“Do you know what you’re having?” Udo asked.
“Nah. We didn’t want to find out. It’s all part of the magic, isn’t it?”
Ingvar chuckled. “Come back to me when you’ve got three.”
Ingvar had married his childhood sweetheart. The press left them alone for the most part, deeming them very boring. Ingvar had no interest in flash cars or the latest bar. He seemed to ricochet from home to the pitch and back again.
“I don’t know how you cope,” Ewen replied. “I can’t think of anything worse.”
Adam sat down next to Ewen and pinched his cheeks. “Don’t you want to pass these genes on, pretty boy?”
Ewen squirmed out of his reach. “Sod off. What about you, Skipper? Not fancy having a rugrat or two?”
Adam shook his head. “It’s the single life for me from now on. Udo’s got the right idea. I would be the worst father. I can barely take care of myself.”
Adam had been in a high-profile relationship with a social media star. They’d had a bad break up the year before. Udo remembered reading a tell-all interview with her. She’d as good as said that Adam was a child trapped in a man’s body.
“Have you heard from Jen?” Ingvar asked.
“No. She blocked my number,” Adam replied. “She’s deleted all her socials too.”
Ewen frowned. “Isn’t that her career?”
“Yes. Can we change the subject?”
Udo watched Adam. He came across as happy-go-lucky most of the time. Yet he had a sadness in him that came to the fore once in a while. Udo supposed Jen had hurt him far more than he was letting on to the lads.
“How about Shaun?” Udo asked. “Has he got anyone special?”
“Riggs?” Goran asked. “He likes to play the field at work and in play.”
“I thought he had a kid.”
“He does. But him and the mum have split.”
Udo nodded.
“Don’t let him bother you,” Ewen said. “He’s all right, is Riggsy. He gets fixed on stuff. That’s all.”
“Just my luck that’s me.”
He noticed the others exchanging glances. Udo wasn’t about to pretend that Shaun’s behaviour didn’t impact him.
“I’ll have a word,” Adam said. “You keep scoring goals.”
“Deal.”
“Typical that it comes down to me,” Adam continued. “Javier and Steven are fucking useless with shit like this. They were as bad with Jimmy. Anyone could see his partying had got out of control.”
Udo shifted in his chair. Adam was simply letting off steam. However, he didn’t want to sit there and listen to them slagging off Steven.
“I’m sure they did their best,” he replied.
“You weren’t here,” Ewen said, sitting up. “Jimmy got battered at this Christmas light switch-on we did. Look it up on YouTube. He was gurning away. God knows how many lines of coke he’d had.”
Udo frowned. “A bit risky.”
“Not with our management. He may as well have been jacking up in the locker room and they would still wait for the random drug test.”
