‘How about you?’ Eddie turns to me as we enter the changing rooms.
‘I’m actually staying on here for another night. My parents are heading up, seeing as I haven’t been back to Westport since Luke announced his engagement. They said they want to scout out Carton House, get some fresh ideas for their own hotel, apparently.’ I’m under no illusion. They’re checking up on me, probably hoping to sweep any awkwardness under the carpet. It’s Mam’s speciality.
Though Carton House has been our training ground for years, and even though it’s one of the most luxurious hotels in the country, most of the guys hate being here during the week. They’d rather be at home with their wives or girlfriends. Hell, some of them even make the commute up and down each day.
Me, I like hotel life. Apart from the fact I grew up in one, my own apartment in Dublin feels too sterile or something. I can only imagine my mother’s tongue clicking and tutting if she ever gets to examine its bare walls. I really should do something to make it more homely, especially because I’m there every weekend now. My heart just isn’t in it at the moment.
‘What about tomorrow night?’ Eddie strips off, displaying everything for everyone to see. I avert my eyes, despite the fact we’ve all seen it a million times before.
‘Probably take the rest at home while I can get it.’
‘Rest? Don’t be ridiculous, you’ll be a long time dead. Emma has a new product out, some sort of anti-ageing face cream or something. She’s having a launch party at the spa. You should come down.’
‘Spa? Man, that’s not really my thing.’
‘Don’t worry, Ollie, no one will think less of you for taking an interest in preserving that baby-face of yours,’ Eddie teases, turning on the shower.
‘I’ll be there,’ Nathan confirms, yanking his holdall from the locker in his rush to get out.
‘Callum and Abby will be there too. A few beauty bloggers and basically just my family and Emma’s family. It’ll be pretty low-key, but the drink will be flowing.’
My ears prick when he says ‘his family’, I can only assume that includes his sister, now they’re talking again. Is it so wrong that I’m still dying to talk to her? That she’s the first face that comes to mind when I open my eyes and the last one I see when I close them. That whenever she’s in the same room I cannot concentrate on anyone else, or anything that’s being said. And when I know she’s watching us train, I give it every single ounce I have with the stupid hope of impressing her.
Whatever kind of hypnotic hold she has over me, I’ve got it bad. I’ve even started putting on aftershave to go training. Marcus actually pulled me on it, calling me a perfumed pansy. I had to lie and say I hadn’t showered, pretending it was there from the night before.
I’m hoping it’s only a little crush, but my head warns me it’s way worse. Perhaps if I spend a bit more time with her, the perfect impenetrable bubble of her that I’ve established in my head might burst and I might be able to move on.
Doubtful, but worth a try. Because while my head is full of lust-filled, forbidden thoughts about Amy Harrington, I can’t even contemplate dating anyone else.
‘Did you give any more thought to that dating site I told you about?’ Eddie is like a dog with a fucking bone.
‘Yeah. I’m still not sure.’ Peeling my muddy shirt from my back, I fling it into the laundry pile and concentrate on taking off my boots, primarily so I don’t have to look at their faces.
‘What have you got to lose?’ Marcus shrugs.
Nathan swings his bag up over his forearm as if it weighs nothing. ‘See you tomorrow night, yeah?’ He bumps his foot against mine, so there can be no doubt who he’s talking to.
Amy struts into the changing room wearing green tracksuit bottoms that hug her peachy bum in a way I didn’t realise a tracksuit was capable of. Her hoody is fitted, framing her hourglass figure, and her spiral curls are poorly restrained, twisted and secured with a blue biro.
‘Sure.’ I nod at Nathan, giving into the inevitable before subtly turning my attention back to Amy while Eddie heads for the showers.
Her brilliant, brandy coloured eyes take in the room, carefully remaining at a respectable eye-level. Eventually she locates who she’s looking for, beckoning Gareth for physio on his shoulder. Standing shirtless four metres away from her, I will her to glance at me, to steal a look at my body and show me I’m not the only one with a stupid crush.
Gareth follows her towards the treatment room at the side of the changing rooms. Lucky fucker. It’s almost worth getting injured for. Fuck it, if Eddie only knew what I was thinking, that’s exactly what I’d be – injured.
She gestures for Gareth to go in first. Her head turns slowly round towards me until her appraising eyes meet mine with an intensity that scorches the air between us. They drop to my torso for a split second before she turns away again, before anyone else can notice. It’s a hard job to conceal the grin erupting on my face. It’s only a little win, but my heart soars.
* * *
In the hotel room I grab a bottle of water from the minibar and flop onto the queen-size bed. My phone vibrates on the coffee table and I know who it is before I even look at the screen. Answering it, I clear my throat and search for an appropriate tone to mask the awkwardness of this visit, of them checking up on me.
‘Dad?’
‘Just checked in, son. We’re in the bar. Your mother booked dinner for all of us at seven o’clock.’ His voice is stilted, awkward almost.
‘Perfect. I’ll be down in a few minutes.’
He hesitates for a fraction of a second before saying goodbye. Weird. I don’t drink much during the season but tonight I’m going to have to make an exception. I’m going to need it to get through my mother’s interrogation and if I’m out tomorrow night too, I’ll need a warm-up. The last thing I want to do is get hammered on two drinks and blurt out something completely inappropriate to Amy Harrington, again. Even if I can’t have her, even if she’ll never be mine, I don’t want her to think I’m a prize prick, or a rugby-playing baboon like some of my teammates.
