Chapter 45

“Your sister?” Theo’s teammate asked. Then understanding seemed to dawn on him. “Oh.”

He knew Theo had a sister. She had even come to see him at the team’s training center once: a sweet-looking girl, if a little spoiled. So that was why Fin had thrown the game. The other player’s name reminded him of her.

Theo stared at the large screen across the airport. His teammates joked around him, but their voices barely reached him. He had something else on his mind.

He had been reborn.

Once he grew used to the idea, he accepted it quickly enough, although he had no idea why it had happened to him. Whatever the reason, he had been handed a free chance to undo his regrets.

The players slumped in their seats, scarves wrapped high around their faces. After almost a month in Russia, none of them had gotten used to the weather. Bundled up like bears, they could hardly wait to get home.

Their manager surveyed the group. No one looked remotely nervous about the match ahead.

“Once we land, we’re going straight to the hotel,” he said. “We’ll meet tonight to go over tactics. And watch what you eat. No messing up tomorrow.”

They had cut the training camp short and were returning to the States for that match. It was a regular competition they attended every year, neither especially important nor entirely trivial. SK had won the previous year, which meant they and the runners-up could skip the preliminary qualifiers and face the three teams that advanced from them.

The competition mattered less for its own sake than as preparation for the European tournament at the end of the year. They needed to find their competitive rhythm and keep themselves sharp.

A distracted chorus of agreement came from the players. Then they buried their faces back in their scarves.

“Fin, do you have anything to add?” the manager asked, frowning.

Tomorrow’s match might not be a major event, but a loss would hurt SK’s popularity and the players’ confidence. As captain, Fin ought to give them a few words of encouragement.

He was the center of the team, the one who kept everyone steady. At the manager’s question, heads emerged from scarves all around him.

Theo glanced over, then looked away again. “Just don’t lose.”

Coming from Fin, that meant they were dead if they did.

Their expressions changed. A few of them sighed, suddenly a good deal more anxious than they had been a moment ago.

When had they last lost a match? Last year. One of them had been so nervous the night before that he’d had a little too much to drink, and the mistakes had piled up once they were onstage.

Fin hadn’t said a word after the match. During the review, he had seemed to forget the incident entirely. Then he increased their training load. For a whole week they lived through hell, and not one of them dared complain.

At the memory, the players went pale.

The manager’s frown deepened. Theo’s indifferent attitude made irritation flare in his chest, but Fin’s skill was undeniable. If SK wanted to win, they needed him. The manager swallowed his complaints.

Theo looked at him without expression.

In his previous life, he’d known the man was dissatisfied with him. He hadn’t expected that resentment to turn into a shove when he was already down, or that the manager would try every possible way to drive him out of the team.

Theo had joined SK’s youth program at seventeen. The team was where his dream had begun. Even after he fought his way back, joined another team and beat SK in a national competition, he couldn’t pretend he felt no regret.

He had been given another life. This time, he wouldn’t be the one forced out of SK.

When boarding time came, the players rose in small groups. A man with a crew cut came racing through the airport entrance, bundled up in an SK jacket. He nearly failed to stop when he reached them. Bracing both hands on his knees, he panted, “Damn. I thought I’d never make it.”

The manager glared at him. The man, Coach Mercer, had been a professional player himself before retiring and joining SK as its coach. There was only so much the manager could say to him.

“Any later and you can pay for your own ticket,” he said, forcing down his temper.

Mercer knew what he was like. “It’s not that serious. Worst case, I could go straight to the venue tomorrow.”

The manager gave a cold snort.

Once Mercer caught his breath, he went over to Theo. Headphones hung around Theo’s neck. The lazy look had left his eyes, and he raised a brow at the coach as if prompting him.

“I found her,” Mercer said quickly.

The team headed for the gate. Mercer and Theo fell behind the others.

“Which school?” Theo asked, lowering his gaze.

“Northbridge High.”

Theo considered that for a moment. Then his usual bored expression returned. “Okay.”

If there was one thing he absolutely had to do after being reborn, it concerned Elise.

After their parents died in his previous life, he had hardly gone home. He hadn’t felt much of anything toward the sister the family had found again, either. It was only after the bankruptcy that they had grown close.

At this point in their lives, she had only recently returned to the family. As far as he knew, his brothers neglected her just as he did, and there was still an adopted daughter in the house. Elise probably wasn’t having an easy time there.

Well, if home was treating her badly, her one conscientious brother could give her somewhere else to belong.

He had no way to contact her, so he’d asked Mercer to have friends back home find out where she was.

Mercer couldn’t understand why it had taken so much trouble. “She’s your sister. Wouldn’t she be at home? Why not just go back and see her?”

Theo gave him a casual look. “When have you ever seen me go home?”

Mercer fell silent. Theo had joined the team at seventeen. In the five years since, he’d gone home so rarely Mercer could count the visits. He lived in the team dorm and trained day and night; whenever he did return, he came back in a foul mood. Sometimes he even spent New Year’s alone at the training center.

There had to be a reason, but Mercer had never dared ask.

Ahead of them, the players began to board. Theo looked toward the plane.

