by Avery Wilde
I shook my head. “You don’t sound ungrateful,” I said. “I understand. Sometimes you just need a break from all the attention. But you’re right; this isn’t the kind of rubbish I can complain about when I’m talking to Connor. It’s like he lives in a different world.”
Kate smiled, and she took another handful of prawn crackers and nibbled at one of them delicately. “Does he live around here?”
I nodded. “He lives in Manchester, but on the other side of town,” I said. “Moved from Belfast to be here around the same time I got picked up by Manchester United.”
“Did you grow up here?”
I shook my head. “Not really,” I said. “Well, sort of. I lived in Belfast with my parents until I was almost a teenager. Then I moved here to live with my uncle. He keeps a shop around that corner,” I said as I pointed down the appropriate street.
“Oh, okay,” she replied with a nod. “So did you play soccer as a kid? Er, football, I mean.”
“I didn’t get into it until I moved, actually,” I said. “If you can believe it, not many kids in Belfast are out kicking a ball around.”
Kate nodded. “I‘ve heard it can be kind of a rough city. At least I heard it was a few years ago, anyway,” she said. “So why did you move out here with your uncle? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Something bad happened,” I said, not wanting to tell her about my parents dying in a car bombing. “I moved here when I was about twelve.”
Kate nodded. I could tell she was curious but that she wasn’t going to press the issue. “I’ve never been to Manchester before,” she said. “But I really like it. I know why my sister is so happy here. I’m going to have to drag her home once her semester is over.” She cracked a grin at me. “And she loves football, by the way. She took me to the game as soon as I flew in. We barely even had time to change.”
I chuckled. “It’s always nice to meet a fan,” I said, winking at Kate. She blushed again. “I know it probably wasn’t your first choice of entertainment, though.”
She looked awkward for a second. “I enjoyed myself,” she said softly. “I mean, yeah, honestly I wasn’t sure that I would. But I really enjoyed the game. The energy was pretty infectious.”
“Yeah, it’s like that. So why don’t you have a boyfriend?” I raised my eyebrow at her. “You’re bloody gorgeous, I bet you’re beating blokes off with a stick.”
She laughed and blushed again. “I’m not beating them off with a stick.”
“Liar.”
“I guess I just don’t really have time to date,” she continued, in a brisk, professional way. “I couldn’t prioritize a relationship over the show right now, and I think men seem to know that.” She paused for a second and I wasn’t sure whether or not she was going to continue. But then she said: “And I know this sounds weird, but I think sometimes men are put off because I’m on TV. It’s like they feel they have to overcompensate.”
“Like they’re threatened?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” she said. “It’s more of a status thing. Like they don’t like being with a woman who can pay for everything if she chooses to. I think it makes them feel a little emasculated, as 1950’s as that sounds.”
She licked her lower lip and I had the sudden urge to grab her and press her frame to my body. I’ll show you a man who’s not put off by you, I thought wickedly. Just come a little closer and you’ll see, I’m not like the rest of those blokes.
“I understand,” I said smoothly. Kate seemed to relax a little bit.
“You promise you don’t think I’m a brat?” She looked up at me and I stared at her lips, desperately wanting them against mine. “I mean, because I’m complaining when I’ve been so fortunate? I really do sound like a brat, I know it.”
I laughed. “Trust me,” I said, holding up my hands. “I’ve had to hide from girls in alleys before. I understand. It’s distracting, even if I love it most of the time.”
“Do you?”
The question caught me off-guard. “What?”
“Do you, I mean do you really love it?” Kate raised an eyebrow as she took another bite of fried prawns. “You don’t think it’s too stressful? You don’t want a normal life?”
“Fuck no,” I said, shaking my head. “Take my best mate, Connor. I love him, he’s a brother to me from another mother. But he has to work his arse off, just to make ends meet. And he’s always worried about money. I can tell he feels uncomfortable around me. I wish he’d just take my bloody money already. But he’s too proud, says some inane bullshit about how he won’t take any bloody charity.”
