I eyed the glass of iced water next to me.
I shouldn’t.
I really shouldn’t.
I did anyway. A quick flick of my wrist and the water fell out of the glass and dropped straight onto Jesse’s chest.
“What the fuck?” He leapt up off the lounger, almost dancing.
I doubled over with painful laughter.
“You fucker. If you didn’t have that boot on you’d be in that pool right now.” He lobbed an ice cube at me after picking it up off the floor.
It hit me bang in the middle of my forehead and should’ve hurt, but it didn’t. I was still laughing too hard to notice.
“Seriously, you shouldn’t have been enjoying the quiet. They’ll be back soon anyway – the girls will want Uncle Jesse to play in the pool with them.” I couldn’t stop my grin, because I knew he both hated being their chosen children’s entertainer and loved it at the same time.
He sat back down on the lounger. “Yeah, I keep seeing Nate pissing his sides at me while I’m pulling that inflatable round.” He shook his head. “Then he whispers shit about me needing the practice.” Jesse groaned. “For fuck’s sake, man.”
“Jerrica wants babies, eh?” I settled back down, keeping my wits about me because Jesse would a hundred percent seek revenge.
“She does. Which is fine. I’m good with that.” He nodded, a smile erupting on his face that told me he was more than good with that.
“It’ll be baby fever with her and Dee.” Word had kind of gotten round us all now that this was Rowan and Dee’s last season of professional football. A few more of their plans had spilled out over wine and beer, once the kids had gone to bed. I wanted to add Neva’s name to that list, but that would be opening a can of worms that weren’t ready for the daylight.
And she wasn’t really speaking to me.
Jesse nodded, clearly trying not to think too hard about this. “What about you? I’ve not seen you pictured with any potential WAGs for at least six months.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Unlike you, Judith.”
The nickname had long since stopped bothering me. “Maybe I’ve grown up.”
He stretched back out on the lounger. “The stunt you just pulled suggests otherwise.”
“I was getting fed up of waking up and not knowing the name of the woman next to me.” It had happened more times than I’d been proud of. I’d also heard a couple of the younger players talking about me as if I was some sort of god because of what I’d been getting up to – that had been after the night where I’d been seen with three different women. I’d kind of shocked myself when I heard it framed by one of them.
“You could’ve just stuck with one. What about that singer you were getting photographed with?” Jesse propped himself up on his elbows, his shades making him look like an auditionee for James Bond.
“Belle Brooks?” I did know her name. “She wanted me to move in with her.”
“Really? How long were you seeing her?” He frowned and rubbed his face. “I thought it was only a few weeks.”
“It was.” That had been a big part of the issue. “I think she reckoned she was living in her own prime time reality show. She had her agent reach out to mine about some reality thing.” I shook my head. “She mentioned one night that we could be the new Posh and Becks.”
Jesse choked. “I think that’s pushing it a bit. He was one of the most talented footballers ever and she was in an iconic girl band – I’m not sure you and Belle Brooks had the same sort of skill.”
“Thanks, friend.” I shook my head at him, lying back down. I wasn’t offended. Skill wise, I had the potential in the next couple of years to really be up there with the greats, if my head was in the game – which it was. And Belle had been nice and we’d had fun, but that was it on my part. I didn’t want a relationship where the main focus was increasing our follower count on social media. “I’ll keep your opinion in mind when I make future decisions.”
“You should do. In fact, I should charge you for that advice.” He was looking too comfortable again.
I had no ice left, so a repeat of a few minutes ago was off the table.
“What’s happened with you and Neva, by the way? Jerrica was trying to get gossip out of me last night that I was completely fucking unaware of. She said that Neva was avoiding you.”
“Neva’s avoiding me?” I had to be careful here, because anything I said would definitely go back to Jerrica and she was really good at putting three and five together and coming up with an impossible answer.
“Why? How’ve you upset our tender food-sergeant?” Jesse generally ate what he wanted, which drove Neva mad. He wasn’t as bad as he liked to make out to her; he just enjoyed really winding her up because her reactions were so predictable.
“Nothing. Just a stupid comment I made to her.” I could leave it at that. Jesse generally didn’t pry. If it had been Nicky he’d have been trying to prise everything out of me, which would’ve ended up with him in the pool.
