She paused what she was doing and assessed me with eyes I knew noticed far more than Nate's ever did.
“You’re seriously being Jesse’s driver?”
There was no point trying to dress it up. “Six months. He’s just bought a new car for me to chauffeur him around in.”
“Where is he now?” She looked inside as if expecting him to appear.
“At the training ground with Nicky, Rowan and Nate. He’s going to get a lift back here with Nate and I’ll run him home.” I sat down on the bench Jesse had been on before.
Amber stretched her legs out, her bump exposed from under her tight tank top. “Has anything happened between the two of you?”
“No. It won’t, either.” I wasn’t so sure about that. There was a lot of flirting going on, and I’d noticed the way he looked at me. He might be bothered that I was Nate’s little sister, but he didn’t think of me in a sister sort of way. “At least, I don’t think so.”
Amber’s eyes narrowed. She untied her hair that flowed around her shoulders in thick, dark waves. I got why my brother was head over heels for her; she was gorgeous. She was also astute and quick, rational where he could be a little too romantic, and she definitely saw things for what they were.
“Jesse’s a great guy. He’s a proper professional athlete, but I do wonder what else goes on in his life. He’s really guarded about his personal life. I’ve not known him to have a girlfriend, and all I hear from the other players is banter, really.”
“What sort of banter?” I wasn’t going to pretend that I wasn’t interested in knowing more about Jesse. For a start, if someone was paying attention, they were probably going to notice that my eyes kind of hung around him a lot.
Amber rubbed her belly, pressing a hand down and smiling. “He’s moving a lot today. Jesse — so, some of the players nicknamed him The Monk because they never see him hooking up or having a girlfriend. A couple of seasons ago, a player from another team made a comment about Jesse having to tie girls down — I don’t know the rest of the context. Jesse just laughed it off rather than being provoked by it. A couple of the players, when they were in the treatment rooms, speculated about it. Whatever he’s into, he keeps it very close to his chest.”
“He’s told me he has a kink. He told me that Nate wouldn’t like me to be involved with him.” I took a deep breath of air. “That if anything happened between us, it would cause issues for him and Nate.”
Amber re-tied her hair. “Nate doesn’t get a say in who you go out with. He knows that. But he’s never said anything to me about Jesse. I know they get on really well and they’ve been friends for years. He wouldn’t have suggested that you drive for Jesse while he’s banned if he didn’t trust him.”
“I get that. I’m just curious.”
“Mystery isn’t always that exciting when you get to the bottom of it. His kink might be that he likes his back to be scratched while someone sings Christmas carols to him. Who knows, and unless you really want to find out, who cares? Want me to tell you about your brother’s kinks?” Her eyes lit up with mirth.
Mirth at my reaction. “No. For the love of all things cheese, no. It was bad enough when I was sixteen and heard him going at it with a girl through my bedroom wall. I swear I vomited.”
Amber started to laugh, hard. “I’ll have to ask him about that. Any more juicy stories I can torment him with?
“Tons. Ask him about why he ran out of socks when we were on holiday when he was fourteen. That’s always a good one.” I was now liking this conversation. “And about the crush he had on a girl called Louise Claire. He couldn’t even speak to her.”
I had a feeling I’d be on my brother’s shit list later. “Jesse drove off that night from here — the night when he got pulled over — because I’d told him I was interested in him.”
Amber stilled, her expression changing to serious. “What did he do?”
“He said he couldn’t, told me he was sorry and left. I didn’t just come out with it, Amber, we’d been flirting and I got the feeling I wasn’t reading things wrong. Only maybe I was.”
“He’s been okay with you since — although, you have kind of avoided him.” She crossed her legs and looked very zen, in a pregnant way. “I did wonder if something had happened when you were going to come over and changed your mind when I said Jesse was here.”
“Yeah, well. I was embarrassed. I’d made a fool of myself. Yet again.” I did not have a great track record with boyfriends or dates. I’d had two longish-term relationships, neither of which had been amazing, just, well, nice. I’d been treated nicely, the sex had been nice, they were both nice men. Oz had been an English teacher, quite hip and trendy, very into his music. We’d ended after we realised we’d gone two weeks without seeing each other and had an awkward conversation about things fizzling out and that we’d stay friends — note, we didn’t. Carl was an accountant who played cricket at our local club. That ended when he suggested I moved in because then we’d save money, so it was logical. I really didn’t want to live with him, which made me question why I was with him at all because it wasn’t going anywhere. Apart from Oz and Carl, there had been a couple of one-night stands and a few flings, none of which were worth keeping a diary about. There had been a guy I’d been crazy over, and, when I’d declared my love, he’d laughed in my face.
I’d been mortified. Especially when he’d told his mates about it, and one of their girlfriends had spread it around.
“How’s Jesse been today?”
“Flirty. Friendly. I don’t know — I kind of feel he has an agenda with wanting me to be his driver, and I can’t work it out. But, I could really use the money. I know Nate would lend it me — he’s already offered, but at some point, our parents would find out and I can’t go through another lecture.” I got off my seat and sat down on the mat with Amber.
She tipped her head to one side and smiled. “You’ll have fun with Jesse.”
“He’s mentioned us going to France. Driving there.”
“Oh, the vineyard? He mentioned that a couple of months ago. Do it. You get a holiday and maybe some inspo for your books. Jesse’s hardly hard to look at — unless he’s, you know,hard.”
We both started giggling.
