Hooked: A Stepbrother Romance Read Online Free PDF Page A

her,” I interrupted. Emilia shot daggers at me with her eyes. “She’s exaggerating. A little. Besides, we’ll be dividing the teams by gender, keeping you safe from rampaging Norsemen.”
    After I finished my explanation, Emilia’s expression changed. The open hostility vanished, her eyes sparkling with barely-contained amusement even as her lips curled upwards. It was the same look she’d had earlier, when she was giving out the old vests.
    I shivered.
    Half an hour later, everyone was sorted into one of two circles, passing an oval ball around. I could see the tension in Emilia’s small frame as she walked around the players, trying to keep the most rebellious ones in line. Clearly, no one here was overly enthused about having to play rugby.
    Rummaging through my bag, I pulled out a can of spray paint. A couple teens eyed me with curiosity, though they didn’t say anything. Nobody had really spoken to me at all; they’d noticed Emilia’s refusal to introduce me and were snubbing me accordingly. I wondered when the happy, smiling girl I used to know had turned so cruel, but I already knew the answer.
    She’d learned it from me.
    I put that thought out of my mind as I sprayed two blue lines down the field, a hundred feet long and joined together at a right angle. Emilia’s closed-off face glared at me in suspicion as I went back to my bag and pulled out a can of red paint, drawing two more lines and forming a large square in the dry grass.
    By now, I’d drawn enough attention to myself that just about everyone was staring. I waved my right arm at a nearby group of players, projecting my voice in their general direction.
    “You lot, get in there,” I shouted, gesturing towards the square. “When I call a color, you’ll try to score a try below that color’s line.”
    “What’s ‘scoring a try?’” called a voice, and I smiled. It was the girl with the orange mohawk, the one Emilia had referred to by name earlier. Despite her best efforts to keep me in the dark, I still had a chance to make a connection.
    “Thanks for asking, Shauna. Think of it like football. I’m going to give everyone a ball, and you need to run with it. Get it behind the line as quickly as you can.”
    “Red!” I yelled after everyone had shambled into place with their practice balls. They casually strolled towards the red line, moving at a pace that would’ve made one of the senior citizens over at Johnnie’s impatient. Off to the side of the square, Emilia and the other players were laughing.
    Turning towards another group, I motioned for their attention.
    “Now you guys get in there, too. No balls for you. Instead, your goal is to prevent the other team from scoring a try. Anyone care to guess how you do that?”
    “By tackling them?” Shauna suggested.
    “That’s right! You’re not allowed to go for the head, neck, or shoulders, but everything else is accepted.” The second group milled their way into the square.
    “Red!” I shouted, and immediately the defenders ran to grab the attackers as best they could. It wasn’t exactly rugby yet, but we were getting there.
    “Shauna, get in there,” I called after noticing she was loitering outside the game area.
    She didn’t move, glaring at me in defiance. I raised an eyebrow, returning the stare, and eventually she got the message.
    “Fine,” she muttered, reluctantly entering the painted-on square.
    “What do you call Emilia?”
    “‘Coach,’ I guess.”
    “Then I guess you can call me Coach, too,” I said, politely overlooking her rolled eyes as she took her position. Without warning, I threw one of the remaining balls at her. She caught it midair without any trouble.
    Pulling a whistle from my pocket, I blew on it and called blue . Shauna sprinted towards the line without missing a beat, effortlessly pulling ahead of everyone else. No one was able to catch her, and she scored with ease.
    I shot a furtive glance at Emilia, only to find that she was already