Outside the Lines by Kate Christie

Author:Kate Christie [Christie, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780985367763
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Emma checked the scoreboard, knowing what she would find. The game was nearly over, and Arsenal was still only up 2-1. If they didn’t score again, and soon, they would lose on aggregate goals and their Champions League run would be over in the Round of Sixteen.

“Come on, Jamie,” she yelled, unable to bring herself to shout out the name of one of Manchester United’s biggest rivals. There was love, and then there was football. She was here, wasn’t she? That was more than she could say for most of London.

Jamie had warned her that the Women’s Super League didn’t draw even a fraction of the fan support that the NWSL did. Seattle’s attendance this past season had averaged close to four thousand, a fifty-five percent increase over their inaugural season. Those figures were embarrassing when compared to Portland’s thirteen thousand or the Sounders’ forty-five thousand, but even the Reign’s attendance figures dwarfed the numbers she could see in the stands at Arsenal’s home pitch, which seemed smaller even than her high school stadium. What were there, 800 people here to witness a Champions League Round of Sixteen playoff match? No more than a thousand, surely.

Allie, Britt’s girlfriend, grabbed Emma’s arm and pointed. Jamie was sprinting through the midfield, head up and ball at her feet, and Emma could see the play unfolding even before Jamie slotted the ball between a pair of defenders and into the path of a striker Emma recognized from the English national team. The fleet-footed woman took a touch and then blasted the ball into the corner of the net.

Emma and Allie leapt out of their seats, cheering mightily. They had done it! They had taken the lead in the two-game series. She checked the clock again. Two and a half minutes left in regulation. Now all they had to do was hold on until the referee blew the final whistle.

As Jamie jogged back to the center circle, her eyes sought out Emma in the stands.

“You got this,” Emma mouthed at her, shooting her a thumbs-up.

Nodding, Jamie waved and turned away.

That’s my girl, Emma thought, exchanging a grin with Allie. Watching Jamie play was so fun. Why hadn’t she done this sooner? Oh, right. That thing called a job. Playing for club and country didn’t leave much wiggle room.

Four agonizingly long minutes later, the referee blew her whistle in the standard three long tweets. Arsenal had won 3-1, and in doing so they’d stolen the round from the Swiss team and earned a spot in the quarterfinals in March.

Emma followed Allie down to the field and jumped the barrier. She would have been content to wait near the center line, but Allie took her hand and dragged her over to the home bench while the two teams shook hands. After a brief team talk with the coaches, Jamie and Britt came jogging over all pink cheeks and smiles. Britt pulled Allie into a hug, but Jamie stopped a pace away and held her hand up for a high five, eyes slightly questioning.

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