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Rebecca Welton knows for a fact that she has never stepped foot in the state of Minnesota until today. When her father played for the Kansas City Greyhounds, it was rare that she attended away games and when she had, it was to places warmer than Kansas. However, when Ted asked her to join the team on their small road trip, she couldn’t say no.
Things have been … interesting between the two as of late. During one of the early Biscuits with the Boss, three days before his second game as head coach, she had mentioned that she slowly stopped ice skating when she got married but hasn’t laced up her skates in the year and a half that’s passed since her father’s death. She tells Ted that it’s fine, that she doesn’t need to skate, and reminds her too much of her father but he won’t take no for an answer. So, after work two nights a week, Rebecca finds herself skating in the same rink her father used to, the same ice under her blades, Ted next to her.
They share more intimate details of their lives while on the ice. Rebecca shares her favorite stories of her father, tells Ted that the Kansas she grew up in was different from the one that she had come back to when she got married, mentions tidbits from her marriage and her messy divorce and how Rupert seems destined to bring her down even though she cares more about the Greyhounds than he ever could. In turn, Ted tells her about when he taught Henry how to ice skate, the way he would fall on his bum and then giggle like it was the funniest thing in the world, and mentions to her that his own father passed away when he was sixteen, shares stories of his playing and coaching career.
When Ted told her one night that Michelle had thought he was too much, Rebecca came to a full stop, staring at the back of his head, her mouth agape. How could anyone find you to be too much? She had questioned and Ted shrugged his shoulders, but something shifted inside of her in that moment. Suddenly, Ted wasn’t just her head coach and her best friend, he was something more and butterflies erupted in her stomach.
It wasn’t until the following week when Henry was visiting and a welcomed addition to their late-night skates, that it fully hit her.
She’s leaning against the boards in front of the visiting team’s bench, watching as Ted plays goalie to his son, a smile on her features as she watches the two Lasso boys. It’s a treat, getting to see Ted as a dad.
Henry makes his tenth goal in a row and Ted picks him up, spinning them both around on the ice, laughter erupting out of the young boy and she gets it. As she watches the duo return to their game, Rebecca realizes it’s not just a harmless crush she has.
Somehow, in the past few months, she’s fallen in love with Theodore Lasso.
Before she has a chance to spiral about the revelation, Henry calls her over to join them and she can’t say no to the boy.
She doesn’t know if her feelings are requited, but Keeley is a constant thorn in her side that Ted must feel the same way as her. With the way Ted practically begged her to join the team on this trip, she’s inclined to agree with her friend, but the thought of the possibility of ruining their friendship runs deep. Ted is the reason she feels comfortable lacing up her skates again, the reason she can step on the ice and think of something else besides the deep well of grief inside of her.
There’s a knock on her hotel room door and she opens it, finding Ted Lasso standing on the other side. One of his hands is in the pocket of his typical khakis, his other arm covered in two large parkas. She raises an eyebrow, her head nodding towards the coats.
“Oh? These? It’s mighty cold in Minnesota in January. Even more once the sun goes down.”
She leans against the doorframe, her arms crossed in front of her cream knit sweater. “Are you planning on us spending an extended amount of time outside?”
“What I’m planning is a secret little lady.”
Rebecca rolls her eyes but grabs her purse off the table near the door, double-checking that she has her phone and room key before meeting him in the hallway. In the time it took for her to grab her purse, Ted has slipped into his own coat, holding hers out for her to put her arms into. She smiles, slipping into the coat before nestling her purse in the crook of her arm.
“You look beautiful, by the way.”
Her cheeks flush, her head dipping as she zips up her coat. It’s moments like these that make her think that it’s possible that he feels the same way about her. It makes her feel like a schoolgirl again, like he’s the first person she’s ever had a crush on, like they’re both not divorced with years of baggage behind them.
---
He’s still not used to it, the way she looks when she’s unguarded, when she’s comfortable in a situation, when she’s shed all of the armor she keeps around her. Ted knows what an honor it is to be able to see her like this. It’s a side of her that only comes out when they’re alone and skating - when she’s changed from the power suits and pencil skirts and into leggings and a sweatshirt.
There’s something about her that he can’t place, something that feels so familiar like they’ve known each other all their lives instead of the few short months he’s been the coach.
