‘Yeah, an opportunity to slide your hands up and down Ollie Quinn’s “injuries”.’ She prods me affectionately in the chest in a manner that only someone who’s known me their whole life can get away with.
I’d already told her about the almost-most-exciting night of my life. Mostly because I couldn’t stop thinking about it and the unjustness of the situation was driving me crazy, and I needed someone to rant to.
‘Look, I want this job, and it has nothing to do with Ollie Quinn. I had my heart set on it long before I ran into him in the players’ lounge.’ Regular sightings of him up close and personal are just an added bonus. I keep that bit of information to myself, having already said too much.
Geri washes her hands, then flicks the kettle on. She pulls out our usual mugs, from the same collection she used to have in her studio flat, before she moved in with Alex. Today she gives me the one that says ‘you’ll always be my friend because you know too much’. Hers says ‘I’m not perfect but I’m so close it scares me’.
‘What will Eddie say? He didn’t want you to apply for it, did he?’ She voices my only concern.
‘I really appreciate him looking out for me, you above all people know that. But if Eddie had his way, he’d have me wrapped up in a cardboard box and only let me out on a Sunday to go to mass.’
The sympathetic glance she shoots acknowledges an incident from the past that we never discuss. ‘You’re right. At his engagement party he told me he hoped you might find a nice cardiologist or similar. I told him a gynaecologist might be more beneficial! At least someone who might have some idea what to do with you!’ She winks and nudges me enough for the tea to slosh the side of my mug.
‘Stop, please!’ My less than satisfactory sexual experiences are something I’ve discussed openly with Geri over the years. ‘The thing is, I can’t live under his shadow forever, even if it sometimes feels safe under there. I love the idea of getting to go to Italy or France for the Six Nations, and actually getting paid to do so.’ Shuffling the papers, I put them back into my bag for safe keeping.
‘I’m so happy for you, Amy. You deserve it, you really do. They’re lucky to have you.’ Geri skilfully arches a single eyebrow. ‘You do know Eddie won’t take it well though, all those hunky men around his stunning little sister.’
‘Huh, please. I’m practically one of them, I couldn’t be more of a tomboy if I tried.’
She sniggers and puts some pasta on the hob for the kids. ‘Honey, no baggy hoody can hide that rack. Hell, if I was that way inclined, I’d be looking for a slice myself.’ Geri is as far from that way inclined as they come. She’s man mad, specifically one man – her husband Alex – who can do no wrong in her eyes, no matter how many times he pretends he can’t hear the kids crying in the night.
‘Seriously, you should tell Eddie though. Give him the chance to get his head around it. His sister has effectively just become part of his team.’
‘I can’t. He’ll probably find a way to suggest it’s a bad move and ask me to turn it down. You know I find it hard to say no, especially where my family are concerned.’
‘It’s your life,’ she concedes, as the squabbling emerges from upstairs. ‘You know what I always say…’
‘It’s easier to beg forgiveness than ask for permission.’ Her hand slaps against mine in a high five.
ChapterSix
OLLIE
With the final match of Six Nations looming, training has resumed at Carton House. There is no rest for the wicked.
‘How is the extracurricular activity going?’ Eddie shouts across the locker room.
Could he be any less subtle about it? Maybe I wouldn’t care, if I had more to brag about. But since my awful epiphany in the nightclub four weeks ago, where I realised I was no better than Luke, there’s been no one. And that’s not something I can shout across the locker room. Nor can I shout, ‘funny you should mention it, the only woman who really did pique my interest is your little sister.’
‘It’s kind of tiring.’ What I want to say is soulless, pointless and completely degrading, but I’m not in the mood for the slagging that would follow.
Unable to erase Amy’s luscious curls and full lips from my delinquent brain, I can’t stop imagining what might have happened if she’d been anyone else. She could have been the one to blow anything I had with Anita completely out of the water, because since our encounter at the bar, I’ve barely thought about the situation in Westport at all. But Amy Harrington is well and truly off-limits. Forbidden. A complete no-go zone, with flashing hazard lights illuminating the serious potential for danger. Yet, even with the pressure of the tournament, she refuses to budge from my overactive imagination.
Eddie crosses the room with Marcus and Nathan fast on his heels. ‘Tiring because someone’s keeping you up all night? Or multiple someones perhaps?’
I finish drying myself and throw on a jersey. ‘Nah, seriously, after an adventurous start, I’ve slowed down. The late nights are hard going. I think I might be too lazy for it.’
‘No one ever admits it, but playing the field is exhausting,’ Nathan says with a sympathetic nod. Considering he’s the baby of the team, he definitely has his head screwed on. I suppose fathering a child might do that to a person.
‘I wouldn’t go back to it for love nor money,’ Marcus admits. ‘Good job, because Shelly would cut off my dick.’ A raucous guffaw follows as he slaps his own thigh at the thought.
Eddie’s broad back rests against the locker to my left, Marcus hovers to my right, Nathan in front of me. I’d love to bolt out of here this second but I’m sort of pinned in.
‘Did you hear about that new dating site? It’s got some really cheesy name like Finding Forever, but I heard one of the lads on the Leinster team talking about it. He said it was the dog’s bollocks, reckons the first woman he got paired up with is actually the woman of his dreams. They’ve only been together a few weeks but all going well, he reckons he’ll have a ring on her finger by mid-summer,’ Eddie says.
‘That’s quick.’ Mind you, my own brother didn’t waste any time once he managed to get Anita into his bed.
‘When you know, you know though, right?’ Eddie looks to Marcus to back him up.