Kate nodded. “It’s frustrating, isn’t it?” She pursed her lips. “I tried to help Lizzy with school, but she wouldn’t take any help.”
Just then, my mobile buzzed in my pocket. “Hold on,” I told Kate. “Better make sure they know we didn’t wander off too far.” When I pulled my phone out and checked the screen, I saw a text from one of my mates.
‘Your bird’s sister is tossing up in the bathroom. Sick as a dog.’
Shit. “Kate, you better read this,” I said as I held up my phone to her face. “Your sister’s in some trouble.”
“Crap,” Kate muttered as she read the text. “How the hell did that happen?”
“Aye, if your sister thought she could drink my mates under the table, she was mistaken,” I said sorely. “They can down booze with the best of them. We should go check on her, come on.”
Kate stood up from the table and wrapped her arms around herself, and as we started walking back to the clubhouse, I saw she was shivering.
“Are you cold?”
“I’m fine.” Kate shook her head but I saw she was lying, and with a grin, I handed her the light warm-up jacket I was wearing. It was one of my official Manchester United pieces, and I didn’t like the idea of wrapping a girl up in it—just in case Hannah (or any other snoopy reporter) was lurking. But Kate didn’t just seem like any girl. She was different. Hell, I’d already wanted to tell her about my parents and that was the first time I’d ever actually felt like talking about it.
“Thanks,” Kate said after she’d wrapped up in my jacket. It was huge on her; the fabric billowed around her small frame as she pulled it close. “This helps a lot.”
We headed back to the football club, and I saw one of my mates standing outside, a cigarette dangling from his lips. “Jay! She’s in bad shape, man,” he said as we stepped into the clubhouse. “She’s in the back bathroom.”
“I’m sorry,” Kate said. She looked up at me with her bright green eyes; her face was twisted and pale. “I had no idea this would happen.”
I shrugged. “Shit happens,” I told her with a grin. “We’ve all had too much to drink one time or another.”
Kate suppressed a nervous laugh, and just then, I knew everything would be all right between us. She gave me an apologetic glance before dashing off towards her drunk sister, and I watched her go with a small smile playing on my lips.
Just this morning, I’d been going on about how I wasn’t even close to meeting the right girl for me, and how I wasn’t even close to wanting to settle down in a monogamous relationship again.
Now I was starting to think I’d been totally wrong about that.
Chapter Six
Kate
My head was filled with horrible thoughts: Lizzy passed out on a dirty, tiled floor with vomit caked around her mouth. Lizzy passed out, draped over the couch, a spilling drink still clutched in her hand. Jay was amazing laidback about the whole situation, but I was terrified. I’d barely even seen my baby sister drunk before, and I’d definitely never seen her get anything like alcohol poisoning.
“Kate?” One of Jay’s teammates called me from the back of the clubhouse. “She’s back here, in the loo.”
“Thank god,” I muttered under my breath as I rushed towards him. “At least one of them had the good sense to stay with her during this.”
Lizzy was sprawled out on the floor, but she looked relative
ly sober by this point. There was vomit—all over the room. The lid of the toilet was up and I could see brown and yellow splashes on the inside of the rim. Wrinkling my nose at the acrid scent of bile, I stepped closer.
“Lizzy, it’s me,” I said softly. “I think we might have to take you to the hospital.”
Lizzy glared at me. “I know who you are,” she said in a hoarse voice. Groaning, she tried to lift herself up. I rushed forward and grabbed her under the arms, helping her back towards the toilet. As Lizzy leaned over the bowl and gushed a torrent of vomit, I pushed her light brown hair away from her forehead.
“Feeling any better?”
She leaned back and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I feel like shit,” she said in the same voice. “Don’t ever let me drink around those assholes ever again.” Her head lolled forward and I reached forward to hold her chin in an upright position.
“I really think we need to go to the hospital,” I said, looking back at the player who’d been in here with her. “She seems really sick, and I’m worried about her passing out and choking.”
“She was already passed out, lass,” the bulky footballer said. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I’ll go get Jay.”
