Chapter One – Luca
“After yet another embarrassing loss, questions are being asked of the Western Sydney Wolves coach, Elias Fischer, about his decision to keep playing veteran Luca Conti. Conti who has…”
“Mum! Can you turn that crap off?” I practically growled, already sick of hearing the bullshit they were spewing.
“Luca!”
“Sorry, Mum. Can you please turn that crap off?” I tried again, this time remembering my manners.
A moment later, the TV fell silent and Mum came to face me. I was sitting in a seat, perched at the kitchen bench. It’d been the one place in the world I’d felt like I could just be me my whole life. It’d never changed. Coming home, eating Mum’s cooking, spending time with my family, this was my reality. Out there, the world didn’t make sense. But in here, perched at the bench waiting for Mum to pull her Tiramisu out of the fridge and hand me a spoon, everything just fit.
“You know they’re wrong.” She smiled a soft smile as she wiped her hands on the dish towel draped over her shoulder.
But were they? That was the question I kept asking myself. The question that’d been haunting me. It was no secret that I was getting old and slowing down. Even I couldn’t hide that fact. It seemed no matter how hard I trained or how strictly I stuck to my diet, I was never going to be as fast and as smooth as I once had been.
After retiring from the Australian representative team two years ago, I’d finished up my contract with English Premier League side, Southampton, and headed home to accept a yearlong contract with the Western Sydney Wolves. I wasn’t ready to give up the game and become one of those guys with a belly that was starting to test the strength of my belt, drinking beer and reminiscing about my glory days. I wasn’t that old yet. But a one-year contract turned into two and now here I was, staring down what was possibly the last season of my career, and as a team, we were tanking.
Before I had a chance to say anything, I was attacked by the cutest kid on the face of the planet. Phoebe, my sister Sienna’s three-year-old terror, came barrelling towards me, running as fast as her little legs could carry her before launching herself into my arms.
“Hey, Grandma, look what I caught. A monkey!” I smiled at Mum as I settled Phoebe in my lap and pushed the stray blonde curl out of her face.
“I’m not a monkey, silly,” she chided.
“You’re not? What are you then?”
“I’m Phoebe.”
“Ah! Well then, hello, Phoebe.”
“Hi, Uncle Luca.”
As I planted a loud, wet kiss on her cheek, she squirmed in my arms until I set her back on her feet before wiping away my kiss with the back of her arm.
“I don’t want boy germs,” she explained.
Pretending to pout, I faked sad.
“Grandma’s don’t have boy germs. Do I get a cuddle, Princess Phoebe?” Mum cooed, stealing her attention. I watched as she took off towards Mum before throwing herself at Mum’s legs, squeezing her as tight as she could.
Ignoring everything from the flour on her hands, to the pot on the stove bubbling behind her, Mum focused all her attention on Phoebe. She was a freaking awesome grandma. My sister’s kids, all six of them, were lucky to have her on their side.
While I watched as Mum talked about something I didn’t understand, girl stuff I imagine, I got bumped from behind from a huge, bulging belly.
“Hey, big brother.”
“You’recalling me big?” I teased, looking at Arianna’s pregnant belly. She wasn’t far off popping, at least she looked like she wasn’t, and staring into her face I could see she was already over it.
“Mum! Luca’s calling me fat!” she whined, dobbing me in like she did when we were kids. Sometimes it had sucked growing up with three sisters who annoyed the shit out of me and ganged up against me.
“Luca, be nice to your sister.”
Poking her tongue out at me, she dropped into the seat beside me. “Where are the boys?”
“At the skate park with Josh, thank God. They’re exhausting.”
“Good thing you’re having another one then.”
“Sometimes I hate you, you know that?”
