I close my eyes instinctively.
“Can I ask you a question?”
He shrugs.
“How… How do you do it, Jamie? How can you be the way you are?”
He looks at me seriously for a second and then gives me half a smile.
“You want to know the truth? It’s because of her, mate. She pulled me out of it. She stood by me, she fought for me. She was my strength – and then rugby took care of everything else.”
I don’t know what to say. I don’t see how it’s possible for those guys to still be on their feet. I had the O’Connor family, my brothers. Jamie and Riley only had each other.
“I feel suffocated, Jamie. I wish there was some way to talk about it with her, so that she could just let it all go…”
“I know.”
I sigh in resignation.
“We’re in the same boat: let’s try not to drown her.”
“Hey dickhead,” Nick interrupts our discussion. “You haven’t had too much turkey, have you?”
“Who the hell let you in here? Don’t you know this is a reserved area? The team meets up in here.”
He shrugs with his usual devil-may-care attitude.
“There are no locked doors in my world.”
Self-absorbed bastard.
“I just came to tell you that we’re all here. Me, the arsehole and Riley.”
Just hearing her name, my stomach does a few somersaults.
“They’re waiting for me in the bleachers. Mum and Dad stayed home. They’re a bit tired out after Christmas.”
“Not hard to believe, with you two hanging around.”
“Speaking of that, I wanted to let you know I might have found a place.”
“It was about time.”
“Nothing fancy, just an apartment in Northwood.”
“In Northwood?” I look at him, narrowing my eyes.
“Yeah,” he says a bit uncomfortable. “I wanted to stick around close to home.”
“Seems like a good idea.”
He nods with a serious expression.
“Your being around is important. I can’t make miracles, but if we all do our part, it’ll make a difference.”
“Hope so,” he says, sighing heavily. “I move in in January but I have to take care of a few things first. I’ll be gone for a few days.”
“What is it, another photo shoot?” I say making fun of him.