“Where are you taking me?” She questions from her spot in the passenger seat. He typically won’t get a rental car when at an away game, never needed to get away from the team for his own adventure, but this is different. This isn’t just any away game. They’re in his college city and there’s a place on the edge of the city that he wants to share with her.
Ted doesn’t take the time to analyze why he wants to share with Rebecca. He knows why. He’s in love with her, has been for as long as he can remember. He doesn’t know the first time he felt it, but he knew the first day he saw her with Henry. The way she was so quick to chase him around the rink, laughter coming out of both of them. He remembers thinking that he would be okay with that being the soundtrack for the rest of his life.
That’s the thought that scares him the most. They’re both freshly divorced from marriages that hurt them, no matter how different they were. He spends countless hours wondering how someone could hurt her in the way Rupert did, how he could possibly want anyone else besides her. She’s not his, but he still feels like there’s no one else in the world he wants to be with if not her.
There’s a fear inside of him that he’s going to be too much, but after near-daily biscuit deliveries and bi-weekly late-night skating, he doesn’t let the fear drive him anymore.
He’s going to tell her.
Someday.
“See, now, that’s a secret.”
“You’re lucky I trust you, Lasso,” she teases, the side of her head resting against the back of her seat as she watches him. He steals a quick glance at her at a stop sign, smiling at the way her green eyes twinkle under the streetlights. “If it were anyone else, I’d be worried about getting murdered.”
He chuckles as he presses the gas pedal. “Did you know you’re more likely to be murdered by someone you know than by a stranger?”
Her eyebrows furrow together. “How do you know that?”
They make quick eye contact before both saying Beard at the same time. She giggles at that and the sound sends a warm wave of affection through him. He loves her so much that he doesn’t understand how it all fits inside of him.
The rest of the drive to his secret location is spent singing along to whatever eighties country songs came on the radio. It was an odd comfort, to know that they grew up with the same taste in music, no doubt an attribute to their shared home state.
Rebecca still has a thick English accent when she speaks a majority of the time, however, there are certain words and phrases that cause a faint southern accent to sneak out. It always makes him smile, a fond reminder that they have more in common than what meets the eye.
He pulls into a dimly lit parking lot, sparing a glance at Rebecca as he turns the car off. Her eyebrows are furrowed together, a look of pure concern on her face as she takes in their surroundings. Ted knows why she’s concerned, to someone who doesn’t know any better, it looks like they’re in a closed park, but he knows better and he hopes that Rebecca trusts him enough to follow him.
“Is there a reason we’re here?”
Ted lets out a soft chuckle. “You said you trust me. Still stand by that?”
She rolls her eyes and shakes her head with a laugh. “Unfortunately.”
He just grins at her before getting out of the car. Quickly, he grabs a duffle bag out of the backseat before rounding to meet Rebecca on the other side. Ted holds his free arm out to her, feeling a flush flood his cheeks as she wraps both of hers around it. It’s something he’s grown used to, the blush was ever present anytime he was around his boss, but it still warms his heart. During his relationship with his ex-wife, Ted knows that Michelle never caused this reaction in him, even when they first started dating.
“As you know, I went to the University of Minnesota. A good ole Golden Gopher - It’s been over twenty years and I still don’t know what a golden gopher is. Ain’t never seen a gopher with my eyeballs either and you would think that since I went to U of M, I would’ve -”
“Ted?” She interrupts his nervous rambling and he doesn’t care. The way his name rolls off her tongue, the way it sounds in her accent - soft and rounded - sends a shiver down his spine. “I adore your ramblings, but I don’t think you brought me out here to try and find a gopher.”
“You’re absolutely right boss! I didn’t bring you out here to find a gopher.” They reach the top of a hill that overlooks a frozen pond. Rebecca’s head turns, her eyes meeting his gaze, a soft smile on her features. She raises an eyebrow, gesturing towards the ice with a small nod. “Ahh, that would be the reason we’re out here.”
He leads her down the slope as he continues to talk. “When I was in college, Beard and I used to sneak away and take a few laps on this pond. A few other guys from the team found out and it became a tradition. It took a few semesters for the school to catch on, but once they did, they paid to have a light installed so their precious players weren’t skating in the dark.”
“And you brought me here because?”
Ted smirks at her as they come to a stop in front of a bench. Quickly, he takes the duffel bag from his shoulder and rests it on the wood before unzipping it and handing Rebecca her skates. “Well, we’re going to miss both of our weekly skates because of the away games and I wasn’t gonna ask the other teams to give us their arena after hours.”
