We passed ninety minutes.
We passed ninety-one minutes.
We passed ninety-two minutes.
Thankfully the ball hadn’t come near me and surely time was up. There couldn’t have been that much longer to go.
Ninety-three minutes.
Ninety-four minutes.
Shit! The ball dropped right in front of me. As fast as I could, which was no faster than an eighty-year-old man using a walking frame, I shuffled towards it. My opponent, a cocky young guy, beat me and intercepted, not that it was hard.
When he took his shot at goal, I prayed to everyone I could think of from the big guy upstairs to Ronald McDonald that he missed.
He didn’t.
The ball hit the back of the net, the whistle sounded, and the game was over. And so was my career.
Chapter Thirty-Six – Elise
It was over.
He’d done it.
I don’t know how, he looked like he could barely walk, but his stubbornness had got him to the final whistle.
What came next, I had no idea, but for right now, right now we celebrated a career worthy of admiration.
Chapter Thirty-Seven – Luca
I dropped to the ground where I was.
It wasn’t the leg that knocked me on my arse, it was everything else. Everything I’d been avoiding admitting to.
Around me, players were gathering. Not just my teammates either. Both teams were lining up. When Harry approached, he held out his hand and hauled me back to my feet before wrapping me in a bear hug and congratulating me.
With Queen’s ‘We Are the Champions’ blasting through the speakers, the crowd was singing along, but they hadn’t moved. Usually as the final whistle sounded, they were already packing up and spilling out of the stands, anxious to beat the traffic. Today, it seemed, they were in no hurry.
Each hand shake, each time someone congratulated me or wished me well for whatever came next, everything became more real.
“You good to walk off?” Harry asked.
Normally I’d slap him up the side of the head for being a smartarse, something he was renowned for, but today he had a point.
Glancing up at the stands, at the spot I knew they’d be, I found my family and knew I was making the right decision. It might hurt like hell right now, but in the end, it was time. I’d had an amazing career. I’d travelled all around the world. I’d met amazing people. Experienced incredible highs. I’d represented my country at the highest level, and now it was time to focus my attention on something else.
Seeing the way Dad had his arm wrapped around Mum’s shoulders as she wiped her eyes just reinforced that. I wanted that. That was my next goal. Being there for my family and hopefully, in the not too distant future, having a family of my own. That’s what I wanted.
I couldn’t see my nephews but they wouldn’t be far away. Ari was probably already queuing for the bathroom, something she couldn’t avoid. Beside them Sienna, Jax and Izzy had huge grins on their faces as they clapped and danced to the music.
Then there was Elise.
Even amongst all those people, even in the chaos she stood out.
Completely frozen, she had her hands to her mouth as she stared down at me. At least she better be bloody staring at me. If it was one of these other shitheads then we were going to have a problem.
I smiled up at her, unable to stop it.
