thought back on the first night I’d dragged Emily to the LA Stars’ party. I thought I’d corrupt her, but in the end, the three of us sort of evened each other out. I like to think she gave me a bit of her calmness and I lent her a bit of my wild side. Becca just gave us both a ton of bruises.