Page 56 of The Game

We finished our drinks, and they were heading out of the door when Blythe turned. "Thank you for inviting us in. I'm hoping we can start afresh?" I nodded, that damn obstruction back in my throat, which I had to swallow around to enable speech. "Oh, we were thinking of taking Sammy to Disneyland Paris the weekend of the anniversary. We thought it might help take his mind off everything, and maybe make things easier for you too. We know it's not our weekend, though."

I counted the weeks in my head until that fateful day. I didn't know why I hadn't made the connection before. My heart sank to the soles of my feet.

"But that's the last game of the season. I'm hoping we will be in the final."

There was awkward silence while I fiddled with the hem of my T-shirt and sought out the right words to say. "You guys could come if you like? My parents will be there, and I was hoping Sammy would."

Colin's face lit like a light bulb. "Sounds much better than Disneyland if you ask me." These were the first words he'd uttered all night, and I had a feeling that chief communicator wasn't his role in their relationship.

"Deal then?" I said.

Colin shook my hand, but Blythe gave me a hug. "Better make sure the Red Cats are in that final," he said.

My mind spun back over the events of the weekend. More to the point I would be making sure I still had a job at the final.

I woke to a text from Betsy. Ignoring the message, I stretched, the insides of my thighs still ached. Deep inside I felt a change. My night with Jase had transformed me, and while I knew he told me straight that we couldn’t be anything now, under his words there had been an emphasis on the now and I found myself clinging onto it. Life was finally slotting into place—Sammy wasn’t going to be taken away from me and I’d had mind blowing sex with a cricket god who was slowly crawling under my skin. Maybe going to the Red Cats was the best thing I’d ever done.

Remembering Betsy’s text I flicked on the message.

Have you seen this? Just as well your friendship is over.

It was followed by a link that when I clicked took me to one of those cheap sports rags that still had semi-naked women gracing the pages, despite the fact it was the twenty-first century. The headline was obvious enough, 'Dancer tames the beast’. Followed by a sub heading, 'My night with the Lancashire Lion’. Accompanying the headline was a grainy picture of a long-legged man with fair hair sat on a chair as a girl in a matching thong and bra set straddled his lap. His hands were gripping the edge of the chair as his face tilted up to her all too ample cleavage.

A flood of sick rose up my throat. Couldn’t be. Could it? Wasn’t he here, doing indescribable things to me in the shower and taking me apart in my guest room?

This news was bollocks. I knew this because I was the one that had spent the night with him. My palms slicked on my phone as his words of Saturday night flooded back to me. His arms had been tight around my body, his fingers trailing the curve of my waist and his lips had settled into that grim line as he'd said, ‘It's amazing what people would do to make money’.

I stumbled out of bed my heart racing. "Sammy, come on get dressed."

"What, why?" he stumbled to his door, his dark hair ravaged by sleep and his pillow.

"I need to get to work, little guy." Just then I heard Maria's key turn in the lock of the front door. I knew it was her. There was no one else with a key. "Okay, don't worry. Maria can take you at the right time."

"What's going on?" he rubbed at one eye, and it was so damn cute I had to still my panic and take a moment to enjoy it for what it was. A very cute six-year-old still caught in the clutches of slumber. I rubbed his head and dropped a kiss on his nose.

"Don't worry. I'll see you after work. I've got to dash."

Maria was opening the fridge, a frown flickering across her face as she looked at the damage I'd created over the weekend. "Who were you feeding, an elephant?"

I was going to reply that it was just me, and what was she saying about my eating habits when I remembered that it hadn't just been me eating the food. It had been the Lion as well when he was here making love to me instead of some stripper trying to sell a story for a quick buck.

"Maria, I've got to go to work early," I rushed up to her and squeezed her shoulders. My pulse was racing. I didn't even know what I was planning to do when I got to work; I just felt like I had to be there for him. He was an arse, and I knew that. I knew that I came way down his list of priorities. At least I had, until the weekend had changed everything and given this friendship between us a fighting chance, but he couldn't get in trouble with management for something that was a total lie. I blinked into the sunshine streaming through the kitchen patio doors. "Can you get Sammy dressed for school? I will owe you one."

She laughed and pushed me away. "You always owe me one, go on go." I grabbed my keys, shouting out a goodbye to Sammy. "Oh, don't forget you've promised to do a cricket session next week with the school for the end of the term."

I groaned. I had forgotten. But then I'd been distracted by a whole six foot something chunk of golden-haired manliness. "Thanks for the heads up."

"You owe me," she shouted back as I paced down the drive. "Again."

His SUV was in the car park in its regular spot. The rest of the car park was empty apart from Waller's back sedan and a Mercedes that I didn't recognise.

My knees shook as I clambered out of the car. On the way over here my nerves had been a jangling mess, my hands sliding on the steering wheel and my legs knocking together. I didn't know what I planned to do. I didn't know if there was anything I could do. But really in my heart, I knew I wanted to be there for him.

I wasn't naive. I knew we weren't in a relationship, or anything even close to that. I knew he didn't want me in that way. It wasn't his thing. But on Saturday when he'd taken me, pushing me through my boundaries, he'd changed something deep within me. Something that I'd never contemplated before.

The corridors were empty. No players would arrive this early on a Monday, even if it were the quarter-final this week. The Red Cats may be the best team in the league, but hell they were the laziest too. A cleaner was pushing one of those whirling floor cleaners down the corridor. "Watch out, Miss." He called just as I slipped on a wet patch. Gaining my balance, I worked my way to Waller's office where the sound of raised voices filtered through the door. I paused, not wanting to eavesdrop, but then unable to move away.

"It's lies." The Lion's voice filtered through the wood and hearing it made my stomach flip flop. Stood there like a naughty schoolgirl outside the headmaster's office, listening to a conversation I wasn't supposed to hear, I realised one startling fact. I would recognise that voice if it called to me from the moon, from another universe maybe. It did something odd to my bones, made them feel like jelly.