Miles pulled away, a scornful slant to his brows. “Yes? I’m a free man and you fucked me insensible last night, how could I not be?” He rolled away off the bed and eased to his feet with a sigh. “I’m going to order breakfast,” he said, striding across the room gloriously naked. “What do you want?”
“Whatever you’re having is fine,” I said, a knot of ill-ease growing in my stomach. It left my chest feeling tight, like my skin was three sizes too small. “Hey, do you mind if I take a quick shower?”
“Sure, go for it.”
I escaped to the bathroom, and by the time I emerged, scrubbed clean of all the sex and sweat, the mess we’d left the previous evening had been wholly swept away. The food rubbish was gone, discarded clothes had been folded, the bed had been made and everything was neatly back in its place. Even his e-reader sat perfectly square to the corner of the coffee table as though he’d used a ruler. Fully dressed, Miles was running through stretches in the middle of the floor. The tension felt like stretched cling film.
“Hey,” I said as I pulled on my clothes. “You all right?”
“A bit stiff, but I’ll work the kinks out on court.”
“And about last night? You know, the whole not having a team anymore thing.”
He shrugged and changed legs before dropping his forehead to his knee. “I’ll work that out too.”
A perfectly acceptable response, yet the air felt prickly with everything he wasn’t saying. “I’m sure you will, but you know you can talk to me, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” he replied, turning his head as he leaned into the stretch. “To organise my pre-match railings.”
“This isn’t just—”
But it was, I realised as I broke off, because I’d told him it had to be.
Miles didn’t look at me as he pulled to his feet. What use was my moral high ground when he needed someone to talk to? Someone who cared about him and would be there for him? Everything I wanted to be but hadn’t been allowing.
“I mean, aren’t we friends too?” I tried again.
“Of course we are,” he said. “And as a friend, you can relax. I’m fine.”
That always so easy smile of his didn’t reach his eyes, but I was out of leverage – this the amount of himself he would share with just a friend. It wasn’t enough. I wanted more. Wanted to be the shoulder he could cry on. Be the support he could rely on. Wanted it with such intensity that I could feel unplanned words pulling past my teeth.
“Miles . . .” He turned, brows raised, and my heart started pounding as I realised I couldn’t stop myself and didn’t want to. “I know this isn’t the best time, but we need to talk. Or I do, at least, I—”
Someone knocked.
In the silence that followed, Miles and I stared at each other – two hearts trapped in amber, unable to move forward, unable to move back. I wasn’t even sure exactly what I’d been going to say,but as the knock came again, his gaze hastily shuttered. “You’d better hold that thought,” he said with a soft laugh as he went to the door. “Tina or breakfast, do you think?”
I hoped for breakfast and braced for Tina, and wasn’t at all prepared for a middle-aged woman to stride in the moment he pulled open the door. She had a long sweep of honey-blonde hair, half a dozen clicking bangles, and trailed expensive perfume, yet it was a pair of sporty flats that came to a halt in the middle of the dark carpet.
“Ma?” Miles followed her in, leaving the door to swing closed. “What are you doing here?”
“You fired your whole team yesterday, baby,” she said, turning to stroke his cheek. “Did you really think I wasn’t going to come? Now, you don’t need to worry about anything,” she went on, smoothing his shirt before looking him up and down. “I’ve already talked your father down from his rage. Leo was too old for you anyway. I’ve been saying so for months. Of course, he was perfect when you were starting out and needed the steady hand, but now you need someone more dynamic. Less drama next time though, darling. Thankfully, Tina is on it and you know how good she is at making your mistakes go away.”
In the wake of those words, Mrs Callahan took in the room with a satisfied hum, and strode to the long windows. Outside, the morning had turned grey, yet for half a minute she stood admiring it in silence. Miles waited like he was too stunned for words.
When his mother turned back, her eyes fell on me. “That was your opportunity to tactfully remove yourself.”
“I wasn’t aware that was required,” I said, sticking with a bemused smile.
A flinty look sharpened her gaze. “Hmm.” She looked back toMiles. “Your father already has his eye on some great options. It will take time to rebuild the whole team, but we might have a coach by New York and—”
“Why don’t you let him choose his own coach?” I asked, as Miles’s silence rang far too loud.
Mrs Callahan spun an incredulous look my way. “And who are you? I came to talk to my son, not this week’s piece of ass.”
“Fucking hell,” Miles hissed under his breath.
“Don’t let your father catch you talking like that,” she warned him. “He’s only just forgiven your behaviour while you were in London and that took some work, let me tell you!”
