I slowed down, kissing her neck, her collar bone, up to her lips and taking those softly, a complete comparison to how we’d just fucked.
“Can we repeat that?’ She found her words before I did.
“Absolutely. It would be my pleasure.”
CHAPTER9
Nate
MANCHESTER ATHLETIC V STOCKPORT COUNTY, FA CUP FOURTH ROUND
“That was embarrassing.”I sat down in the changing rooms, any energy required to get myself showered, changed and out the door completely gone. “How the fuck did they score that goal?”
It had been a mess, and, if and when I saw Jude, I was going to be tearing him a new one and making sure it stung. He’d completely fucked up a tackle, giving away a corner, and County had scored, equalising and taking us through to a replay at their stadium, which was exactly what they’d have wanted. They were three divisions below us, and the underdogs, so a return fixture at Edgeley Park was going to be a sweet little pay day, plus it would be televised.
Jesse sat down and tipped a bottle of water down his throat. He was breathing rapidly, which was probably a combination of annoyance and the fact he’d ran his arse off all game.
“We should’ve gone in at full strength. There’s no way we’re going out in the third round; this was a local derby and County wanted it. I know Guy wanted to rest Ryan and Rowan, but - ” he shook his head. “Now we’ve got the replay. A week on Wednesday. Fuck.”
“We’ll win it.” Because we would. Guy wouldn’t send out a weakened side now. He was already pissed off that we’d given the win away in the last minute, and the reason Jude wasn’t here was because Guy had dragged him and Danny in straight off the pitch.
Jesse stood up. “I’ve got to go and do the presser.” He shook his head.
“It’s Leila interviewing, isn’t it?” She’d managed to get a new role that was higher profile and just focused on football.
Jesse nodded. “I don’t think I’d be doing it if it wasn’t.”
He left, still looking sweaty and pissed off, but there was a reason he was captain: he was good at that sort of shit.
I stripped off, launching my kit into the wash, and headed into the showers. These were the sorts of games when I was glad I had my home to go to, and daughters who didn’t care what the result was, as long as I played tea parties with their teddies and we could watch Disney films and eat pizza. All of that was happening tonight.
The shower was hot, the pressure full on. I directed the force onto my shoulder, because while it wasn’t giving me any trouble, I knew it needed a bit of extra awareness for another few weeks. Being an old man of the game meant I’d learned a thing or two about keeping injuries under control.
I didn’t hang around to see my teammates. I had no desire to go through a post-mortem of the game, because no doubt we’d be made to watch through the footage at least three times before the replay. I wanted to go home and get in front of my fire, stick my sweats on and be with my girls. Maybe later, I’d exchange a few messages with Amber, after the girls had gone to bed.
I thought about Amber as I drove home, managing to head out of the ground without being caught by fans who wanted an autograph. I had no problem signing stuff, but after today’s mess, I’d end up trying to civilly answer fifty questions about why we played so shit, and I didn’t have the patience.
Amber hadn’t been there today; it had been one of her off duty weekends, so James and The Count had been looking after us. Ryan had picked up on it, the fact that Amber wasn’t there. He knew about Amber, about what had happened on her physio table, and because he was a decent bloke, he hadn’t ribbed me for it. In fact, he’d been understanding about Chan and the residual guilt that did come up.
I hadn’t heard much from Amber recently. I knew she was fine with me having to leave, we had messaged, some of it flirty, some of it just checking in, but I hadn’t seen her except in passing when we were both at the training facilities.
It was Amber I was thinking about as I got out of my car, locked it, and headed into my house, knowing that I needed to start packing more shit up as we’d be moving in just a few weeks. I had booked a packing service, because there was no way I could do this on my own, and I didn’t want to dump it on my parents to sort, but there was some stuff that I needed to get done: like Chan’s stuff.
It unfortunately wasn’t Amber who greeted me as I walked into the house. I expected my parents, who’d kindly agreed to hang around longer until my nanny could start, but this wasn’t my mother.
It was another sort of nightmare.
“Jerrica?”
“Big brother!” My sister threw her arms around me and gave me the biggest, fakest hug I’d ever experienced.
I patted her back, waiting for her to let go and confess why she was here, because this wasn’t to just share her sisterly love.
“It’s always great to see you, Jez, but why are you here?”
My sister smiled, but her eyes weren’t shining. “I thought I’d relieve our parents for a few weeks so they could go home for a bit.”
I nodded. Slowly. “Did they know that before you got here?” I already knew the answer.
