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The first time he noticed how green her eyes were, he was listening to her probably make a joke and was still in love with his wife.
With only 2% of the population of the world having green eyes, they were surprise to see. He tried not to wax poetic about eyes to people out of habit after years of Michelle feeling insecure about her own brown eyes and trying to make her the happiest woman on earth.
Apparently he was failing on two fronts.
Fast forward to an unexpected win, a karaoke club, and the sound of his own breathing overwhelming him and out of nowhere, those two green eyes pierced his soul and brought him back to earth, like a fish on a hook. As tempting as it was to get caught by this woman, this tall goddess that he had been trying and sometimes failing to build a team with, this wasn’t the time or the place and so took himself off the hook and swam back to the hotel as fast as he could.
Too bad there’s other fish in the sea.
Flash forward again and there are those eyes, flashing with excitement when “we’re gonna win the whole fucking thing” is both a promise and a rallying cry and it steals his breath away for a moment and then shakes it off and literally spits out, damn bubbly water.
Again, and she’s saving him from himself on Christmas.
Again, and they haven’t talked in forever, but here she is in the boot room to help her friend out (and lie about smoking, but that’s the British for you).
Again, and she promises another truth bomb next year, and he begins to hope and hate at the same time, which is mighty confusing and why?
Again, and she’s just been broken up with and Nate’s gone and he feels like he might spiral but there she is, looking at him like he gets it and she’s not alone and he’s not alone and they’re a team, united against the world and anxiety and Rupert and everything trying to tear each other into shreds.
Again, and he’s just back from a trip to Kansas and the pre-season starts tomorrow, but this is the first Biscuits with the Boss of this season, so he’s got to be there and be present because it’s her. And because it’s her, it’s Rebecca, and they texted and emailed all summer but didn’t talk on phone once out of some weird courtly love tradition that isn’t really love, wasn’t really love until his mom asked why he couldn’t put his phone down and share what made him smile like that and Michelle and her new boyfriend kept giving him knowing glances and smirks over Henry’s head, he knows the first words out his mouth are important and he can’t ask a question that doesn’t mean anything.
But it’s Rebecca, and she beats him to the punch with a warm smile and hands reaching toward him. “Welcome back! How are you feeling?”
He just walks forward, put the pink box down, and spills it all. Everything she’s ever done for him, how that makes him feel, how he’s come to care for her and that it turned into more, how she’s the most gorgeous woman he’s ever seen but her beauty goes through her and then through him like a punch to gut. How could someone so kind and loving and loyal and ferocious and majestic be on this earth? How could he be so lucky to call that person a friend? And he’s not putting her on a pedestal because nobody’s perfect but she’s the right kind of imperfect for him, and he’s never talked this much in his life which is really saying something, so he’s going to go and please feel free to call HR if this was too much and he’s going to go now.
She just looks at him, gobsmacked, as she might say, and watches him all but run out of the room and down to the coaches office, where Beard and Roy are discussing conditioning exercises but stop at his entrance.
The green eyes haunt him the rest of the day and that night and into the next morning, until they make a real life appearance outside his flat as he leaves to go to work the next day. He sees Beard pull a 180 as he hands her the biscuits and makes a nervous joke about Biscuits with Boss, walking version. She huffs, her version of a laugh when she doesn’t want to laugh, but he knows her well enough to know she thinks he’s funny.
And then those green eyes are staring into his, and she’s telling him that she loves him too, and she was so sorry she didn’t say anything yesterday because she thought it was going to take a lot longer for either of them to get to that point and while she also finds him attractive maybe they could take things slow and still be friends first for a little while?
He tries really hard not to jump up and down and helicopter her but he settles for a tight hug, one that’s returned just as tight, both of them in the middle of the Richmond Green holding on like their lives depend on it.
Flash forward and they have a rotating list of weekly traditions, starting with Movie Mondays and ending with Sober Sundays, and every time she looks at him there’s more love in her eyes and in his heart and he might burst.
Flash forward again and he spends the night after the gala because he could keep his hands off of her but wasn’t trying real hard and he wakes up and is glad he’s letting her reel him in.
Again, and it’s the end of the season and they’ve beat Rupert and Nate apologized and some wounds take a while to heal but she’s right there beside him, hand in hand and heart in heart.
Again, and they’ve agreed to spend the rest of their lives together and she’s looking at him over Henry’s head and her eyes are telling him everything he needs to know.
Man, this must be the life.