I nodded my thanks and turned my attention back to my inebriated sister. She was bracing herself against the porcelain structure, head propped up on the bowl. I tried not to make a face but I couldn’t help it—I wasn’t good around vomit. Then again, who was? The smell alone made me want to vomit myself.
“I don’t wanna go to the hospital,” Lizzy whined. “Please, Kate, don’t make me go.”
“You’re going, and that’s that,” I said firmly. Lizzy moaned and lowered her head as she retched into the bowl again.
“No,” she said, but she didn’t resist when I tried to pull her body away from the toilet. “No, Kate, let me go, please.”
“Sorry,” I said as I stroked her hair. “I’m worried you’ve got alcohol poisoning. Better safe than sorry.”
“Rubbish,” Lizzy mumbled. She curled up in the fetal position on the floor.
“Everything okay?” Jay’s voice floated over the two of us. “How is she, Kate?”
I turned to him and was shocked at the level of concern on his face. If he wasn’t a world-famous football player, I would have thought he was an actor. His forehead was creased and his blue eyes were keenly focused on Lizzy’s prone figure.
“She’s not great,” I admitted. “I’m going to take her to the hospital. Can you call a cab for us?”
Jay shook his head. “Don’t be bloody ridiculous,” he said. “I’ll drive the both of you. And don’t worry, I barely had one drink—I can drive safely. Come on,” he said, gently nudging me to the side. “I’ll carry her.”
I wanted to protest, but watching Jay carefully heft my sister into his arms robbed me of words. He gently cradled Lizzy, propping her head up on his shoulder and carrying her past me as if she weighed nothing at all. An unpleasant sensation, something like jealousy, wormed its way through me. Don’t be stupid, Kate, I told myself. You just met this guy, and he’s carrying your sister because she can’t walk. Don’t be jealous. It’s not a good look for casual flings. I stopped for a moment. A casual fling? Is that what this was? Yeah, in your dreams, I replied in my mind. You know a guy like him would never want to hang around with you for too long. Flavor of the week, that’s what you are.
Or the day, more like it.
“My motor’s outside,” Jay said in a quiet voice. “I’ll bring her out and put her in the backseat.”
“Thank you,” I said softly as I watched Jay carry Lizzy outside. I was struck again by the sheer size of him: he was so muscular that his body didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. My mouth went dry as I watched the muscles in his back work as he balanced Lizzy carefully while opening the door.
Shaking my head, I blinked and followed Jay outside. I knew there was no use in getting caught up in how sexy he was, but I couldn’t help it. Whenever I was around him, I felt something pulling me towards him. Yeah, you and about a million other girls, I thought wryly.
Jay drove a late-model Mercedes but it wasn’t as flashy as I would have expected. It looked very much like a normal car; the kind a relatively successful doctor or lawyer would drive. Definitely not the car of a world famous footballer. I bet he probably had a whole garage full of cars, and maybe this was the ‘seduce her by making her think I’m oh-so-practical’ car. I snorted at the thought as I tried to stop myself from letting out a laugh at such an inappropriate moment.
“What’s so funny?” Jay turned to me after he’d finished setting Lizzy down on the rich leather of the back seat. “You sounded amused,” he added when I didn’t reply. I felt a blush spread over my cheeks.
“Nothing,” I said. I wasn’t quite ready to tell Jay exactly what I’d thought yet. I had to keep reminding myself that we really didn’t know each other very well. In fact, we barely knew each other at all. Just because we’d sat for a couple of hours and shared some food and talked about ourselves…well, that didn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things, right?
“Kate!” Lizzy’s voice was hoarse from the backseat. I turned around, expecting to see her crouched over the floor and vomiting. But she was grinning at me; a lopsided, cockeyed smile. “Katie, you need to go kick Josh in the balls. You wan’ me to do it for you?” She was still slurring, and her eyes rolled back in her head.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said with a smile as I turned back around in the seat. Jay looked at me from the driver’s side of the car with his eyebrows raised, but he didn’t say anything.
“I’m not being ridiculush,” Lizzy slurred. “Kick Josh in the balls and hop on the Jay train, girl, choo choo!”
