“You might want to watch the game.” Amber passed him to me. “Jude’s coming on already.”
My head snapped round, watching Jude jumping up high a couple of times, his track suit off. His and Ryan’s hands made contact as Ryan headed down the tunnel to the medical room, and Jude ran on the pitch, the crowd’s applause for Ryan morphing into a roar for Jude.
“This means he’s playing up front rather than on the wing.” Dee Jones sat down next to me. She’d been playing for the women’s team at an early kick-off away match in Liverpool, which had ended in a draw. “So he won’t be expected to do as much running.”
She was wrong. Jude’s first touch of the ball since his injury at the end of last season saw him run with it through the middle of the pitch, his speed still there, dodging a defender and then sending a worldy towards goal.
The opposition’s keeper leapt, his body bending almost inhumanly, and he tipped the ball over the bar.
It was a world-class save that even had Nate applauding, and Jude as well. I watched the players get ready for the corner, Oliver sitting on my knee, clutching a teddy bear dressed in Manchester Athletic colours. He was spellbound by the ball, which was useful, because so was I.
I was used to seeing Jude take the corners, but with him playing out of position, I expected him to be in the box, waiting for the cross to come in.
He wasn’t. Instead he’d run to the corner flag, setting the ball up and shouting to his team mates, his gesturing over the top as usual. He’d scored from a corner once, getting enough bend on the ball to send it into the top left corner of the net.
His run up was shorter than usual, and I wondered if that was tactical to do with his injury. Him coming on the pitch so soon hadn’t been part of the plan. Part of me was thrilled for him, the other part terrified that this might be too much too soon.
The ball lifted off the ground as he made contact with it, sending it perfectly up and into the box, straight onto the thick head of Rowan Reeves, who put it tidily away in the goal, heading it down between two defenders that were making a bad job of helping their keeper.
The stadium erupted. The Manchester Athletic players ran towards Rowan who was running towards Jude.
“Forflight’ssake,” Dee glanced at the kids. “I hope their celly doesn’t wreck Jude’s Achilles.”
“With the luck we’re having this season anything can happen.” The door to the box had opened and Genny entered, catching Dee’s words. “Ryan’s on his way to the hospital. Otter’s with him. I want to say it’s precautionary but it’s not – he’s also bleeding all over the show.”
Nate’s girls were too engrossed in whatever Jerrica was showing them on her tablet to be worried by what Genny had just said.
“Not good.” Head injuries were no fun. Head wounds did bleed a lot – Genny hated blood so she tended to dramatize anything to do with it. “But standard practice. Is Otter okay?”
Genny nodded. “She’s okay.” She peered onto the pitch. “Jude’s got the ball again.”
I focused back on the game, seeing a defender trying to steal the ball. Jude moved his body to block him, his strength making it difficult for the other player to intervene. He passed it to Nicky, who was having a really good season despite the team being off-kilter.
Nicky passed the ball back when Jude had found more space, taking two of the defenders with him as he pelted up the left side of the pitch.
“He’s going to go for it again.” Genny sat down, staring at the screen instead of the field, the camera work doing a really good job of showing exactly what was going on. “What the jeff is going on with their defence? They’re panicking – man on!” She started to shout at the screen as one of the opposite players went for a sliding tackle on Jude.
He dodged it, my heart remaining in my mouth until the ball left his foot and sailed over the goalkeeper’s head and into the net.
We all erupted. Even Nate’s daughters forgot about their tablet and bridesmaids’ dresses and leapt to their feet, cheering for the team.
Cheering for Jude.
The noise reverberated around the stadium, encapsulating all of us. I saw Jude run towards our box, where he knew we’d be watching. He tapped his chest where his heart was and then lifted his hand up, looking at me.
At least I figured he was looking at me.
I hoped he was looking at me.
I was already standing, but I held my hand up back and saw him smile, his big gorgeous grin breaking out across his face.
“Are you Jude’s girlfriend?” It was Libbie, Nate’s eldest, who asked.
“Kind of.” I hoped she didn’t ask for an explanation of kind of.
“You’re lucky. He’s my favourite player.” She sat back down, the tablet in her hands.
I grinned at Jerrica. It had really annoyed Nate when he found out that Libbie had a crush on Jude.
