“He seems keen,” Michael said.
“He takes after his Uncle Mick.”Dad whistled and applauded, calling for Finn to take a shot on goal.Which he did, and the ball soared into the top left corner of the net.Finn’s clever approach to the net caused the goalie to go to the right.
Michael leapt to his feet, along with Dad, cheering.Football washisworld.How he grounded himself.Forget the royal household and duty and the beautiful American daughter who’d marked him with her kiss.
Football brought him back to his center.The scent in the stands.The fragrance of the pitch.Even the aroma of sweaty lads after a rough match raised his sentiments.
In his youth, Dad and Evan, along with his Cross grandparents, cheered him at every match.For Evan, they all sat for cricket games and plays at the local theater.
These thoughts surfaced as he watched the Cross PF Youth lads take it to the boys from The Haskells.He blamed Scottie’s kiss for all this ruminating.It’d done something to him.
“Dad,” he said.“Have I ever thanked you?”
“For what?”Dad rose up, eyes on the pitch, ready to cheer.Piers’s son just tackled the ball.“Thataway, lads,” Dad shouted.“Nick the ball.”
“For being there for us.For not punting us off to boarding school.”
Dad looked down at Michael.“I loved you boys with everything in me.You’d been crushed enough by your mum.I wasn’t going to send you away to some cold, rigorous, albeit elite boarding school where mates your own age became your family and filled your heads with foolishness.We were a family, with or without Mum.”
Michael stared ahead.“Thank you, Dad.Ev and I owe you one.”
“No, you don’t.Well, hold on, pay me back by getting on with your life, Mick.I worry about you.”
“I’m fine, Dad.What about you getting on with your life?Lady Royal’s father is near your age and he’s marrying for the first time.”
“We’re not talking about me.We’re talking about you.I saw the business about you and Lady Royal.A chap from the diplomatic showed me a dark video of you—” Dad’s whole body tensed as Finn dribbled the ball through a couple of defenders with skill.“Have a go, lad!Put it away!”
But Finn, in stride, crossed the ball to his teammate, who sent the ball between the goalie’s legs.
“From twenty yards out,” someone called.
“Brilliant,” Dad shouted, hands cupped around his mouth.“Well done!”
Michael’s pride swelled.Finn could’ve taken the shot, but he crossed to his mate.Not only was he a skilled player, but he was also a top-drawer teammate.
In celebration, the Cross PF lads carried Finn and the maker of the goal away on their shoulders.
When Finn spotted him, Michael gave his nephew a nod with a thumbs-up.The team always came first.One could not keep the ball for himself.
That was it, then.He must consider the team—the HMSD, Lady Royal, Her Majesty, and the entire House of Blue.Tonight, he’d put in a request for a transfer to another assignment.Lennox was more than capable of finishing out Lady Royal’s stay.
As the family gathered in the car park, Dad called out, “Burgers on me.How about Fletcher’s?”
Finn whooped—Fletcher’s was his favorite—and begged to invite his best mate.
“Hurry on, then,” Dad said, then turned to Evan.“Meet you there.”
Michael walked with Dad to his Audi.“Can I ask you something?”he said.Of course it was rhetorical, so he went on.“Why did Mum leave?Why couldn’t she have worked for Pratt while you carried on with the Cross tradition?Why weren’t we enough?Evan and me?To make her stay?She never came round much once she’d gone.”
“It wasn’t you and Evan, Mick.It was me.I wasn’t enough for her.”The Audi beeped and blinked as Dad aimed his key fob.“I should’ve talked to you boys about it when she left, but I was hurting, angry, and afraid I’d say things you didn’t need to hear.I tried a few times when you were teens, then I thought, ‘The boys are settled.Don’t stir the calmed waters.’As for Pratt, your mum didn’t think she’d be more than a mid-level manager.She was frustrated but loyal to the family.”
“The Pratts and Crosses have that in common.”
“Then her grandfather retired, and her father crowned her his successor.Shocked the company and the family, he did.Jeanette jumped in, sinking in up to her neck.She loved it.She secretly feared her uncle, Hugh, would stage a coup in favor of his bungling playboy son.A woman had never headed up Pratt.”Dad patted Michael’s shoulder.“I don’t think she intended to leave you and Evan behind.It just happened.She lost all interest in being a Cross woman or helping maintain tradition.”
Michael considered his father’s answer, fitting his words into the blanks of his understanding.Then he patted his old man on the shoulder.“How about this, Dad?You work on finding love again and so will I.”
“Really?”Dad said, surprised.“Are you ready?Are you saying Lady Royal is—”