I blushed a deep red. “Lizzy,” I said through gritted teeth as I turned around in the seat to face her. “No more talking, okay?”
She gave me a blank look that was such an artful imitation of her sober self that I almost burst out laughing. “Don’ tell me what to do,” she managed to get out. I was dreading another outburst but she simply yawned loudly and propped her head up on her arm.
“Are we almost there?” I turned to Jay. “Thank you again for driving.”
“Not much longer now,” he said as he expertly navigated the Mercedes through the narrow streets. He raised an eyebrow at me.
“I really appreciate this,” I said quickly. “I mean, thank you so much for your help.”
“No worries. Anytime.”
Jay pulled into the hospital a moment later and I leapt out of the front seat and darted around to the back. “Please help us,” I called to the nurse who rushed out to greet the car. “I think my sister has alcohol poisoning, she’s really sick!”
“Hold tight, love,” the nurse said. She took a quick look at Lizzy. “She doesn’t have alcohol poisoning. She’s just arseholed.”
I blinked at her colorful language. “I’m really worried about her,” I stressed. “Can you please take her in to see a doctor just in case?”
The nurse ducked her head to the driver of the car, and I could tell she was just about to ask about Jay when he stepped out of the car and grinned at me.
“I’ll go park this and meet you inside,” he said. “Be two ticks.”
The nurse gave me an incredulous look as we supported Lizzy upright and carried her inside. I was left sitting in a green-colored waiting room as Lizzy was admitted, and when the nurse came down to get me, Jay was just walking in.
“Your sister’s down this way,” the nurse said. Her eyes were focused on Jay and she was practically drooling. I felt a wave of intense annoyance wash over me, which I tried to brush aside again. After all, Jay wasn’t mine. “She’ll be fine, ma’am. Just give her some time to rest.”
“Thanks very much,” I said to her. Jay flashed her a wink, and I swear she almost fainted.
If he’d wanted to come here just so he could flirt with nurses, that was fine. See if I care, I thought,
just as I felt a hand on my shoulder. Startled, I looked up.
“I’m coming with you,” Jay said in a pointed voice.
I had to work hard to hide my smile at that.
Lizzy was propped up in a hospital bed, against some massive white pillows. Her skin was pale and sallow but she already looked better than she had at the clubhouse. As I got closer to the bed, she covered her eyes with her hands and moaned.
“I feel so bad,” Lizzy moaned. “My head hurts so much, Kate. I want to die, seriously.”
“Well, don’t, please,” I said. I smiled at her. “You gave me a scare, though. Did you really have to try drinking those guys under the table?”
Lizzy grinned at me. “I thought I could take ‘em, too,” she said in a more subdued voice. Jay and I watched as she yawned and closed her eyes, settling against the pillows. “Can we dim the lights in here or something? They’re killing my head.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said.
I fiddled with the light switch, and then Jay and I watched as Lizzy fell into a restless sleep.
“She’ll be fine,” Jay said, patting me on the shoulder. A tell-tale tingle crept up my spine at his touch, and I shifted nervously where I stood as heat gathered in my core. “Should I stay?”
I shook my head. “No, you should get home,” I replied. “You’ve already helped so much. Go and get some rest.”
He sighed. “I really don’t want to leave you,” he said. “But if you’re going to be stubborn like that, I’ll head off. Promise you’ll call me if anything bad happens?”
I nodded. “Will do. I’m going to sleep here,” I said as I pointed to the chair in the corner of Lizzy’s room. “Thanks again, Jay. You’re a real lifesaver.”
He lifted his hand up in a little wave, then gave me a boyish grin and walked out of the hospital room. My stomach did a flip-flop and it was only when he was gone that I realized I’d been holding my breath almost the entire time. Being with Jay was exhilarating, no doubt about that.
Lizzy was snoring softly in the bed as I curled up in the chair and tried to make myself as comfortable as I could. I was tired as hell, but I didn’t think I could sleep. Luckily, the lights in the room dimmed even more after a few minutes, and Lizzy’s rhythmic snores finally lulled me to a place of comfort.
