I laughed. ‘You like her.’
He levelled me with a hard stare. ‘We’re not in school. You can’t rile me up by teasing me about a crush.’
‘So you’ve got a crush on her.’ I smiled triumphantly. A warning flashed in George’s eyes that I chose to ignore.
‘Your last semi-serious relationship was with Daniel. Iknow that went up in flames like a dead cactus in a desert, but you’ve not dated since then. Why?’
‘We really gonna start talking about our dating lives? How is Ashley these days? Still calling you an addict with anger problems?’
My blood froze. I ground my back teeth.
George winced at his own words, taking the seat next to me on the bench. ‘Sorry.’ He bumped his shoulder into mine.
Attempting to release the anger building up inside me, I shrugged. ‘It is what it is.’
‘It’s shitty.’
I huffed out a laugh. ‘That’s one way of putting it.’
He hesitated for a moment, considering what he was going to say. ‘I know I’ve been hard on you recently-‘
‘A right arsehole, actually.’
‘That’s only ‘cause you gave up, man. You let her walk all over you and didn’t do a fucking thing to stop her.’
Every time Ashley came up, the tension between us crackled like wildfire. George had hated her from the moment I introduced them. He’d tried for a couple of weeks to get to know her,triedand failed. Having the two of them in a room together was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. It only took one thing to set either of them off. Eventually, I stopped bringing her around him and kept conversations about her to a minimum.
Two months into our relationship, George called me and told me his concerns about Ashley. The conversation was short, with a lot of yelling on my side, but I couldn’t see past the haze of lust back then. I’d been completely blinded by her. She was beautiful, let me talk for hours about football, and wouldn’t complain, at least initially. After a year together, things started to shift. When football or my family came up, she distracted me with sex. I’d been too much of an idiot to see it, to see her using our intensechemistry to avoid things. When Ashley started playing up for the paparazzi, I was still too blind to see it for what it was.
Attention. Fame. Money. She was getting all of it just by being with me.
Fuck sakes.I had been such an idiot. When everything imploded, it was like someone poured a bucket of ice water on me, drenching me to my core, washing away whatever lingering feelings of love I held for her, like dirt on skin.
‘I didn’tlether.’ I grit out. ‘There wasn’t much I could do. She’s gonna talk shit no matter what I say or do.’
George shook his head in disbelief. ‘Maybe, but the thing is, you didn’t do anything. You stayed at home, wallowing in self-pity. You didn’t fight for your career, for anything. You gave up.’
I shot up, unable to listen a moment longer.
‘I LOST EVERYTHING.’ I whirled around to George. He sat resting his elbows on his thighs, the usual stern expression on his face.
‘I was in love with her. I got stabbed in the back by someone I genuinely thought I’d spend the rest of my life withandmy closest friend. A friend I trusted above anyone else and who got me to where I am in my career.’ I wasn’t sure which hurt more. Ashley or Cole. I pressed the tips of my fingers to my forehead and shut my eyes against the pain scorching through my body.
George stood up, coming toe to toe with me. ‘No. Don’t do that shit. You got where you are because you are the best goddamn striker in the country, and that talent comes fromyou.’ He jabbed me hard in the chest with his index finger, forcing my eyes to lock onto his. ‘You don’t credit someone else with your achievements. Especially not someone like Cole, who is willing to believe anything that bitch tells him.’ His nostrils flared.
I stared at him with a blank expression. ‘Just likeIdid you mean?’
George let out a long breath. The anger seeped out of him slowly. His eyes cast down to the floor, and he shook his head. ‘You were in love. That does things to people. I should know. The only people who seem to want to be with me end up cheating.’
I winced. My brother's track record with relationships had been catastrophic. He dated a girl throughout high school who admitted on graduation day that she was dumping him for the guy she’d been seeing for three months. He’d been heartbroken. It took him a few casual flings and several unsuccessful dates to find Daniel, who Dad and I thought would be George’s person. They got on well and had insane chemistry. Turns out Daniel also had insane chemistry with his personal trainer.
Talk about a cliché.
‘You’re not cursed you know.’ I placed a hand on his shoulder.
George’s lips quirked up, looking at me once more. ‘And neither are you, which leads me back to my original question. The dark cloud you’ve been toting around for the past couple of days. Does it have anything to do with the book?’
Mention of the book immediately sprung to mind, Fallon. She looked subdued when we first started talking. Then the spark I’d seen the first time we met showed itself. It almost made me smile at how easy I found talking to her. She honestly didn’t care about football or digging into the details of my past. To her, it was a job—a way to get back into her industry. I admired how quickly she’d fessed up to being fired. And her method of retaliation. If I ever ran into her ex…
