“I’ll do you a deal,” he replied. “I’ll transfer one thousand pounds today. If you come up with a plan for how you’re going to spend the rest, then I’ll think about it.”
Naomie seemed ready to argue then thought better of it.
“I’ll email you something this week,” she mumbled.
“Nice one. Now let’s get this blanket. Mum will be frozen solid by now.”
She grinned.
“Thank you. Do you reckon I can get behind the scenes at Brockton too?”
Steven shook his head. “You drive a hard bargain, sister of mine. Let me speak to Howard. PR is his domain. He gets funny if we don’t run things past him.”
She squeezed his arm. “You’re the best.”
They got the things from the car and raced to the family spot.
“Naomie. Can you go and get the others. It’s time they had some food,” their mother said.
She nodded and ran after the others who were a long way away. The tide was out yet it appeared Hanna had every intention of pushing her father into the water.
“Tell Andrew if he gets wet, there are no clean clothes.”
They might be grown, but to his mother, they were all stillbabies. Years ago, Steven would have found that suffocating. Nowadays it was a comfort.
Naomie sped off.
“She’s a good kid,” Steven said. “Have you met this Kyle?”
His mother shook her head. “Not yet. It’s pretty new. She’s always at his place. She reckons it’s to do with the influencing. Who knows.”
Steven made a mental note to check out Naomie’s profiles. If she was serious about this, he could speak to some experts. What was the point in being connected if he didn’t help his baby sister out?
“Are you okay, son?”
“Of course I am. Work stuff on my mind.”
She took his hand. “Now is the time to slow the job down. You’ve given the best years of your life to football.”
This was a direct hit. In his late thirties, he didn’t feel ready for the retirement home just yet.
“I do enjoy it, you know.”
“There are other parts of your life that need attention.”
Steven took a swig from his beer bottle. Andrew had done his duty with providing her with grandchildren. Why did she even care?
“Yeah. I’ll do something about it soon.”
“What are you afraid of?”
“It would still get in the papers.”
“Pah. That would soon die down. Then it would be worth it in the long run. Tell me you’re open to it.”
Steven pulled his hand away. Suddenly the beach had become very hot.
“Of course I am. Although spending all day with sweaty and very heterosexual footballers kind of screws with it.”
