“I…I can’t.”
“You can and you will. Now stop worrying and kiss me.” Grabbing her by the scruff of the neck, I tugged her towards me and kissed the ever-loving fuck out of her. Right now, I didn’t want to hear her what ifs.
After a very heavy make-out session, one that left my balls heavy and aching, I managed to coax a promise from her that she’d be at Friday night’s game. I kissed her one last time and left her to get some sleep. It’d taken all my restraint to force myself to walk out the door rather than climb into bed beside her and fuck her into the middle of next week, but I was trying to prove a point. A point that had me taking another cold shower, but one I was determined to make. This was more than just a hook-up. This was the long game; one I was going to win. Elise was still learning the rules. She’d get there. I just needed to be patient.
After a quick shower, I pulled on my sleep pants and slid into bed before digging out my glasses from the bedside table. You knew you were getting old when you needed glasses to read. Picking up my iPad, I flicked through the emails, deleting the mountain of spam. I really needed to stay on top of these better, but I just couldn’t be bothered. Once the junk was gone, I focused on what was left.
Seeing a couple of emails from Elise was unexpected, especially since it was from a couple of days ago. She hadn’t mentioned it when we’d caught up, but there they were. Opening the first one, I realised what she was up to. It was picture after picture of unicorn-themed crap. There were piñatas, cakes, streamers, pin the horn on the unicorn, and so much more. I had no idea how long she’d spent looking up this shit, but her efforts were definitely impressive. Closing that one, I opened the next. This one was a link to a site that sold the stuff. Noticing the cart at the top was overflowing, I clicked on it. Elise had even pre-loaded the cart but left the final call to me. She was something else. Leaning over, I snagged my wallet, yanked out my credit card, and confirmed the order. I didn’t even look at the total. If this is what it took to make my two favourite girls happy, whatever the price, it was money well spent.
When I opened the third email from her, I was stunned. If I hadn’t thought Elise could be any more perfect, she’d just blown me out of the water. This one was a picture of a little girl with blonde pigtails tied up with sparkly streamers, wearing the most adorable unicorn costume. It was perfect and I knew a little girl who was going to look so freaking cute in it. I couldn’t help it. Quickly I clicked through to the site and placed the order. With a huge smile on my face, I replied to Elise’s email, telling her how awesome she was and how I knew she’d been the perfect person to save me with this.
Flicking through the other emails, I rushed through until I stumbled across one from Marianne, the club’s media guru. I wish I hadn’t opened it. It wasn’t her fault, and I wasn’t really surprised, but I wasn’t exactly thrilled either. This week we played in Sydney, but next week, for my second to last game, we were on the road to Melbourne. I’d been hoping the Saturday afternoon game meant we’d be home that night. But reading Marianne’s instructions, I realised I wasn’t going to be home until lunchtime Monday, at best. I had a sponsor event on the Sunday night. Tapping out an unenthusiastic reply, I confirmed I’d be there. It wasn’t like I had a choice.
Chapter Twenty-Two – Elise
The last thing I wanted to do tonight was go out. I just wanted to change into my pyjamas, crawl into bed and be miserable all on my own. I wasn’t a good sick person, and right now I felt like shit. I was freezing, and the three showers I’d had since I’d made it home hadn’t warmed me up either. My nose was red and wouldn’t stop running. My head felt like there was a gang of miners up there who were banging on my skull from the inside. But worse than that, every single bone in my body ached.
I’d tried to get out of it, but Dana wasn’t hearing it. Jax had bailed on me a couple of days ago, apparently he’d gotten a better offer, so I’d recruited Dana to be my wingwoman for the night. I hadn’t exactly had to twist her arm too hard, thankfully. I think it was the idea that there could possibly be more men like Luca out there that had her digging her winter woollies out from the bottom of the cupboard.
With the game about to start, we were sitting in the car praying for a break in the weather. It’d been a cold, cloudy overcast day, but the closer it got to the whistle, the heavier the rain fell. On top of being sick, I was now going to spend the next couple of hours trying to stay dry. My damn seats better be undercover.
“You ready?” Dana asked as she pulled on her pink beanie with a huge pom pom on the top.
“No,” I grumbled as I twisted my purple team scarf around my neck before putting on my gloves.
One look at me and you’d think I was about to go build a damn snowman. I had a pair of tights under my jeans and two pairs of socks on my feet before stuffing them into my knee-high boots. I had a singlet, long sleeve shirt, jumper, jersey and then a jacket. Add in my scarf, gloves and beanie, and I was waddling like the marshmallow man fromGhostbusters.
“Come on. Let’s go.”
Reluctantly, I climbed out of the car, stuffed my shit into my pockets, ducked my head, and half walked half jogged towards the gate. After passing through security and convincing him I wasn’t trying to smuggle contraband into the stadium, we headed for our seats, the tip of my nose already frozen.
Making our way to our seats, I noticed there weren’t as many bodies in the stands as there had been in previous games. Not that I could blame them. It was a wet and windy Friday night in western Sydney, I could think of a million places I’d rather be right now.
“You made it!” an excited voice screeched as I collapsed into my seat, hugging my jacket around me even tighter.
“Hey, Izzy,” I greeted her. “Dana, this is Isabella and Arianna, Luca’s sisters.”
“Oh hey!” Dana said, flashing them her widest smile. Sometimes I forgot just how much like Jax Dana really was. They’d both talk to anyone about anything anywhere. They were missing that embarrassment gene.
“Hey, Dana. I’m Izzy and this is Ari… Mum’s not here tonight so we can relax,” Izzy added.
“Your mum’s not here?”
“Not tonight.”
“I thought she wouldn’t miss it.”
“Apparently it’s too cold and wet, so she’s watching at home with Dad instead,” Ari explained.
Coughing, I nodded. “Can’t blame her.”
“Are you sick, Elise?” Ari asked, turning on her concerned motherly tone.
“Just a cold.” I sniffed as the whistle blew.
It was one of the most boring, uneventful and painful forty-five minutes of my life. And to think I still had the whole second half to sit through. No one had scored. They hadn’t even looked like coming close. All they did was kick it back and forth between each other, then to the other team where they repeated the same boring process.
Dana had volunteered to make a snack run while I sat and shivered. The wind was circling, and I couldn’t feel my cheeks. When she appeared with a giant chip on a stick and handed it to me, I almost turned it down. I was tired, cold, cranky and sick and the last thing I wanted to be doing was sitting here watching this shit.
