“How’s Amber?” Jesse was sitting on my couch, games console in hand, trying to kick my arse at GTA. He was, of course, failing.
I put my console down, safe in the knowledge that yet again, I’d won. “Exhausted. Tired. But okay. Baby’s fine.”
“How are you?” Jesse was a good bloke, just a petrol head, which meant it should’ve been him who was the master at this.
“Better now she’s sleeping upstairs. I’ll be better still when more of her stuff is here.” I just wished it had happened under better circumstances rather than a hangover of a notion that I’d left her feeling she had no other option.
Jesse nodded, scratching his head and looking at the scabbing on a new tattoo he’d just had done. “How are you though? Is it a mind fuck about to be a dad again after everything that’s happened?”
I shrugged, not really knowing if it was or wasn’t, because it didn’t matter – it was happening. “My girls are happy about it. I think they’re excited about having a brother.”
“How are they with Amber?”
“Good. She seems to like them too.” It had been interesting watching them all this morning, Libbie’s worry about Amber obvious. I knew Amber hadn’t realised just how natural she was with the girls, despite her having said she didn’t want kids.
“Handy. So are you a couple or what? Jude was asking and he doesn’t want to put his foot in it.”
I laughed. Jude put his foot in it most days. “Yeah, right. You’re just being an old woman who wants the gossip.”
Jesse shook his head. “Genuinely interested, man. Amber’s great, if a bit mean with her elbows, and you’ve been making eyes at her for ages.”
“I was not.” I had. I wasn’t going to admit that to Jesse though, and I’d deny it to whoever asked me apart from Amber.
He just laughed. “The media will get hold of it soon enough. Have you spoken to Genny?”
I nodded and stretched my legs out, putting my feet on the coffee table that was full of the girls’ colouring books. “A couple of weeks ago. She’s put together a statement for when the media ask, playing it all down and asking for privacy – the usual shit. She asked me what I wanted to say if we got asked for interviews and all that crap and it’s a blanket no.”
“Fair enough. I think there’s a rumour on social media that you’re together and Amber’s pregnant. Jude said something this morning.” Jesse flicked through his phone.
“Whatever.” I didn’t give a flying fuck about what was on social media. I stayed out of it and let Genny and her team keep an eye on whatever was being said. My agent worked closely with the club and was more than happy that I kept my head down and just got on with the job.
Jesse leaned back into the sofa, his phone back down. “Has your nanny started?”
“He’s here, but doesn’t start for a few more days so he can get settled.” I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds, trying to relax. I’d done a light training session, but I had a match tonight so I couldn’t just get back in bed with Amber which is what I wanted to do.
“What’s your sister doing then? Is she moving back to hers?” Jesse sounded far too casual.
“Jerrica?” I opened an eye. “Why are you asking about my sister, Jesse?”
He shook his head. “Just wondered what she was going to do now you don’t need her to look after the girls.”
“She’s hanging out here for a bit longer, probably until after the baby’s born and we’re settled with him. When the nanny’s out with the girls, there’ll be someone round to give Amber a lift.” They got along well, which was great, too. I knew Amber didn’t have a ton of friends, preferring to keep a small circle, which I got. I’d known people try to get close to members of the backroom team just so they could have an in with the players.
“Cool. Must be good to have her around. You two seem to get on.”
I had both eyes open now, watching Jesse, and wondering why the hell he was asking so much about Jerrica.
“She’s off limits.”
“I didn’t assume she was on them. I’m not looking for anything anyway. You know that.”
I also knew that Jesse had a couple of women who he regularly hooked up with. He had the sense not to sleep with the women who hung around the players, so he kept the phone numbers of two friends-with-benefits. That arrangement had been going on for years.
I pointed two fingers at him then at my eyes. “Stay away. She’s not in a good place at the moment.” She was happier now she wasn’t committed to anything, but unhappy because she didn’t have a focus other than her writing.
Jesse shrugged. “She seems okay to me. She was telling me about her book the other day; the one she’s writing.”
I frowned at him. Jez hadn’t said anything to me about it, just telling me it was a hobby that she found therapeutic, and she might consider doing something serious with it at some point. I knew it was more than that, and I figured it was more serious than what she was letting on, but when I’d asked her about it, she’d just said it was romance.
