Hannah muttered something under her breath, her mouth setting into a firm line. “Stick with me and I’ll introduce you to everyone. They’re all lovely, but I have to warn you that people will be nosy and come and ask questions, especially if Matty hasn’t mentioned you to anyone.”
“Hasn’t mentioned me?” I knew he hadn’t introduced me to anyone but that was natural—not acknowledging my existence hurt more than I’d expected. Sure, we’d had a bit of a roughstart with Jack being ill and Matty being an overbearing prat, but everything had been so much better recently. Why did it suddenly feel like I was a dirty secret hidden in the back of his wardrobe?
“Don’t take it personally,” Hannah said, waving her hand as she used her sunglasses to push her hair back. “I think after last year he closed up and didn’t want everyone to know how chaotic things got. He’s the captain and sometimes I think he believes that means he should be infallible. But good leadership is about more than pretending you’ve got your life together.”
“Mummy stop talking! We need gogagges,” Jack said, letting go of my hand to walk over and tug hers.
“Jack, I am talking to Harper,” Hannah said. “Telling me to stop isn’t very kind. What do we say instead?”
Jack thought for a second, his face screwing up and tongue poking out. Then he sighed. “Please, Mummy, I want a gogagge sandwich. You can talk inside.”
“Thank you,” Hannah said with a wry smile. “Okay, we can go inside. But please don’t go running off. There are lots of people including people carrying heavy things and we don’t want them to drop anything.”
“Why?”
“Because those heavy things might be trays of sausages. And if they drop them on the floor, you’ll have to wait even longer for your sausage sandwich.”
Jack gasped dramatically, putting his hand to his chest, and I had to fight back a laugh because he just made me think of an ageing Hollywood diva. “No gogagges? How rude!”
“And that’s why we don’t run,” Hannah said as she gently shepherded him towards the door, which swung open and released a cacophony of excited noise. Matty had mentioned that quite a few of the other guys on the team had kids, so I assumed I was about to meet all of them.
I took a steadying breath, put on my best smile, and followed Hannah and Jack through the door.
The lounge was at one end of the stadium with huge windows that overlooked the pitch, the spring sunshine shining through and lighting up the space. There was a selection of chairs and tables scattered around, with a bar at one side next to a buffet where hot and cold food was laid out, and at the back near the door was a cluster of sofas where several women with babies were sat chatting happily.
It was busy but not overwhelmingly so, and nobody had stopped to stare as I walked in. Jack had made a beeline for the buffet with Hannah in tow, so it made sense to follow them. A few heads turned, but there was no movie-style sweep of silence, so I pushed away my awkwardness.
Jack practically had hearts in his eyes as he asked one of the staff for a sausage sandwich, and Hannah chuckled. “Please don’t think he doesn’t get fed when he’s at mine. He’s already had breakfast, lunch, and two snacks today,” she said as I joined her. “But sausage sandwiches on rugby day are his favourite thing in the world. He never wants them at home, only here. The last time I tried to make him one, he had a full-on screaming meltdown for twenty minutes. Apparently, I don’t make them properly.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not just you. Most kids are particular about one thing or another. It’s just a way to feel in control,” I said, scanning the buffet to see if there was anything I fancied. There was everything on offer from full meals to salads and sandwiches, accompanied by a selection of sweet treats, and I was impressed at how good it all looked.
“I’m glad it’s not just me then,” Hannah said as she picked up a bowl of fruit salad and a large gooey-looking chocolate brownie.
“Definitely not just you, I promise.”
“Thank God for that.” She gestured at the buffet. “Get whatever you like. I’m paying. I’ll get us some drinks too.”
I’d had lunch but the brownies were calling my name, and they had bowls of strawberries and cream too. So I followed Hannah’s lead and took both, putting them on the tray she’d grabbed beside Jack’s sandwich and his carton of apple juice. After she’d paid, I picked up the tray and carried it over to a spare table near the windows, which gave us the perfect view over the pitch where the players were coming out to cheers and applause.
“Number nine, if you’re looking for Matty,” Hannah said as she helped Jack up onto a chair and grabbed a knife to cut his sandwich into triangles. “Orange boots. He’s usually wearing a scrum cap too. It’s like a soft helmet—stops his cauliflower ears from getting worse. And means people can’t pull his hair.”
I looked down at the line of players in their blue shirts, trying not to let my eyes bulge out of my head. I’d known rugby union players were big, but I’d never imagined anyone making Matty look as small as he did.
His legs looked delectable in shorts, though. Not that I should have been looking, but it was almost impossible not to.
“Harper,” Jack said, his face already smeared with ketchup.
“Yes.”
“Do you like rugby?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never watched it before,” I said as I stabbed a cream-covered strawberry. “Do you?”
“No. It’s boring and Daddy is slow.” Jack shook his head as behind him the game kicked off, the players immediately slamming into each other with a force that made me wince.
Hannah bit back a smile as she took a bite out of her brownie. “Poor Daddy, he’s not slow.”
“Yes he is. I always win,” Jack said as he picked up another bit of his sandwich. I was surprised he hadn’t gotten fidgety andrun off to play with some of the other kids since there were several his age, but his entire focus was devoted to sausages.