“We could’ve skipped the skates,” she murmurs as she sits down on the free spot, unlacing her winter boots and slipping them off.
“We could’ve,” he retorts, sitting down next to her with his own skating in hand, mimicking her actions. “But I like spending time with ya.”
He makes it a point to not look at her, but he can feel her eyes on him.
“I like spending time with you too,” she whispers, low enough that he can barely hear her. He smiles to himself as he finishes tying his skates. Ted stands, holding his hands out to her.
“Plus,” he starts as she slips one gloved hand into his, “I wanted to show you a place that’s special to me. You share the Dogtrack with me every day and I know how much it meant to you growing up.”
“Ted,” she whispers as she stands, green eyes locking on his hazel, affection clear in her eyes. He knows that he could get lost in them, set adrift in the sea that hides so much from untrained eyes, but Ted knows. He knows hows to read every emotion that passes through them.
There’s a shift in the air between them. Something feels different, something hanging in the space around them that wasn’t there before. Sure, there’s always been the lingering of untold words and unshared affections, but this is the closest either of them has gotten to saying what they feel for the other out loud.
“Come on,” he replies, tugging on her hand. They step onto the ice, treading carefully on the frozen pond before fully committing and taking longer strides. There’s light banter and small talk about the game the following day and what the upcoming week means for them before they return to a comfortable silence between them.
“Can -” Rebecca starts, her voice low as she slows down, suddenly keeping a few strides difference between her and Ted “Can I ask you something?”
Concern floods his system. Ted can’t recall a time she’s looked so timid, so small. He knows that act that she puts on when they're at work, but even off the clock, she’s never seemed so little.
“You don’t have to answer if it’s crossing a line.”
“Becca,” he states, the pitch of his voice matching hers. “I can’t think of anything you would ask me that would cross a line.”
She lets out a long sigh, her eyes downcast where her fingers are toying with her gloves. “Did you ever bring Michelle here?”
That causes him to pause, his eyes still watching her closely. “No. She,” he runs a hand through his hair. “She didn’t care much for skating.”
Rebecca nods, still not looking at him.
“Rebecca,” Ted whispers, skating over to stand in front of her, his hands coming to rest on hers. “What’s going on? Why did you ask?”
She finally looks up at him and Ted sees the unshed tears in her eyes. “Rebecca-“ he repeats, a hand cupping her cheek. He wishes that he could feel her skin under his, but he prefers to have fingers.
“No one,” she whispers into the cold night air. “No one has made me feel this special in a long time.”
“Becca,” he breaths. There’s so much tension in his chest, his heart breaking for her. Ted wishes she could see herself the way he sees her, see how amazing and incredible and strong and powerful she is. “Your ex-husband was a piece of work. You deserve to know how amazing you are. You’re incredible, Rebecca. You’re so strong, you’ve been through so much but you haven’t let it harden you. You might think you have, but under all that armor is still a heart of gold. You love with your entire being, honey. You care about this team, about the city, about Henry, a little boy you’ve only met a handful of times and are under no means to care about at all-“
“He’s an amazing kid, Ted.”
He huffs out a small chuckle, a grin appearing on his face. “You don’t have to care about him, but you do, Rebecca. That’s one of the reasons I love you. It would’ve been easy for you to be cold, to be heartless, like Rupert incorrectly claims you are, but you’re not. There’s not enough words in the English language to describe how wonderful I think you are.”
Her jaw hangs open, her eyes unblinking as she looks at him. “You love me?”
Ted didn’t even realize he said it but he can’t think of a better place to tell her. Butterflies turn over in his stomach, anticipation making it hard to breathe. “Yeah, I do.”
Before he can say anything else, her hands are cupping his cheeks, her lips slotting against his. It takes him a moment for his brain to catch up to what’s happening but when he does, his free hand rests against the small of her back, pulling her flush against his body.
Kissing Rebecca Welton feels like nothing has ever felt before. It feels like coming home, returning after a long vacation to the safety and comfort of somewhere you’ve always known. He wonders, briefly, in how many other lifetimes they’ve shared this moment, because he knows that he loves her in every universe. He knows that he would find her and kiss her no matter the circumstances.
She pulls away, resting her forehead against his and they don’t say anything for a minute, content to simply live in the moment, their warm breath mixing in the winter air.
“I love you too.”
It’s the second-best sound he’s ever heard.