Mercer knew he was in a hurry to find Elise. Still, there was a match to think about. Remembering his responsibilities as coach, he said, “We play tomorrow, so you’ll have to wait until afterward. Players aren’t free to go out during the competition. You’re the captain; you can’t be the first one to break the rules.”

Theo lifted a brow. “Who said I was going to break them?”

Relief spread over Mercer’s face. He clapped Theo hard on the shoulder. “That’s better. You can see her a little later. A short delay won’t hurt.”

“Sure,” Theo said easily. “But I won’t be in good form.”

“Who are you trying to fool?”

Mental steadiness was part of a professional player’s job. In the three years Mercer had been with SK, Theo’s composure had been remarkable. Whether the team was ahead or falling behind, he played the same way. Mercer suspected that if an earthquake struck during a match, Theo would sit there calmly, win the last game, and only then get up to leave.

Now his hands were in his pockets, his scarf loose over his shoulders and his headphones around his neck. He looked utterly at ease. Nothing about him suggested he was about to fall apart before tomorrow’s match.

Theo glanced at the coach. “Your job is to keep your players calm during a competition and do what you can to meet their needs. If she isn’t there, I’ll be distracted. It’ll affect my game tomorrow. What if we lose? You’d have to take at least half the blame.”

Mercer stopped walking. Was Theo actually threatening him? Where was his authority as coach?

The worst part was that it worked. Without Theo, SK lost half its fighting strength. They really couldn’t afford to go into tomorrow’s match without him.

Mercer sighed. “Fine. Tell me what it’ll take for you to be in good form.”

“Easy.” Theo looked ahead. “Bring her to me.”

Back at school, Dylan had cursed Fin thoroughly after the disastrous first game. He led Elise through two more matches, and they won both. Some of his pride restored, he finally felt better.

Miles hurried back to the health office with sweat covering his face. When he saw Elise sitting safely on the bed, he let out a breath. He sent Dylan, Jade and Nora on their way, then picked up the medicine the nurse had given her.

“Why don’t we just ask for the rest of the day off and go home?” he said, frowning.

It was sports day, and the teachers had assigned their homework in advance. Elise thought it over. There was no reason she couldn’t leave early.

“Okay.”

“I’ll get your bag.” Miles was already running out before she could refuse.

He had just finished the three-thousand-meter race and was drenched in sweat, though he was only slightly out of breath. He didn’t complain once about running back and forth for her. By the time he returned, the sweat had caught up with him and soaked most of his clothes.

“I spoke to your homeroom adviser,” he said, bending toward her. His voice softened. “Come on. Let’s get you home.”

He turned his back and crouched for her to climb on. Then he remembered something, rummaged through his own bag and handed her a spare uniform jacket.

“Put this over my back.”

Elise stared at it. “Why?”

He stayed bent over, his hands on his knees. “I’m all sweaty. I don’t want to get you dirty.”

If there had been time, he would have liked a shower first. His sister smelled nice, and he was covered in sweat.

After he urged her a few times, Elise hesitantly spread the jacket over his back and looped her arms around his neck. He lifted her up.

Miles had excellent stamina, but the school gate was some distance from the health office. They had to cross the whole athletic field under the hot sun.

Elise felt embarrassed about making him carry her all that way, especially when he had just run three thousand meters. She could see sweat dripping from his temple.

“Miles,” she said softly, “I could hop for a while. You just finished the race. Don’t push yourself.”

The jacket added another layer of heat, and his back was nearly soaked through. He tightened his arms, caught her wrists where they rested around his neck, and shifted her higher.

“I’m fine. Don’t move.” His voice was so gentle that she pressed her lips together and held on a little tighter.

Miles was usually impatient and bad-tempered with everyone, even their other brothers. With her alone, he was gentle, willing to run himself ragged without a word of complaint.

Brother, she thought.

Since she’d been reborn, everything had been changing for the better. Her brothers treated her more and more kindly. She had long since abandoned her first plan to keep away from them; with them around, she felt safe.

If she could, she wanted them to remain a family forever.

There was just one person missing: Theo.

Whenever the others mentioned their third brother, there was a distance in their voices. Julian, Adrian and Miles weren’t particularly close to one another either, but Theo was different. He was hardly home even once a year. Something seemed to stand between him and the rest of them.

Elise leaned forward, close to Miles’s ear. “Do you know why Theo doesn’t come home?”

He turned his head, surprised. “Why are you asking?”

She paused. She wanted Theo to come back too. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone could be together?

“I was just curious.”

Miles faced forward again and thought for a long time. “I’m not really sure. He left when I was in middle school. I heard he and Mom and Dad had some kind of disagreement. He didn’t come back until their funeral.”

Elise blinked. He had left that early?

“He’s always been like that, as far as I remember,” Miles continued, sounding unconcerned. “He likes being on his own. You don’t have to worry about him.”

Elise lowered her head, thinking of the time she and Theo had spent together in her previous life. He had been used to being alone then too. But if she stayed with her other three brothers while Theo lived by himself, wouldn’t he be lonely?

She didn’t know what had happened between them. Still, surely there were things a family could work through.