Page 52 of Playing Dirty
I arch an eyebrow. "Dirty details?"
"Don't even think about it." She laughs.
"Ace, it's literally all I can fucking think about."
Dublin, Ireland
Even though my professional reputation is currently in the toilet, half the squad wants my head on a pike, and I'm enduring the torture of being this close to Margot without being allowed to touch her, it's at least nice to be back home.
Though I could do without the crushing weight of being thousands of miles away while my team plays the most important games of the year without me. But hey. At least the fucking press tour is going great.
We're less than twenty-four hours into the Dublin leg and already buried in foundation events, which means I'm stuck in a loop of media scrums, reciting the same sanitized talking points that Derek and PR painstakingly vetted.
I lean against the wall of the school exterior, the afternoon sky a heavy, bruised grey, and watch the announcer launch into an emphatic introduction for the evening's keynote, when I see Margot making her way toward me.
She's pretty much the only good thing in all of this, and any time I'm not around her my mood plummets into the dirt thinking about the game I'm missing.
"Surviving the local press, Ace?” I say as she slides up beside me.
"Barely. If one more person asks about that creep in the stands, I am walking straight into the sea." She leans her head back against the stone wall, her gaze scanning the crowd. "Why can't they focus on Solstice's charitable contributions? I understand the scandal is news, but it's exhausting. Is it always this pushy?"
"That's the press for you."
She nods out at the street, at the rows of red brick and the church spire poking up past the rooftops. "So this is where you grew up, after your family moved from Galway?"
"Yep." I nod. "But wait until you see Galway. Last stop of the tour, and I'd put it up against anywhere in the country. Well… Sligo and Donegal are pretty close. But still."
"Better than Dublin? Because this has already been pretty magical, and that's just from the little I've seen today. It'ssooocharming." She gestures vaguely at the whole street, like she's trying to take it all in at once.
"Much better. I love Dublin and have fond memories of growing up, but Galway's home."
"How old were you when you left?" She angles her face up at me.
"Thirteen. We all moved to Dublin when my dad got a job here. Then I spent half my life in Canada once hockey took off." I look down at her. "A bit all over the place, really. But I'll always be loyal to Galway."
“Well, I'm in full tourist mode, rose-colored glasses and all. I think I've taken a hundred photos of the most mundane things already." Her smile falters. "I just wish I didn't have that work event for tonight. I'd much rather keep exploring."
"You're remarkably unlucky to have gotten sucked into that," I say, shaking my head.
“How on earth didyouget out of it?” She narrows her eyes at me. "Aren't you like their poster boy?"
I flash her a crooked smile. "Charm and a very expensive manager."
She rolls her eyes and I laugh, glancing back at the makeshift stage before my gaze returns to her.
"Does your whole family still live in the city?" she asks, leaning in with her voice low.
"Aye, Mam and Dad, and all four sisters. Though Lily, the second youngest, is heading off to London for theatre work soon," I say. "And then of course the extended family is all over. Dad's side is in Canada, and Mam's side is mostly up in Donegal."
"Where is Donegal?" she asks.
"It's a county up in the north," I say. "My mam grew up there, before she moved to Galway for university and met my dad. Wild coastline, big empty beaches, proper surf country. She says it's the most beautiful place on earth, and she's not far wrong."
"Yeah?" She smiles, her eyes brightening. "Did you spend a lot of time there growing up?"
"Yeah. My mam's sisters all still live up there with my cousins, so we'd go up all the time. Half our holidays were spent in Donegal." I look down at her, voice dropping. "Maybe I'll get to take you up sometime."
She nods slowly, her gaze lingering on mine. When it drops to my lips, the restraint I've been white-knuckling all morning nearly snaps. I want to pull her in and claim her right here on the pavement, to hell with the cameras and the consequences.
